Before we get into the topic of climate-denying, would you please humor me for a few minutes by reading the following story.
A young boy is in the last stages of finishing his school. Though, from the way he is studying, or rather not studying, you doubt that he wants to finish school at all! Seriously! He finds all possible ways to not study. He would endlessly watch videos online, play smartphone games, think up stories in head, sleep exactly during class times instead of sleeping at night, even get sick at “the right time”, … in short, do anything that gets him out of studying. And when his parents or other concerned relatives ask him to pay even the tiniest bit of attention to his studies, he gets annoyed by their “constant nagging” and he accuses them of being overly pessimistic about his intellectual abilities or study efforts because he “has it in under control”. And when the exams come nearer and he can’t even solve the easiest questions, he panics and starts to blame the “sadistic test makers” for framing the question in such a twisted manner or the “stupid teachers” who didn’t teach him the right method to solve the question or the educational authorities for putting such “useless things that we will never use in life on the syllabus”.
Though, all the while the parents and the relatives get a feeling that he does realize that if he does want to pass his school exams, he will have to study. It’s just he adopts various strategies to avoid doing the “unpleasant” task of studying –
1) playing ostrich’s head in sand by acting like the problem doesn’t exist (problem being him not being ready for the exams),
2) by playing it down, i.e. acting like the problem is very small and that he can manage with “a little effort just before the exams”,
3) lashing out at people who try to remind him of the problem and the error of his ways,
4) panicking and freaking out at the first realization of own shortcomings and dealing with it by shifting the blame elsewhere, and
5) ultimately saying “it’s too late for me to change anything now” and continuing with his routine where he doesn’t study at all and wastes all his time on videos, games etc.
Does this all sound familiar?
Yes, I am of course talking about the climate-deniers now. Even though these people aren’t “silly” school-going adolescents, they use exactly these approaches to deal with the climate-change issue –
1) First they act like the problem doesn’t exist (hence the name “denier”): “This is all a propaganda of tree-hugging nutjobs who want us to become like them – eating no meat and using no plastic!”, they sometimes say, “What a bunch of wussies!”
2) Even when they acknowledge the problem, they claim it’s much smaller a problem: “Scientists would find a way to deal with it” they say, not realizing the irony of the fact that by putting their irrational faith in the capability of the scientists to solve the climate-change problem, they are actually denouncing the competence of scientists who are enlightening us about the climate-change problem in the first place!
3) When people (including the “credible” scientists) try to warn them of the severity of the problem, they lash out, as if saying “Take a chill-pill, will ya! you damn fear-mongers! You just want to sell your stuff and control what we eat, wear, and buy!”
4) When they start to realize that the problem is indeed real and it’s approaching fast, they panic and start yelling at other entities who should apparently bear the entire blame for this – the politicians who didn’t take enough green initiatives, the scientists who didn’t warn much earlier, the scientists again for not coming up with solutions fast enough, for stupid people of “other god-forsaken countries” who are “ruining the environment”, …
5) Ultimately, when they realize, probably after listening to the news of an umpteenth tornado or unseasonably warm day in the middle of winter, that the problem of climate-change is to be taken seriously after all, they raise their hands in surrender and declare that it’s too late to save the environment now. Then they go ahead with their unchanged lifestyle – using more plastic than needed, buying more products than needed, throwing recyclable stuff in the mixed garbage, driving gas-guzzling cars for walkable/cyclable distances and complaining that they are getting fat!
Sadly though, there are also big differences between the school kids and the climate deniers.
One, it is theoretically possible that scientists would indeed come up with a solution to deal with climate-change as opposed to the exam problem where there is no escaping without studying for it … or without using deceitful means. Though, given the rate of human destruction of the environment, it’s quite likely that science won’t be able to find a silver bullet and in time, no matter how fast science advances these days!
Two, as a parent or caring adult, you can at least try to reason with the kids (e.g. by telling them that it’s for their own good) or maybe even scold them into studying for the exams. (Though, in my experience, neither the reasoning nor the scolding seems to work!) With climate-deniers, you can’t do that because they are adults and “know what they are doing”!
Three, if you can’t persuade/threaten the kids into improving their ways, you can leave them be because “they are just ruining their own future”. But in the case of climate-deniers, the bad ways of some ruin the future for everyone else, including the ones who were doing the right things.
Four, in the case of school-kids, the worst thing that can happen is that they fail the exams. But they can always take them again next year or even take the “supplementary” exams, if that’s an option. For climate-change, there is no second exam, no second planet to start over. If we fail, we fail. And failure, in the worst case scenario, means the annihilation of the whole of humanity!