So, you don’t believe that global warming is real. You might fall into the ranks of those who think it’s all a big hoax engineered by Al Gore to take your money, or perhaps you make money off oil, pollution-creating factories or other environment killers. There are a lot of reasons that global warming denial can affect you, and you may experience a broad range of symptoms. These symptoms don’t just affect you; they’re harmful to everyone around you.
Global warming denial hurts. EarthFirst.com can help. Here are some common reasons for global warming denial, and what you can do to treat them.
Because you fear change.
You may be among our country’s elder generations, who share a collective re-imagining of how America used to be in the fabled ‘good old days’. In your mind, America was at its best in the 1950s: a time of wholesomeness, when family values came first. You’ve conveniently forgotten that the reality of this time period doesn’t exactly match up with ‘Leave it to Beaver’ or picturesque Norman Rockwell scenes of burgers and malts at the diner – but that doesn’t even matter anymore. You can’t imagine a future where things vary too much from this idealized model – in your mind, that would be a big step down.
The fear of change is closely related to ‘I’m an American, and You Can’t Tell Me What to Do’ syndrome. You believe that you’re entitled to the things you’ve gotten used to: unlimited use of personal vehicles running on cheap gas, homes far larger than they need to be, hundreds of electronic gadgets plugged into your power outlets, 20-minute showers. Basically, using resources as much as you want because, in your mind, you’ve earned it. What you fail to understand is that you’ve grown up in an era of waste and excess, and now you’re spoiled. The prospect of giving up all of those things to ‘save the planet’ makes you angry or scared because damn it, they’re yours and you don’t wanna.
The first step is accepting that change is inevitable. The world is in constant flux. You can’t freeze it and live forever in a bubble of idealism. Things are going to shift and alter around you in a never-ending stream that will drive you insane unless you just let go. The Roman Empire fell. Periods of prosperity don’t last forever. And for that matter, all of the fierce patriotism you can muster up doesn’t make the way America has been doing things right. You may think of wastefulness and complete disregard of the consequences of your lifestyle as the American Way, but the fact is that the world can’t sustain that lifestyle anymore. For a reality check, we recommend watching the documentary The 11th Hour, which quite effectively explains the need for changes to the way we live. But don’t worry too much – the truth is, the world will go on without you, and younger generations aren’t attached to your unreasonable ideals.
Because you’re too caught up in your petty everyday life.
You’re remodeling your kitchen, planning a wedding, trying to decide whether to change your hairstyle and mentally preparing for that weeklong visit from your in-laws. Tonight, Lisa and Dean are coming over to watch The Hills and help you choose nail polish colors, oh and can you believe what LC said to Brody the other day?! Who has time to care about the environment? You don’t believe in global warming because you don’t have the first idea what it even means. You have way too much going on.
The first step is to turn off the television, for the love of god. We’re a nation of zombies who can discuss the latest episode of Grey’s Anatomy ad nauseum but don’t know the first thing about real problems that affect our lives and our surroundings. You know, stuff going on outside that pane of glass that leads to the real world rather than the one that displays advertising with some mindless prepackaged entertainment thrown in every now and then.
You tend to think that what’s going on in your everyday life is more important than the overall scheme of things. This is called narcissism, folks. To get a feel for what the rest of the world is like, we recommend going on a trip to a place like Africa, India or China to help you understand that the world doesn’t revolve around you. Or, you could just volunteer some time at a local homeless shelter or participate in a clean up in a poor community. It might just help awaken you to the fact that there are more important things than who’s screwing who on Desperate Housewives or what you’re wearing to that party tonight, and that might – MIGHT! – lead to awareness of the world at large and the problems affecting it.
Because you’re uneducated or misinformed.
Your neighbor told you that Al Gore is a swindler and that he and a few companies that stand to profit made up the whole ‘global warming’ thing to rob people of their hard-earned money. An email you got from a co-worker said that climate change is caused by sunspots. You read an article on some website (you can’t remember which) that said the earth is actually cooling down, which obviously disproves the global warming theory, right?
The problem is, none of the people who created all of the nonsense you’ve swallowed as truth are scientists. There’s a lot of misinformation out there. We live in a country where email forwards touting ridiculous claims spread like wildfire regardless of whether there’s a grain of truth to them, because nobody bothers to fact-check. People want to believe something so badly that they pass it on as truth, and the more it gets passed on, the more people believe it. But, that doesn’t make it true. Worse yet, there are a lot of people out there paid by lobbyists and/or corporations to pump out misinformation about climate change. Did we not learn from the ‘cigarettes don’t cause cancer’ fiasco?
The answer is to do some research yourself instead of sounding like an uneducated jackass who just repeats lines that have been fed to you. Seek out authoritative sources. And Jesus tapdancing Christ, stop watching Fox News.
Because you make money off dirty products and/or practices.
The factory that makes the widgets your company sells emits dark billowing pollution from its smokestacks on a daily basis. You’re not entirely sure what’s coming out of there, but one thing you are sure of is that it would be expensive for you to change the way your company operates in order to reduce harmful emissions. Or, perhaps your fortune – or the fortune you’re still seeking – is tied to a polluting industry like oil, and you don’t have the balls to be innovative and seek out moneymaking opportunities in the emerging clean energy industries.
Corporations are reckless polluters, and they fear that climate change legislation will affect their bottom line. The ones run by people with a conscience have already begun working on ways to change, while the rest deny global warming because they don’t want to admit that they’re doing something harmful. Hey, it’s understandable that you don’t want to see everything you’ve worked for go down the drain – but the fact remains that there is a clear right and wrong in this case. If you consider yourself to be a good person, taking a critical and open-minded look at how your business might be harming the environment (and along with it, human health) is the right thing to do. If you’re a slimy, greedy jerk who only cares about making money, see the final item below, ‘Because you’re an asshole’.
Because your religion has caused you to believe that it’s impossible.
The bible doesn’t say anything about global warming, and you take the bible literally, not considering the possibility that a) the bible is creative fiction written by people trying to further their own interests or b) the bible was meant as a guide to moral behavior, not a line-by-line manual to the world. Plus, you think that any day now, you’re going to be beamed up into the clouds to sit around a strum a harp all day while the rest of us are tortured in very creative ways back here on earth, so who cares?
Many religious folk intentionally walk around as if they’ve got blinders on because they don’t want to be exposed to information that may cause them to doubt ‘the word’, often believing that science is the tool of the devil. Religion is a tricky thing. It can be a shining light in the darkness for some people, but it’s also a major cause of death and destruction.
Religion and reason aren’t mutually exclusive. If you believe in god, then it follows for you to believe that god left humans in charge of taking care of the planet. Even if you truly believe that god wouldn’t let global warming happen or that ‘The Rapture’ is going to make it all a moot point, don’t you believe that we as the dominant species on the planet are responsible for looking after god’s creations? There are a lot of bad things in this world that humans are responsible for – how could that not include destroying the earth? Furthermore, if you’re a Christian, shouldn’t you be following the advice on your own cheesy bracelets and asking yourself ‘what would Jesus do’? Seems to me like he’d be out there participating in trash cleanups, riding a bicycle and snacking on organic veggies. In fact, you’d probably label him a hippie. Call me crazy.
Because you’re an asshole.
You don’t give a rat’s ass about the generations to come. You’ll happily go on polluting as much as you can during your limited time on Earth, and go out laughing. The ‘asshole qualities’ that cause you to deny global warming may also be caused by greed (see above, ‘Because you make money off dirty products and/or practices’). Or, you just want to do whatever the hell you please and take offense to the idea of having to change your lifestyle, no matter what the reasons are (see above, ‘I’m an American and You Can’t Tell Me What to Do’.)
Luckily, the global warming deniers who are truly assholes aren’t nearly as common as the other types. It’s nearly impossible to rehab a born-and-bred jackass. The rest of us will just step around them and leave them to die out like the fear-of-change generation, because they’ll be proven wrong before too long.
