Dealing with Climate Denial
Preparing is harder when the people around you aren’t on the same page
If you follow climate scientists on social media, you’ll notice their exasperation with “deniers.” They mean the people who deny information that, in the scientific mind, is strong evidence for climate change.
In many cases, though, the deniers don’t deny what’s happening. They just think it doesn’t matter.
In their view, the climate is always changing, summer is always hot, winter is always cold. They see no cause for worry, nor any reason to limit their carbon emissions.
We have good answers to those points. Yes, summer is always hot, but seeing it get much hotter, everywhere, all at once is new. And there’s a direct path from rising average temperatures to more frequent and intense storms, droughts, and other disasters.
People can – and often do – agree the weather is getting crazy but differ on the causes. They’re just not convinced human activity is causing it.
On one level, that’s easy to understand. Admitting fault is always hard. Many people spend their whole lives depending on fossil fuels because that’s just life. They don’t mean any harm. The idea they’re unknowingly hurting other people is a hard pill to swallow. So, they choke on it.
Image: pixahive
I think this attitude is pretty common. It’s a lot more common than the smug, total denial we see online.
Understanding the full impact of our collective human choices is a process. It takes time, and some people need more time. Particularly since the energy industry spends a lot of money trying to obscure reality.
So how do you deal with denial? It’s getting more important as climate conditions worsen. We may be talking about your spouse, or your parents, or your boss or customers. Preparing for what’s ahead will be more difficult if the people around you aren’t on the same page.
I think the best answer is to meet them where they are. You don’t have to start arguments. Find points of agreement and build on them.
If, for example, your spouse doesn’t believe carbon emissions are a problem, let it pass. But maybe remind them how high that creek behind your house rose last spring, and that you don’t want to get flooded. You’ll probably find they don’t want to get flooded, either.
Then mention your friend in Texas who lost power for a week during that ice storm, how terrible it was, and maybe ya’ll should think about what you would do in such a situation.
After you point out a few things like that, your spouse may start to see these aren’t imaginary risks, your family really is vulnerable, and some precautions would be wise.
None of that requires believing in man-made climate change. But it’s a step in the right direction. You may be surprised how fast more steps follow.