Why is it that some people don't believe in global warming?

Question

We are witnessing global warming: rising temperatures, glaciers and poles melting, more hurricanes, animals not being able to thrive, etc.

How come some people say it's all a lie? Come on, these are facts!

We're not talking about the cause here, but about global warming being a reality.

Answer 1

It's an extreme--and syfunctional--form of what sociologists call the "social construction of relality."

The point is that much of the world we live in is social--we, individually and collectively "construct" it. For example, if the social/political consesnsus is that "driving a big expensive car is a status symbol, and confers prestige on the owner"--then that becomes part of our reality--and therefore, "true."

The idea has its limits, of course. The physical world does not respond to our belief systems. For example, in Galileo's time, the powerful held that the earth was the center of the universe--and insisted it MUST be true. Yet, despite all their efforts, the physical universe did not change to suit them.

Which brings us to the issue of global warming. We have a combination of two forces at work. One is economic/political--the "neoconservatives" and their patrons--various powerful special interests. The latter have a vested interest in NOT changing our methods of producing energy--and you only need to look at the profits of just one company in that group--exxon--to see how high the stakes are.

So, like the Pope and his supporters in Galileo's time, they are trying---through propaganda--to "politicize" global warming--to take the issue out of the harsh rigor of science and bring it into the political realm, where they can "construct a social reality" that excludes global warming---or at least its human causes.

But--they do need political (popular) support. There msut be at lest some uncertainty within the society for this to work--and so they have directed an enormous amount of propaganda at a specific group--the "right wing" particularly the religious right--who are known to have little real understanding of science and how it works. Here, global warming is presented not as a scientific finding, but as a political agenda--and therefore subject to debate and disagreement. With, of course, the message that it is not in the intereests of the listener to support this particular political agenda.

The powerful interests behind this know they cannot literally change physical reality by such means--nor do they care. Retaining their powr and privilege--keeping the social reality that favors them--intact--is their concern and motive. The "real" consequences are of little concern--they have the power and resources to avoid those, even if the rest of us don't.
And the followers--those poor souls misled by all this--simply don't have the understanding of science needed to realize that that questions of scientific truth can't--and won't--be decided by political discussion--because they don't realize tht scientific facts are beyond their--or anyone's--ability to change.

Answer 2

There are some people who like to think it's a lie or has been exaggerated, try challenging them to come up with something to validate their statements. In many cases they'll end up helplessly floundering around, if you're lucky they'll point you to a website of dubious origin or reply that it's Al Gore's fault or they're correct because of something they read in a newspaper - not exactly scientific or accurate.

In defence of the skeptics it can sometimes be hard to know what's fact and what's fallacy and this is often the result of deliberate misinformation campaigns orchestrated by certain major oil and power companies a few years ago.

When global warming made it onto the world stage the initial reaction of those who stood to lose out was to go on the offensive and attempt to protect their business interests by refuting the theory of global warming. To this end they directed many of their in-house scientific teams and advisors to engage in a policy of misinformation and to provide alternative explanations, even if they weren't credible ones.

Consequently the notion that it's a natural cycle was born along with other strange concepts including that humans are too insignificant, CO2 is essential for plants so the more of it the better, the world is cooling, greenhouse gases don't retain heat, scientists can't predict the waether, it's caused by volcanoes etc etc.

Today every oil and power company accepts global warming and have ceased trying to deny or disprove it. However, the legacy is that there is much incorrect information to be found on websites and some people accept what they read as being being accurate but don't have the ability to verify for themselves just how reliable it is.

In the past skeptics could count many multinationals and governemnts amongst their number, today they're isolated individuals and as such it's very difficult for them to do an about turn as it means losing face (much easier for a business to change it's policy on GW than for an individual who has made a stand against it).

There's psychological reasons as well - diffusion of responsibility (someone elses problem, I'm not a part of it), the psychology of denial (there isn't a problem so I don't have to accept any responsibility), the isolationist or rebel (I want to stand out from the crowd so I'll go against the flow) etc etc.

Answer 3

Unfortunately most people receive their information from the Popular Media, not the peer reviewed scientific literature..

The popular media exists to entertain and get the largest numbers of people to read its advertising, not to provide accurate and truthful information.

For example movies like "The Day After Tomorrow" managed to have succes at the box office in part because they were horror films that terrified people over the consequences of Global Warming.

It did not take people long to find out that this movie made a large number of claims that were not true.

When the popular media does this, and it later turns out to be false, it creates a backlash where many people do not believe anything in the populat media.

The result is a large number of prople who are actively hostile to the concept of Global Warming and think that Global Warming is a hoax because some of the information that they have seen in the media has turned out to be false,


If more people had access to the peer reviewed scientific literature on this topic, I think there would be wider acceptance of the factual scientific information on Global Warming.

Answer 4

Not everyone believes in the theory that humans can have that much of an impact on global temperatures. Although the ice is melting, it could be just normal changes.

Also, as people get older they care less because young people care less about them. Why should old people take care of the earth when young people treat them so poorly?

Answer 5

People deny global warming because they have been in political opposition to environmentalists for decades. It's a matter of momentum: they fight the forces they've always fought before actually listening to the evidence.

Remember Ronald Reagan saying that trees caused air pollution? It's an attitude that man is entitled to exploit nature, and those who protect it are against progress. There is a lack of trust and an unwillingness to listen to new evidence.

America was founded on the frontier myth: a huge unconquered wilderness waiting to be exploited by energetic immigrants who become rich from their dreams. People don't want to give this myth up even though there are signs that there are limits to growth, and nature cannot absorb human insults indefinitely.

Answer 6

Here is another thought. Economics.

Oil companies spend billions to find oil and billions more to transport and refine the oil in billion dollar refineries. What if, the oil companies are saying" we found most of the easy stuff" lets lay back and take it easy. No more drilling or building refineries.
We can save money and make money by saying there is no more oil.
So basically by doing no work we make money.
Now, to keep the money flowing a long time we need to voluntarily reduce the demand.
How about smaller cars? How about higher prices (which reduces demand on buying a car)?
Okay, the populace all bought one and are still demanding alot of oil.
How about " its your fault we have global warming".
They slow in their driving. They still buy expensive cars and park them in their driveways.

Global warming has been happening all along. There is nothing we can do to change that, but let's make the people believe that they can.


Just a plausible thought.

Answer 7

Of course, I do not know. This is my guess on "reasons":
1. If somebody told me ugly gossip about somebody I cared a lot, I would ignore them and think them liars.
2. If somebody told me something new, like heavier-than-air flight, back in 1902 thru 1905, I would think them crazy.
3. There are other truths than are never accepted. Have you heard of the "Flat Earth Society"? Maybe it exists.
"Columbus fought a popular perception that the world was flat." It seems like one of those unassailable facts taught in history class. "Columbus disproved a prevailing belief that the Earth was a pancake and that he'd drop off the planet if he went too far." Dramatic but false. It was well known then that the Earth is round. "It's just one of those myths that goes on and on, and it is really strange because it's just flat-out wrong," said Prof. Robert Osserman, Stanford U., whose book Poetry of the Universe [1995] discusses the issue.
"There wasn't the slightest question among anybody, with any education at all, of not knowing that the world was round," he said. "Ancient "Greek and Romans wrote about a round Earth, Pythagoras, as early as the 6th century BC followed by Aristotle and Euclid, believed that the planet is a sphere.
At the height of the Roman Empire, 1,300 years before Columbus, Ptolemy wrote "Geography" which became the standard reference on the subject and which advanced, as fact, a round Earth -Columbus owned a copy.
This means that even after floods come to Bangladesh, Lake Mead water level drops 100 Ft, Las Vegas maximum temperature is over 130 Deg. F, and wildfires continue to break new records in duration and size in California, people will cling to their wish and hope that "It's all Cyclical, just you wait a little longer and you will see! It was all a hoax! I am telling you!"

Answer 8

i'm nonetheless somewhat sceptical, besides the reality that i individually care approximately our wild places. I do whether think of that we ought to consistently take the prospect heavily. The data proves that organic cycles of climate take place on a grand scale. there have been as quickly as lions, hippos and elephants wandering the united kingdom nation-state, approximately one hundred twenty,000 years in the past. That grow to be an interglacial heat spell. the element that's no longer disputed, is that those issues take place certainly, regardless of each and everything the Scottish nation-state is crammed with glacial advantageous factors. whether, the data ability that our extra contribution to international warming is making it take place at a speedier cost than life can handle. we are speaking approximately climate exchange taking place in a protracted time, extremely than spanning centuries or 1000's of years. organic international has coped with climate exchange extremely properly interior the previous. woodlands and grasslands can pass at their snails %., to maintain song of the circumstances that greater healthful them. recently there are extra subjects. we've our organic international trapped in wallet that are surrounded via farmland. The organic "corridors" are long gone. organic international charities are doing their superb to make our wild places greater joined up. If climate exchange keeps as that's and there is not any area for issues to head, then we can lose plenty. besides, i think of my important venture is that i do no longer prefer it to be actual.

Answer 9

i believe in global warming, i believe that it is a natural cycle of the earth is going through like it has for millions of years. Man made global warming is all a big hoax. Scientists cannot predict accurately what the weather will be like tomorrow.

Answer 10

the thought of global warming does not bother us. it is the thought that it is bad, or that we should or could stop it. world gets warmer more plants, more food, more places for people. what is the great fear. a glacier melts in some places. waaah. there are more polar bears in places because there is more food that they can get to.more hurricanes. we had how many last year??? big ones into USA-0. the first earth day was about the new ice age. the world goes through cycles and things die off. these are both very good things.