Title: Mcgowanjm Wire 2012 Source:
[None] URL Source:[None] Published:Feb 26, 2012 Author:Various Post Date:2012-02-26 09:15:13 by A K A Stone Keywords:None Views:1479967 Comments:2390
The psychological literature does indeed say that if you scare people too much, they'll just turn off and say global warming isn't happening. And it's true, that's what people do, and of course this characteristic human behavior is not helpful as we face the future. Denial only makes a bad situation worse. Those who have not reacted this way to dire climate forecasts have remained upbeat because they believe—they've been told by "experts" they trust—that solutions to the climate problem are readily available and cheap to implement. (For example, see my post Understanding Paul Krugman's View Of The Future.)
Optimists are becoming less sanguine as time goes on and no actions are taken, but if people actually understood what is required to fix global warming, many of them would probably react the way the North Carolina Senate did when they voted to ignore future sea level rise....
