Why were people more willing to believe in air/water pollution?

Question

and do something about it and now there is still hold outs on taking responsibility for global warming? Do they really think you can continue to pump pollutants into the air/water and it won't have any effect on the atmosphere? I'd like them to prove that, it's only common sense.

Answer 1

Because breathing air and drinking water seem more immediate than starving grandchildren. But all are as real.

Answer 2

Yes!!! I'm so glad someone else agrees with me on this! The Earth's climate has been changing ever since the world was created. There is nothing we humans can do about that. But, we can reduce the pollution of our air, water, soil etc. and we can cut down on the amount of stuff we throw away. If individuals and governments spent the time, effort and money that they are wasting on trying to prevent "global climate disruption" (that's the newest catchphrase for it according to Obama administration now that they realize enough people aren't buying their B.S. about "Global Warming") on pollution and waste reduction, we'd make huge gains in those two areas. The best part about fighting pollution and waste is that you can actually see and measure progress. You recycle the contents of a landfill and you get a piece of land that is free from trash. You clean up a chemical spill in water and you get clean water. Nobody can prove that any of the regulations, programs, or measures we've taken to prevent "global climate disruption" have done anything at all.

Answer 3

You can see dirty water and air. You can smell it too. But if nobody had told you about global warming you would never have noticed it yourself. It is a very subtle change that is small and takes a long time. Did you have any clue about global warming before Al Gore's movie? I bet not. So you are just believing stories that you trust. You don't REALLY know, you just believe. Just like you don't REALLY know all kinds of things, like how Earth orbits the Sun and how DNA controls hair color and so on. You have just heard some highlights from people you trust to know, but you don't REALLY know yourself to the point that you could figure it out all by yourself without anyone helping you or telling you the answer. But smelly dirty air and water are obvious to everyone.

Answer 4

I don't think there are actually deniers of the fact that global temperatures are increasing. The skepticism arrises when explaining the causes of the phenomenon.

Its is well documented that the temperature of the Earth follows a cyclical pattern.

Correlating the current variation of the Earth's temperature to CO2 levels and then blaming increased CO2 levels on human activity is a hypothesis. Therefore, anthropomorphic GW is a theory.

Gravity is a fact. Evolution is a theory. No one argues about the existence of gravity and no one attempts to solve the problem of gravity. Many people argue heatedly about evolution vs creation.

Theories lead to debate. Facts are not debatable.

Answer 5

It's because you can see air pollution and see the effects of water pollution (dead fish, fish with high levels of mercury, etc) more easily than you can detect global warming, or more precisely, man's contribution to it.

That, and the presence of Glenn Beck, self-avowed "man of low intelligence", who constantly rails against atmospheric scientists, many of whom have double his IQ of 90.

Answer 6

I'm old enough to remember the London "fog" of 1962 that killed somewhere near a thousand people. And I remember days in Los Angeles near that time when the smog was so bad that you literally couldn't see the other side of the street, and your eyes burned painfully. Catalytic converters on automobiles and scrubbers on factory smokestacks have cleaned up the worst of it, but if you're too young to remember how bad smog used to be, you'd find it incredible.

Here's a "history of smog" - http://www.eih.uh.edu/outreach/tfors/history.htm

Answer 7

Air and water pollution didn't have a president bought and paid for by the people causing them.

Answer 8

Because they can see/smell it. The London sewer was only constucted because the smelly Thames was stinking out the houses of parliment, They belived that Cholera could be caught by the smell of the excrament floating down the Thames.

Cavemen living in the space age.

Answer 9

Because they could see and smell it.

Global warming is based on a mountain of scientific data, but it requires that you have faith in science. Many people don't. They simply go by political suspicions. "Proof" (data) is simply not important.

That could wind up being the cause of an avoidable disaster.

Answer 10

They didn't, until people got tired of dying because of it.