Tom interviews Bernie Lewin about his 2017 book Searching for the Catastrophe Signal and his path from local environmentalism to blogging and writing for the Global Warming Policy Foundation. Lewin argues postwar “big science,” shifting religion’s role in policy, and media narratives helped drive recurring environmental scares: DDT, ozone depletion tied to supersonic transport and CFCs, then 1970s global cooling amid energy crises. He claims funding incentives encouraged extreme atmospheric claims, and that policy often diverged from scientific uncertainty. The discussion covers the 1988 Hansen hearing as orchestrated, Thatcher and Bush support for expanded climate science, and IPCC early processes, focusing on the 1995 Second Assessment controversy where summaries and underlying text were allegedly altered around detection and “fingerprint” evidence.

00:00 Meet Bernie Lewin

00:28 From Environmentalism to Skepticism

02:25 Science Replaces Religion

04:30 Big Science After WWII

06:05 Silent Spring and DDT Panic

08:46 Supersonic Jets and Ozone Fears

12:29 CFCs and the Ozone Hole

18:29 Feedbacks and Funding Incentives

21:33 Global Cooling Takes Off

22:40 Energy Crisis and Climate Instability

28:36 Coal vs Nuclear and CO2 Program

36:12 Cooling to Warming Flip

39:53 Hansen 1988 Hearing Moment

41:32 Thatcher Bush and Politics

Searching for the Catastrophe Signal: The Origins of The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: https://a.co/d/0bmYZdUX

https://enthusiasmscepticismscience.wordpress.com/about/

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