Sympathy for Deniers
Please allow me to introduce myself.
I recently had occasion to interact with climate deniers, whose utterances I had not previously had reason to examine in great detail. I tweeted about the social origins of climate denial, and in return was treated to a representative display of contradictions and accusations.
In the course of the exchange, I was astonished to learn that nominally intelligent people are willing to embrace blatant falsehoods like the following — these are quotes, from Twitter:
“Carbon dioxide does not cause warming.”
“Global temperatures have not increased.”
“Methane emissions are irrelevant to global climate.”
“There is no climate emergency.”
and, perhaps most comprehensively:
“Climate is a hoax.”
Where does this alternative reality come from?
Perhaps there is a clue in the deniers’ opinion of myself and other climate-concerned activists. We are: alarmists, fear-mongers, a faith-based cult, sufferers of psychosis, victims of “climate derangement,” clowns (🤡), snowflakes (❄️), the “global warming CO2 cult”, and (most practically) Communists. I myself am a “garbage person” and a liar.
Clearly there is more going on here than a dispassionate evaluation of the available evidence and the reaching of objective conclusions.
Reality Bites
Climate deniers are engaged in a rear-guard defense of the increasingly untenable worldview that humans can do anything we want without limits, because we own the Earth, which exists only to provide for our well-being. The oil companies and their subsidiaries (i.e. the governments of the world) have been running the place this way for decades.
Because this archaic outlook diverges from reality, things are getting worse everywhere you look. People who understand the Earth and its natural systems see this as a problem that needs to be corrected. To people with no foothold in reality, it looks like someone is attacking them to bring down the way of life to which they are entitled by absolute right.
The deniers believe that the United Nations, the Democratic Party, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are in a conspiracy to take over the world, using the fear of fictitious global warming to enforce a pernicious leftist order.
Further quotations from the exchange:
“Climate scaremongering is not about science. It's a power trip and gravy train; a means of extracting money from taxpayers.”
“This climate change hysteria is weaponized to bring about more control in society.”
“The difference between climate deniers and climate fear worshipers is the deniers seek to force NOTHING on the others. The climate worshipers? ALL about force to ‘save the planet’.”
“Fear is the favorite weapon of Communists.”
“Human beings are carbon based. When they say they want to reduce our footprint – they mean you!!”
Everyone Is Afraid
I sympathize with the deniers. At root, they want what we all want: for things to be okay. Just like me and my colleagues in the “global warming CO2 cult,” the deniers wish that the looming extinction of the current biosphere was not happening. They are mystified, as we all are, about how something so awful could occur.
Unfortunately, the intellectual and spiritual framework in which they operate cannot accommodate humility, repentance, and compassion. Instead (for deep reasons that are the subject of further consideration), their reflex is to project their misery and fear onto others, which in this case is me and my fellow snowflakes (❄️).
The truth is that we’re all in this together, and time will bear that out.