Climate Change Explained
Climate change can be described as changes in temperature, weather patterns, and other atmospheric conditions over time. While it’s true that the Earth’s climate has changed over long periods throughout our planet’s history, it is the current rate of change that should be of great concern to us. The rate is rapidly increasing due to human activities such as burning fossil fuels, intense farming practices, pollution and more.
What do Most People Believe
While both the proof of a changing climate, as well as the human contributions to the problem are widely accepted in the scientific community, several controversies surround the topic of climate change; the most significant being the denial of the crisis, either partially or completely.
According to a 2023 article by the PEW research center over a quarter (26%) of Americans do not believe that human activities directly impact the climate, and 14% deny that there is even sufficient evidence to show that climate change even exists.
Climate Change Controversy
Even with a large amount of supporting data, there are several reasons that people may still deny that climate change is an issue – distrust of the media/experts, political ideology, and even religious beliefs. This PEW research article from 2022 cites that 23% of Americans don’t believe climate change is a problem because “god is in control of the climate”. Perhaps even worse, some deny this threat to humanity for personal gain, self-interest, and unwillingness to do anything about it.
Climate Change Denial
With very little effort, one can easily do a quick search online to get numerous results contradicting the legitimacy of climate change, such as this pdf displaying the name of the U.S Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works denouncing the “false” claims asserted by climate scientists. In the pdf, you can see a point-by-point with a counterpoint “Fact” underneath refuting the initial claim. The article was released by the office of U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe, who was chairman of the committee for seven years. This document provides the authority of a government agency within the domain of environmental protections, lending itself to this being a credible source, but when you read through the document you see that no sources are cited for any of the claims. Beyond citations, the article includes headlines and quotes, in some cases from people that are not even worth mentioning by name. For example, the use of a quote by ‘A prominent IPCC Physicist’.
When spending a bit more time looking into Mr. Inhofe’s background, you can see that he is a senator for the state of Oklahoma, which is a large producer of oil in the United States. Inhofe also received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign funds from oil and gas companies.
In this case, it is likely easy to see both the incentive for denying the facts of climate change – personal gain and corporate interest, while also understanding that many people may see this type of media and grant it credibility because of the author’s and committee’s credentials.
Some claim that climate change is part of a larger political agenda, such as Vivek Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur and one-time GOP presidential candidate. While he doesn’t deny that climate change is real, he doesn’t support climate policy; suggesting that we should just adapt to the changing environment instead of changing things that affect it. Interestingly enough Mr. Ramaswamy’s firm Strive has an Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) Called DRLL which is a fund that includes a combination of energy companies including oil, petroleum, coal, and nuclear energy.
Resolution
There are individuals, organizations and even countries that view climate change as a priority by making changes that positively affect the environment and implementing climate education. But there are still many people that, not only deny the science but try to persuade others that climate change is a “hoax” or at best an overreaction by alarmists with an underlying political agenda. While the majority of people do believe climate change is real, and two-thirds of Americans support moving to energy renewable energy sources; having the stone of so many climate deniers around our necks makes our climb out of the crisis that much more difficult. But hopefully, we can make a difference before we seal our doom irrevocably.