Over the weekend on my Facebook page ( Facebook.com/climateguy1973 ), I posed a question to my followers. It asked the question what was more probable, that the world's scientists have perpetrated the greatest and most complex hoax in the history of history, "making up" the Climate Change phenomenon in order to make money with a carbon tax and get people to buy solar panels...or that the fossil fuel companies were denouncing and bashing this scientists and their research on the effects humans are having on the climate in order to save their profits from mass decline.
Like I said, comments are rare on my pages. I get a ton of likes for each post, but comments are like my white whale...they are out there, but only in fleeting glimpses from time to time. Imagine my surprise when I saw that there were 17 comments Saturday morning! Okay, two of those comments were mine, but screw that! I have been waiting almost a year for an anger filled, name calling, profanity laden conversation about the climate in my comment sessions. It finally happened! (BTW, as of Monday AM, we are at 26 comments and counting.)
There they were, in black and white, TROLLS! Not on a sports website, or a closed discussion group, but on my Facebook page! I was so excited. I thought to myself, "I am about to be trolled by the best of the best, ridiculed and spat at every time I post. I will be derided as a freak, a quack, a crazy climate change Chicken Little who thinks human beings are actually having an effect on the atmosphere. My mom will be so proud!"
There is nothing like a good liberal conspiracy to jumpstart a debate. Climate Change is more then a hot-button issue. It can be downright vicious! Unfortunately, all of that emotion and passion usually comes in the form of name calling and belittling. People are dismissed and put down, the rhetoric quickly unraveling any real debate, leaving behind a hodgepodge of whining, insulting and finger-pointing. It's actually a brilliant strategy, if you think about it. Rile up someone's emotions, call them stupid, tell them Al Gore is a whack-o bent on getting rich with this "Climate Scheme", and watch the thread implode. Emotions take over and sensible debate evaporates.
So, now I have to wrestle with my new found "fans" and the reality that doing what I am doing now will only get harder as more people discover my site, check out my Facebook page and join in. I realize that if my writing starts to snowball and my forums attract more people, the trolls will descend en masse. Nothing attracts more attention in today's world then a person with an informed opinion.
