Why do people deny the climate change?

[commandrix]

Well, I was just saying on another thread that I think climate change does happen. There was an Ice Age not that long ago in a geological sense and we're still kinda coming out of it. BUT I think it is highly arrogant to say that human activity is the ONLY factor involved with climate change. If you're not a rabid Creationist who takes the Bible literally (and I know not all Christians are a Ken Ham who can get owned by a science educator), you know that Earth was here long before there were humans and will still be here long after those of us who are pioneering spirits have colonized other planets and the rest die in a worldwide cataclysm a la Hollywood style. Nature is good at bouncing back from disaster even if it might not ever look the same as it did before. Yes, replace your light bulbs with a more efficient version and remember to turn your lights and appliances off when you leave the room and do what you can to improve the gas mileage on your car, but do it because they'll save you on your energy and gasoline bill.

[lynn_402]

Well, I was just saying on another thread that I think climate change does happen. There was an Ice Age not that long ago in a geological sense and we're still kinda coming out of it. BUT I think it is highly arrogant to say that human activity is the ONLY factor involved with climate change. If you're not a rabid Creationist who takes the Bible literally (and I know not all Christians are a Ken Ham who can get owned by a science educator), you know that Earth was here long before there were humans and will still be here long after those of us who are pioneering spirits have colonized other planets and the rest die in a worldwide cataclysm a la Hollywood style. Nature is good at bouncing back from disaster even if it might not ever look the same as it did before. Yes, replace your light bulbs with a more efficient version and remember to turn your lights and appliances off when you leave the room and do what you can to improve the gas mileage on your car, but do it because they'll save you on your energy and gasoline bill.

That's true, life on earth survived many massive extinctions and global disasters, and there's no way that human actions can damage nature for the long term.

The reason that trying to counter our impact on climate change is important, is to allow the future generations of humans to live in a healthy environment which has a sufficient amount of ressources to sustain them.

[Squidoogeek]

Well, I was just saying on another thread that I think climate change does happen. There was an Ice Age not that long ago in a geological sense and we're still kinda coming out of it. BUT I think it is highly arrogant to say that human activity is the ONLY factor involved with climate change. If you're not a rabid Creationist who takes the Bible literally (and I know not all Christians are a Ken Ham who can get owned by a science educator), you know that Earth was here long before there were humans and will still be here long after those of us who are pioneering spirits have colonized other planets and the rest die in a worldwide cataclysm a la Hollywood style. Nature is good at bouncing back from disaster even if it might not ever look the same as it did before. Yes, replace your light bulbs with a more efficient version and remember to turn your lights and appliances off when you leave the room and do what you can to improve the gas mileage on your car, but do it because they'll save you on your energy and gasoline bill.

That's true, life on earth survived many massive extinctions and global disasters, and there's no way that human actions can damage nature for the long term.

The reason that trying to counter our impact on climate change is important, is to allow the future generations of humans to live in a healthy environment which has a sufficient amount of ressources to sustain them.

Maybe future generations of humans will finally be the ones who get it all figured out, switch entirely to hydrogen-powered everything, ban cigarettes entirely, grow hemp to use for making bricks and clothing instead of getting high on marijuana, and will eventually consider fossil fuels to be as much a dinosaur as the animals they probably came from (Oil and coal are called "fossil fuels" for a reason). Til then, we should just keep making those little changes in our own homes while it's still our choice and not something that's been regulated by any government or forced by running out of non-renewable resources.

[cryptasm]

Koch Industries and ExxonMobil were two of the largest supporters of climate science denial, along with hundreds of conservative think tanks / foundations.



Taken from: http://phys.org/news/2013-12-koch-brothers-reveals-funders-climate.html

....."Conservative foundations have bank-rolled denial. The largest and most consistent funders of organizations orchestrating climate change denial are a number of well-known conservative foundations, such as the Searle Freedom Trust, the John William Pope Foundation, the Howard Charitable Foundation and the Sarah Scaife Foundation. These foundations promote ultra-free-market ideas in many realms.

    Koch and ExxonMobil have recently pulled back from publicly visible funding. From 2003 to 2007, the Koch Affiliated Foundations and the ExxonMobil Foundation were heavily involved in funding climate-change denial organizations. But since 2008, they are no longer making publicly traceable contributions.

    Funding has shifted to pass through untraceable sources. Coinciding with the decline in traceable funding, the amount of funding given to denial organizations by the Donors Trust has risen dramatically. Donors Trust is a donor-directed foundation whose funders cannot be traced. This one foundation now provides about 25% of all traceable foundation funding used by organizations engaged in promoting systematic denial of climate change.

    Most funding for denial efforts is untraceable. Despite extensive data compilation and analyses, only a fraction of the hundreds of millions in contributions to climate change denying organizations can be specifically accounted for from public records. Approximately 75% of the inc."

[bluefirecorp]

They believe the scientific community is divided, that it doesn't exist, or that G-d wouldn't let that happen.

Don't blindly assume that all scientists agree here but climate change is real, it certainly appears as though this number has been fudged with by only taking the extreme weather.

There's a short list here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming

Out of thousands, and thousands of scientists, we have a pretty short list.

[bitcoincal]

Partly, because some of the doomsday climate predictions have been outlandish.

[Rapido]

Its for their own sake! The people who deny climate change are backed up by big companies that will be affected if regulations were approved.

Its all about the money i think. Hope we could still reverse the effect before its too late. 

[galbros]

I didn't think there was much denying climate change.  I think the key issue that is debatable is if it is man made and if the costs of dealing with it are less than stopping and/or rolling back what some people say is causing it.  Having said that, I have a bad feeling it is man made and we are not going to do crap about it.

[lynn_402]

Having said that, I have a bad feeling it is man made and we are not going to do crap about it.

Well, that depends on each individual. Since no fast profits will be made by doing anything to prevent climate changes, it is up to the individual to do their part since no powerful corporations or government will want to get involved with this.

If everybody was educated about climate change and what they can do to help, the situation would be much more hopeful really.

But it's a lot better than it was 10 years ago so I guess things can still change

[tooil]

There isn't much one can do even if climate change is true.

[Quartx]

There are people who earn much more denying climate change

[u9y42]

Do you want to deny these facts?

1. The Carbon-di-Oxide levels in the atmosphere has risen by more than 50% during the last 50 years.
2. Gases like Carbon-di-Oxide and Methane causes the green house effect, which rises the surface temperature of the earth.
3. Every year, some 31 billion tonnes of Carbon-di-Oxide is released in to the atmosphere, as a result of the human activity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions

1. It's been higher then that in the past (a long time ago)
2. There are other scientists that believe it's the other way around (Carbon-di-Oxide and Methane are the side effects not the cause)
3. Animals and especially the sea produce a lot more

1. Yes, and it was quite a different world; as in, a large part of the population would be displaced if we reached anywhere near the same levels today.
2. And how often is their work cited by other scientists? (that is, how accepted are their ideas?) Last I checked, they weren't.
3. The additional emissions we are producing are tipping the scales against us. Other sources of greenhouse gases we can't easily control, but human sources we can.

[Slark]

1. That just shows that the global worming was taking place before humans had any kind of effect on nature
2. Because today many institutes and industries make a living out of "eco rubbish" (for example hybrid or electric car)
3. It's not about additional emissions, it's about how little humans activity adds to the global amount of Carbon-di-Oxide

[u9y42]

1. That just shows that the global worming was taking place before humans had any kind of effect on nature
2. Because today many institutes and industries make a living out of "eco rubbish" (for example hybrid or electric car)
3. It's not about additional emissions, it's about how little humans activity adds to the global amount of Carbon-di-Oxide

1. You're talking about completely different time scales here. The climate might vary on very large time scales and indeed have been warmer at some points in the distant past; but the recent warming we are seeing is taking place far faster, in the order of decades.
2. And because of that, the overwhelming majority of scientists from all over the world completely ignore a potentially revolutionary discovery? That's not how it works. Besides, far more powerful and influential industries have a vested interest in making people believe climate change is not real, and they've only been able to buy a handful of scientists.
3. It is about additional emissions: if you have a balancing scale with 50kg on each side and proceed to add 1kg to one side, the plates will shift. Same thing here.

[phosphorush]

They believe the scientific community is divided, that it doesn't exist, or that G-d wouldn't let that happen.

Don't blindly assume that all scientists agree here but climate change is real, it certainly appears as though this number has been fudged with by only taking the extreme weather.

There's a short list here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming

Out of thousands, and thousands of scientists, we have a pretty short list.

Well, the number of people that believe that something is true doesn't have any influence on whenever it really is or not. It's a logical fallacy. Like Copernico proposed heliocentrism when everyone believed in geocentrism.

Its for their own sake! The people who deny climate change are backed up by big companies that will be affected if regulations were approved.

Its all about the money i think. Hope we could still reverse the effect before its too late. 

Yeah, this can be a cause.