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.
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Norgaard: In order to have a positive sense of self-identity and get through the day, we’re constantly being selective of what we think about and pay attention to. To create a sense of a good, safe world for ourselves, we screen out all kinds of information, from where food comes from to how our clothes our made. When we talk with our friends, we talk about something pleasant.Wired.com: How does this translate into skepticism about climate change?
Norgaard: It’s a paradox. Awareness has increased. There’s been a lot more information available. This is much more in our face. And this is where the psychological defense mechanisms are relevant, especially when coupled with the fact that other people, as we’ve lately seen with the e-mail attacks, are systematically trying to create the sense that there’s doubt.
If I don’t want to believe that climate change is true, that my lifestyle and high carbon emissions are causing devastation, then it’s convenient to say that it doesn’t.
HAR! I can only shake my head at crap like this. When C02 levels really do become an issue and planetary asphyxiation starts to become a reality we won’t be able to take action because of these morons crying wolf.
The responses on this blog are the PERFECT example of what she’s talking about
Climate change is about a lot more than changes in temperature. Global warming is a much narrower term.
The thinking here is apparently that everyone who has ever told you anything was lying to you, most especially anyone who has studied a subject enough to become knowledgeable about it. It’s equivalent to the old favorite, “Those college boys think they’re SO smart!”
Why, for all we know, we’re not really conversing in English here — the professors have all been lying to us and we’re actually speaking, writing and reading CHINESE!!!
STOP THE ENGLISH LIES! ACKNOWLEDGE CHINESE!!!
Patso,
It has been my experience with educated people that a small percentage, perhaps 2/5, actually know something about thier field. There are a lot of professional bullshitters out there.
Individuals that pass certification exams trend towards knowinging somethine about their field. However, the dumbest engineer I ever met was (claimed to be) a registered Professional Engineer.
Your misplaced trust is due to your inexperience.
My personal favorite is the one that goes: “I’m a good person and this makes me look bad, therefore it’s wrong.”
# 20 AdmFubar said, “remember when “climate change” was called global warming?”
Oh, hell, Admiral. I remember when global warming was called global cooling!
“The supposed “global cooling” consensus among scientists in the 1970s — frequently offered by global-warming skeptics as proof that climatologists can’t make up their minds — is a myth, according to a survey of the scientific literature of the era.”
#28 The same will be told about global warming.
Global Warming is real. Volcanoes and meteors may have caused global warming or maybe sunspots. Smokestack emissions are just as dangerous. Whomever you call for help should listen but who cares.
Spoken words are scapegoats which is almost as foolish as an Exxon Mobil Green commercial.
Someone please explain why global warming is a bad thing. It’s a lot easier to drive an SUV through a warm place than a foot of snow.
Re#11… Right on the money qb. That’s exactly how I feel.
Global Waming is a front for Global Cap and Tax, which will be the mechanism used to tax the developed countries to pay the lesser developed countries to grow trees to sell as carbon credits. The scientists are going along with this because it means they keep their jobs and can still apply for government grants to research and help prove the already determined answer.
So this is science in the 21st century.
What absolute crap….Read the email files and especially the computer code comments…Then decide. Or better yet, wait for the Bollywood movie. Hollywood has drunk the koolaide so they will never make the movie..,
BTW, how do you guys do to get all these excellent Gore pics? Or is it that he’s always making these faces a-la Ballmer?
Quote: “…(there is) one major issue that has been hidden from the public in the big Climategate controversy that you hear now… (edit) You know what (is) the one thing that NOBODY is saying? That this was all caused by a big comet a number of thousand years ago; that Velikovsky was right; that this is what caused the Earth to plunge into an ice age; and we are warming up and just coming out of that. That’s what is NOT being said. The major issue here – that there are Planet X types of objects out there, that come in, they look like big comets, and they affect Earth and the other planets.”
- transcription from minute 41 of At the Crossroads radio show, (JamesMcCanneyScienceHour_December_10_2009.mp3). Quoted from: http://www.jmccsci.com/sh12-10-09-7meg-MP3.ram (streaming) or
http://www.jmccanneyscience.com/JamesMcCanneyScienceHour_December_10_2009.mp3
(mp3 download)