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Denial

Entry 459, on 2007-01-18 at 15:53:42 (Rating 3, Comments)

I have encountered several people recently who seriously deny the human impact on climate change, and I found that strange since the scientific consensus is becoming stronger all the time in support of its reality.

The problem is that the subject is complex, and its difficult to demonstrate a conclusion without examining huge amounts of subtle data. Its easy to cherry pick the data and "prove" that climate change isn't real. Its also easy to find evidence to prove other things aren't real, for example: the Holocaust, the Apollo Moon landings, and evolution. If some people can deny these established facts its even easier to deny a more controversial phenomenon like climate change.

Its possible to find intelligent, knowledgeable people who will deny a well established theory. There are a few real scientists who deny evolution for example, and there are certainly some who deny climate change. But its the consensus that counts. I'm not saying the majority are always right, but, especially in science, they almost always are, and the consensus is vastly in favour of climate change being a significant problem, and being significantly influenced by human activity.

So the time for denial is over, not only for climate change but also for the other subjects I mentioned, especially evolution. Evolution deniers really bug me, there's just no excuse for living with that level of stupidity and ignorance.

Comment 1 (579) by ADB on 2007-03-28 at 08:25:12:

Owen I'm very disappointed that you have resorted to calling people with a legitimate concern about climate change "deniers". Should they be put in the same category as Holocaust deniers? I don't think so.

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