The Pros And Cons Of Climate Change

After thousands of peer-reviewed studies put forth from climate scientists have been published, an overwhelming consensus has emerged to support the conclusion that climate change is currently happening and is being instigated by human activity. Despite this, there is still a large population of the general public that chooses to deny the existence of climate change, largely because it does not fit in with their own beliefs. While the denial of climate change may seem like only a personal issue, it is a dangerous obstacle in the face of policy and mitigation efforts that work to curb environmental ramifications. Simply educating the public on the factors surrounding climate change has proven to be mostly futile. It is instead the understanding

Science can never truly be proven since it is conditional and never final. For this reason, scientific knowledge in regards to climate change will always be incomplete and uncertain to a degree. The non-scientist portion of the general public, however, commonly believes things are either fact or fiction and looks to scientists, conservative in their own right, to make definitive statements about climate change. Since it is usually criticized for an individual scientist to make a conclusive statement about climate change, those in the field aim to form a consensus through peer-review that examines scientific claims. Climate change deniers do not go through the peer-review process and often use tricks such as conspiracy theories, fake experts, or cherry-picking of papers to challenge the consensus. The part where climate change deniers tend to succeed and a key reason that denial itself endures is due to the communication of the fake experts versus real scientists. As science historians Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway put it, “Scientists are finely honed specialists trained to create new knowledge, but they have little training in how to communicate to broad audiences, even less in how to defend scientific work against determined and well-financed

Numerous studies have been conducted to find out who these individuals are and why they choose to dismiss and/or refute solid scientific findings that support the existence of global warming. It seems to come down to pre-existing beliefs and biases rather than educational aptitude and awareness. The way in which people see and interpret the world, their worldviews, affects their outlook. People have opinions as to how society should be structured and how prominent a role government and industry should play in it. Those that support individual freedom, limited government and do not believe that industry poses a threat to the environment will typically deny climate change. To do anything else would require a reevaluation of firmly held beliefs. This is where political affiliation comes into play as one of the greatest factors relating to climate change denial. Republicans tend to strongly reject the possibility that there is such a thing as global warming; the possibility of its very existence would mean taking a stand against their own political party and what it stands for. There is also a huge disconnect between society and scientists, their findings and their methods of communication to the public. It is often hard to relate to the scientific community and to understand the information that