Treating science as if it were magic in the pandemic and in the climate catastrophe

It's easy to call politicians hypocrites for getting the coronavirus vaccination after having called the pandemic a hoax or dismissed the concerns of epidemiologists and other public-health professionals throughout the year. Such people have complained about measures that force people to change their behavior, such as lockdowns and the wearing of masks, but they are happy to take a step that requires only two shots. These people often also object to any climate-catastrophe measures that would change people's everyday lives, while also appealing to grand technological solutions like carbon capture that would make a transformation of the petroleum-based economic system unnecessary. Ultimately, even when they appeal to science, they expect magic. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 29 December)