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Global Warming - Earth melting
Turns out 2023 was the hottest year on record and inflicted a long string of natural disasters attributable to climate change. However, surveys suggest roughly a quarter of Americans don’t believe in human-caused climate change. The mouthpieces for the deniers, mostly right-wing politicians and influencers, rail against those educating us about global warming, environmental toxins, ecosystem collapse, species extinction and other existential threats facing humanity.
These “cause I said so” naysayers hold specious beliefs based only on personal opinions. Whose opinions? I asked a few deniers for their sources (yes, I actually converse with people I don’t agree with). Their answers included some self-anointed expert with a degree in stupid, a fossil fuel billionaire, a political sycophant and a media blowhard spewing falsehoods in search of ratings.
Too harsh, you say. Consider the case of Chris Gloninger, a meteorologist in Des Moines, Iowa, previously from Boston, who anchored an Emmy Award-winning program about climate change. This well-meaning gentleman endured harassment and threats at public presentations and across social media, including one message that read, “We conservative Iowans would like to give you an Iowan welcome you will never forget.” Another called him a “puppet to the left” and accused him of spreading “liberal conspiracy theories” about climate change.
When Truth is Dangerous
His crime? Being a scientist who tells the truth. Oh, and about that truth, 97% of the world’s climatologists agree we humans are the primary cause of global warming, and they possess reams of data to back that up. Sadly, the harassment finally persuaded Gloninger and his family to return to Massachusetts. Chock up one for the dingbats who believe their one-off opinions invalidate volumes of sound and reproducible scientific evidence. Increasingly, scientists in and out of public life face verbal abuse and threats. Dr. Fauci, among many others, can tell us all about that.
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So, exactly what drives the tiny mental turbines in these people? Do they possess some greater fund of knowledge that contradicts the overwhelming majority of climatologists? No, because no such fund exists. They’re reduced to spewing wild accusations from some bobble headed influencer on X, or feckless publicity stunts, like the one pulled by Senator Inhofe from Oklahoma who thought bringing a snowball into the U.S. Senate proved climate change was a hoax. In attempting to describe such ignorance, one encounters the limits of descriptive language.
These are the same folks who will assert the Midwest’s current blast of snow and cold disproves global warming. They don’t understand the clear difference between weather and climate, but, somehow, they consider themselves an authority on atmospheric physics.
No Use Arguing
Not surprisingly, fear is the primary engine driving this clown car. People who threaten someone who simply tells them a fact calling into question their beliefs are flat out scared. They may look pumped up and make tough guy threats, but behind their version of Oz’s screen there sits someone who lacks the gumption to consider they might actually be wrong.
Don’t bother telling them that. The doors to their minds are bolted shut. Perhaps they never were open, or maybe something happened that convinced them to throw away the key. Regardless, what distinguishes those who believe in science from their heads-in-the-sand counterparts is their ability to consider alternative ideas without freaking out. It’s called critical thinking, the capacity to suspend judgment until reliable information is considered.
Why should we trust science as a reliable source? Because, while not foolproof (nothing is), it consistently proves more valid than any other means of acquiring factual knowledge. Can scientists overreach, fudge data, make mistakes and draw erroneous conclusions? You bet. But it still leaves other fact-finding approaches in the dust. And, while some frontiers of knowledge remain theoretical, climate science is not among them. What’s more, unlike their detractors, most scientists welcome intelligent challenges to their work. They aren’t so much committed to correctness (“I am right”) as to accuracy (“This is true”). I doubt the goons who harassed Mr. Gloninger and his family embrace that principle.
As physicist Richard Feynman reminded us, “Science is what we have learned about how to keep from fooling ourselves.” But, too often, that lesson falls on deaf mental ears.
For more, visit philipchard.com.
