Thursday, August 03, 2006

The 4 Stages of Global Warming Denial.

Proving denial isn't a river in Africa, Michael G. Richard at Treehugger steps us through the evolution of a global warming skeptic. The four stages he fingers are:

  1. Global Warming doesn't exist. It's just not happening.
  2. Okay, it's happening, but humans are not causing it.
  3. Okay, humans are causing it, but there's nothing we can do about it, we can't go back to the stone age, it would ruin our economy, it's worse to act than not to act, etc.
  4. Okay, it is possible with technology, efficiency/conservation and smart planning to do something about it, but it's going to hurt the bottom line of "dirty" corporations.

It's wry, smart, well-written and worth a read, if only for the way he avoids taking a disparaging tone with the global warming skeptics without diluting his message. Me? I'm not so kind as I believe there is no skeptical argument I've come across capable of holding up to a reasoned analysis of the case for AGW. But it isn't about being right; to avoid experiencing extreme climate change of the 30% or so of the population who are skeptics have to be won over to the emissions reductions proposition. Disparaging them, even if they are stupid, is not going to achieve that so I dips me lid to Michael G. Richard.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wadard,

I'm now focusing on SUV's. A couple of things I've come across. A significant improvement in US vehicle fuel economy will lower the US dependency on oil and lower global warming effects. The US must change the tax breaks on SUV's. And there must be tax benefits on hybrid vehicles. Have you got any issues on it yourself?

I must have got you going on sceptics with Pat Michaels. I like the sceptic denial points. I'll post that up myself soon.

Paul.

Marrickville - People Against Global Warming

Wadard said...

No I have not covered that area much. Child killers I call them. I saw your posts and thought they were interesting