Even as the science of global warming gets stronger, fewer Americans believe it’s real. In some ways, it’s nearly as jarring a disconnect as enduring disbelief in evolution or carbon dating. And according to Kari Marie Norgaard, a Whitman College sociologist who’s studied public attitudes towards climate science, we’re in denial.
“Our response to disturbing information is very complex. We negotiate it. We don’t just take it in and respond in a rational way,” said Norgaard.
Wired (thanks, Mill)
The trouble with climate change is the “they” statement. They say this, they always say that. Who are they you ask, oh “the scientists” WHICH ONES! THE EXPERTS! You need someone we have heard of – who has credibility. Thats just for starters. Then there is the problem that when you overlay a chart which measures solar flares, against earth global warming chart – its exactly the same. Exactly. Which means that its the sun thats causing it. However we are protected from these flares by the ozone layer which is getting thinner. However is it due to us? We contribute certainly. But I think that its all part of the earth cycle in the universe. And we think we are too permanent. Besides if the UK went back to the stone age for 10 years – China and America would wipe out our efforts in 1 week. Who says you ask? – THE EXPERTS DID.
Well the thing is, the actual science for global warming – er, sorry I mean “climate change” as it’s not warming is it? – is at best vague and far from conclusive. It’s certainly NOT “science”, at the moment it is at best statistics and projections based on models. Models that are not scientifically proven. So there is no science in climate change. I am not saying there is no problem or nothing to be addressed, but I do not believe in making a religion out of environmentalism is the answer and I think true science is being undermined by ecomentalists.
As regards this article, why are people turning away from this? Sadly I do not think it is for the same reasons as me, I think it is more to do with how environmentalism is becoming a kind of religion and that is at odds with both people’s current beliefs and adopting new beliefs.
Nobody denies that the climate changes. Some people are not convinced that human carbon dioxide emissions have a significant effect on the changes of the climate as compared to other factors, which is a whole other issue. Some people are not convinced that the world happens to be warming right at this moment, which is another whole other deal. Some people are not convinced that global warming, or for that matter global cooling, would be as much of a problem as the very real problems that would be introduced by strict government controls on and the severe reductions of emissions that would be necessary to have a noticeable effect. Some people are concerned about the implications of the climategate emails, which appear to many to throw an unknown portion of the science itself in doubt. Many of these people are themselves scientists.
Perhaps we could have another article entitled “The Psychology of Man Made Climate Change Belief”?
I have no doubt that the climate it changing – it always has. It’s normal. I am however yet to be convinced that it’s all our doing or indeed that we can do anything about it – especially when the concept is used to increase taxes and controls.
That said, I’m very happy to be greener, waste less, re-use more and properly explore cleaner and more efficient ways to use energy.
if there’s no santa, who is that in the picture?
If anything, climate change science is become more and more implausible and false, rather than stronger.
Is the climate changing, definately. Is this part of the normal life of the planet? I think so.
We are always being quoted things like “this has been the hottest decade since record began” or “freak weather conditions everywhere” but these records have only been kept for a couple of hundred years. I’m sure that there are glaciers that are reducing but over thousands of millions of years hasn’t that always been the cycle. Can we prove beyond any doubt that it is happening faster now than it has ever happened before?
Whilst I’m a bit sceptical about how much man made pollution has to do with global climate change, I nonetheless support that we drastically need to cut back on our emissions, recycle more and be more responsible for the natural environment to ensure a cleaner, greener planet in general.
I’m no scientist, but I can look at the evidence provided and make an informed judgement. The evidence to me points overwhelmingly to an impending man made catastrophe. I think that an awful lot of people experience the world in their immediate vicinity and are unable to see the bigger picture. I hope these same people will welcome the refugees from this global disaster.
The climate is changing, but in no way is it caused by man. One volcano emits more CO2 than all the factories and people of the earth combined. Add to this decaying plants and all the oceans of the world, and you have a problem that’s beyond mankind to fix.
What temperature is the planet supposed to be? The right one to sustain man? How arrogant. Just as arrogant as saying we’ve caused the change.
In the 70′s, scientists said we were heading for an ice age. Those same scientists are now on the warming band wagon.
This is about an energy crisis. One the powers that be can’t fix, so they cook up a man made warming story to encourage you to use less power. CO2 is not a demon gas. We need it. Plants need it. Global warming is the 21st century’s biggest con. Ice core data says temperature drives CO2, CO2 does not drive temperature.
@Kevin good idea! Maybe people who prefer to make their minds up along political rather than scientific lines can be asked to commit to providing specific future help to refugees if and when their predictions turn out to be wrong. If their belief is real belief and not position making, they should be happy to sign up to that.
Isnt there an amplitude of evidence that our solar system has been heating up, since the south pole of mars melted and the moons of jupiter aswell? Is it aliens driving SVU’s causing these problems aswell?
The climategate scandal busted the so called leading climatologist/global warming hoaxes/solar deniars writing to each other and saying We need to “hide the decline”, use “tricks” for their published data, and ostrasize and deamonize those climatoligists brave enough to expose the lies and not sell out to the swarm of money that funds this research. Look at who is funding this hoax, its bankers and oil men, they want the TAX! they want people to feel guilty, its one big religious like, money grabbing , guilt using SCAM. It’s coming from globalist pushing bankers. Rockafeller admitted in his book,he is conspiring for one world governen
@Seat: It is funny how you could have thought of one volcano is capable of emitting more CO2 than all human activities. I’d be interested to know where you get the idea from.
Meanwhile, volcanoes (that is, all of them) produced 200 million tonnes of atmospheric CO2 annually, yet human activities produced 24 billion tonnes, making volcanic contribution to the atmospheric CO2 a mere <1% of anthropogenic amount. (Scientific American, 2009)
I continue to be amazed by how people can remain ignorant to manmade global warming, when the evidence that supports it over the decade has been overwhelming.
There is a difference between a skeptic and a cynic. While it is good to be a skeptic, one should also be prepared to accept the facts that challenge your beliefs directly.
I think its ridiculous to think that man can’t have an impact on the environment. Anyone who has ever been stuck in a meeting where someone farted should know this.
I also find it interesting the article doesn’t cover the “god will save me” argument. I live in a very conservative city(please send help) and I know plenty of people who think the book of genesis gives them the god given right to screw with the earth as they see fit. And they actually believe that if the earth gets in trouble somehow(or its impossible outright cause of god) that god will save them and prevent any disaster from happening. Laughable.
It’s maybe not global warming they doubt .. as a natural process .. it’s more the things they like to attach to it which all of a sudden caused global warming according to them .. which is crab and main nonsense. How longer have they been here anyhow? These things come and go over loooooooooooooong periods . nothing to make such fuzz about. be normal with energy sources and using them, and buying stuff … that’s more the problem they theirselves did not want to see … how that gets created … all by theirselves and economy … At times I wonder where their memory went … even in short term so one person’s life you can see already a few different things .. and when focussing on earth .. over a very long period … you’d see tons of signs that there is nothing going wrong .. it’s is going the way it is supposed to go … quite natural
As the BBC reported on October 9:
“For the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures.
“And our climate models did not forecast it, even though man-made carbon dioxide, the gas thought to be responsible for warming our planet, has continued to rise.”
This ought to at least give people pause. The BBC article concludes:
“One thing is for sure. It seems the debate about what is causing global warming is far from over. Indeed some would say it is hotting up.”
If the BBC article is anything to go by, it would seem that the evidence for manmade global warming is not “overwhelming”. Especially given that over the past decade there hasn’t been any warming, manmade or not (according to the BBC article).
You cannot make me believe that the production of 2.5 million barrels of oil a day, and plans to make it rise to 12 million a day in just a few years time….does not have effect on our planet.
Oh, btw those are numbers for one tiny region of the earth….the actual world production number is at least 80-fold.
ReliegiousMarie – “You cannot make me believe”?
Not that I would be *wanting* to *make* you believe, but your very language shows that you have totally made your mind up (formed a belief) without having a scientific proof.
This is exactly the same mistake that most ecomentalists are making. And they call it science.
Personally I find this harder to accept that people who choose to believe in God.
@Jamie…`Personally i find this harder to accept that people who choose to believe in God´
I can hardly make anything of that sentence but i´ll try…Talking about ´belief´ or ´accept´, where exactly do you draw the line of difference there? At least you can use a bit of your logic ,and google for example, to find ´facts about oil production´ and carbon emission… other then a religious belief in God.
Btw what makes you ´Believe´ i have totally made my mind up?…
I think skeptisicm and questioning things is good though…but ´too much´ of anything can lead to closed mindedness as ignorance.
@Constant: I wonder if you have finished reading the article of October 9th?
Anyway in science we always deal with errors and deviations all the time. There is hardly any field in science where you will get unanimous consensus, because there are a lot of natural processes that we still do not understand. But that does not invalidate the science, nor does it makes them irrelevant until they are “proven”.
To put forward an example from Carl Sagan: even Newtonian physics, which have been used in many applications for hundreds of years, even to land a spacecraft with astounding accuracy on another world, at high speed and strong gravity, breaks apart. This is where Einstein’s Relativity Theory comes in, but it doesn’t at all invalidates Newtonian physics which we rely our everyday life upon.
It seems to me (speaking as a non-scientist) that virtually every credible scientist speaking on climate change supports it, and virtually every denier of climate change is on the payroll of the oil or coal industry.
It’s always important to have an opposition to any argument. It forces people to rationalise their beliefs.
Related video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzkB5DuveDE
What a rubbish. CO2 has no scientific effect (call my in denial but I actually have become a convert) man-made global warming is a farce.
We had a warmth period yes, but the last 10 years the temperature even reduced a bit.
Nobody talks about these scientific facts.
I am more interested in the fact how it is possible that well renowned scientists are not listened to the data is out there take a new look at it. It changed my mind.
Not to say we can keep burning fuel as if it is infinite not to say we can go ahead and polute.
But we are not told the whole honest story. We are only told the dogmatic politics.
This lady is one of the many spitting out wrong facts.
She states that our CO2 levels are at the highest over 600.000 years. Actually we are still of by a massive 0.02% (even more recent measurements show 0.0317%)
It is these pseudo scientists stating facts without actual prove that is the problem. As a scientist you need to reference to your sources. One google action found these see for yourself. Lies and more lies.
http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/Carboniferous_climate.html
Raymond, you’re guilty of a bit dishonesty here. The link you have posted refers to the carboniferous period (from 360 to 280 million years ago) and does not contradict the journalist’s claim for 650,000 years. You seem to have slipped in a factor of 500 in the age range.