What if the resistance to climate science is not really about science at all?

23 points

Culture wars are proxy wars for class class. Climate change is an important part of the second, so it’s going to be part of the first.

permalink
report
reply
3 points

I find this article to be to the point. Copy pasting a part of it.

Yet even as fires, floods, and heat waves become noticeably worse, Democrats and Republicans are further apart on the science of human-caused global warming than almost any other issue. Some observers have noted that the resistance to accepting climate science might not be about the science at all, but what attempts to fix the problem might entail. An experiment in 2014 found that Republicans who read a speech about the United States using environmentally friendly technologies to fuel the economy, versus a speech about enacting stringent environmental regulations and pollution taxes, were twice as likely as other Republicans to agree with mainstream climate science. In other words, it might be easier to just ignore a problem if you don’t like the proposed solution.

“When you make this shift from having an opinion to understanding the concern that underlies the opinion, it’s really a different kind of conversation,” Barish said.

The approach is reminiscent of “deep canvassing,” an outreach method developed by LGBTQ+ advocates that involves listening to people’s worries without judgment and helping them work through their conflicted feelings. Personal conversations like these have been shown to change people’s minds, with lasting effects.

permalink
report
reply
1 point

As long as the polluters control the political process, they’ll keep polluting. This is not a discussion of effective ways of convincing people who have good faith. This is a question of raw political power.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

The only way to do that is to break the backs of the fossil-fuel companies. That’s where the lies are coming from.

You need to stop the propaganda pollution at the source, so to speak.

permalink
report
reply

Climate - truthful information about climate, related activism and politics.

!climate@slrpnk.net

Create post

Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.

As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades:

How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world:

Recommended actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near future:

Anti-science, inactivism, and unsupported conspiracy theories are not ok here.

Community stats

  • 4K

    Monthly active users

  • 3.1K

    Posts

  • 11K

    Comments

Community moderators