Denial in the Time of Climate Change

     I found this online yesterday: a "Denial Guide". Used by dysfunctional families everywhere, this blue-print is also used by Climate Change Deniers in there campaign to make it appear as if there is a debate about Anthropogenic Climate Change. This is how they create doubt and  confuse people into thinking that Climate Change isn't happening...or that Climate Change IS happening, but is natural and is not caused by humans...or that it is natural but is good for us! What these Deniers say always depends on who they are talking to and in which situation. Their message is always catered to their audience.

     Many of you may be surprised to learn that this script isn't new. The blueprint has worked effectively for the past 160+ years: for opponents (past and present) of Darwin's Theory of Evolution, for Watson and Crick's DNA model, for the Tobacco Companies in the 1960's and 70's who claimed that smoking was not bad for you. That's why the Fossil Fuel industry uses it today...its effective! Imagine if Albert Einstein had let the naysayers affect his theory on General or Special Relativity?

     Geneticist Sean B. Carroll wrote "The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Record of Evolution", in which he identified the "six core features of denialism". The comparisons between what happened with the Tobacco Industry
in the 60's and 70's and the Oil and Coal companies today are undeniable. Deniers always bristled at the comparison between the two industries, saying us "alarmists" are just grasping at straws. One only needs to read "Merchants of Doubt" by Naomi Orestes and Erik Conway to recognize the similarities between what the Tobacco Companies did then and the Fossil Fuels companies are doing now.

     Steven Novella, MD, establishes the difference between real scientific inquiry and self-serving denialism by illustrating the different approaches of both.

     "The problem with the denialist approach is that doubt is not used as a tool of honest questioning, but rather of undermining a belief one does not like. As with pseudoscience in general, they start with the conclusion then work backwards... This strategy can also be called, 'just asking questions' or 'JAQing off'. You can often tell the difference because, when true scientists ask a question, they want an answer, and will give due consideration to any possibilities. Deniers, however, will ask the same undermining questions over and over, long after they have been definitively answered. The questions, used to cast doubt, are all they are interested in, not the process of discovery they are meant to inspire." 
                                                        -- Steven Novella, MD NeuroLogica Blog: Features of Denialism

    

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-darwin-didnt-know-45637001/?no-ist

     It's all a mind game really. All one has to do is create doubt to get someone to question pretty much anything. Momentum takes care of the rest. Its WAY easier to dismiss real facts and figures and evidence if one doesn't understand them. Especially when they scare the bee-jesus out of you. Facts and figures and research take time to understand. Many people are frightened by the reality that CO2 emissions may throw the world into flooded, stormy chaos. Hearing someone say that Climate Change isn't real and scientists are full of shit makes those filled with worry feel better. They hop on board the Denial Train because believing global warming is not happening is less scary than the reality that climate change is indeed taking place, at an ever increasing rate.

     Science can make a person's head spin. It is complex, detailed and takes quite a bit of effort to comprehend. Many people just don't get it, so they turn their backs on it. This leaves them vulnerable and more apt to buying into Denialism because it is easier to understand. "Science is crap, its not 100 percent proven, therefore it's not true and I don't have to listen to it." But, uncertainty in science acknowledges the limits of human understanding of the universe. We do not know everything about the natural world, therefore we cannot test for every condition, every interaction, every single factor or variable that exist in nature. We are not God. Science is the collection of everything we have learned, observed, recorded and tested since the beginning of the human history. Scientists may not be 100 percent certain about Evolution or Climate Change, but with everything we have seen and learned, 97 percent certainty shows what scientists have learned up to this point, and will continue to test and refine so we can push the limits of our knowledge.

      Knowing how Denialism works is key to understanding how to talk with someone who dismisses scientific evidence and the process in which it was collected. These people are going to give you a bunch of grief, throw up roadblock after roadblock, be close minded to your point of view and circle talk you, hoping your frustration boils over. It's kind of like when you're talking to the cable company: you can see through their bullshit when they start dicking you around. Their hope is to make it so difficult for you to get those phantom charges taken off your bill by being evasive, combative and dismissive to the point that you give up and walk away. Do you take the cable company's crap and walk away when they try and get you to hang up? Hell no!

     Think about that next time someone who thinks humans cannot have an effect on their environment tries to convince you using the denier script.