Friday, June 27, 2014

Climate Change Deniers Should Be Mocked, Ridiculed, Shamed, and Marginalized

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Earlier this month President Obama delivered the commencement address at the University of California at Irvine.  The president took the opportunity to call out climate change deniers and referred to them as posing "a serious threat" to our future.  I applaud the president for taking such a strong stance on an issue which is backed by broad scientific consensus.

As a good skeptic I try (and often fail) to critique and attack people's ideas, not the people themselves. Attacking someone personally and not their idea is a logical fallacy known as an ad hominem attack.  Most of the time I believe it is incumbent on skeptics, rationalists, and the scientifically minded to take the high road and avoid ad hominems.  Ad hominems are great for preaching to the choir and riling up your base, but they don't further rational discourse and rarely win people over to your cause.

However, like many things in life, there is room for exceptions.  Dealing with climate change deniers is one such instance.  This post is not about refuting the arguments of climate change deniers point by point.  That has already be done ad nauseum and it has been to no avail (see here for a great point by point refutation of all climate change denial arguments).  The deniers are as strident and deluded as ever, and no amount of science, data, and reality are going to stop them.  Unfortunately those in the popular media still give equal time and air to climate change deniers.  For those of you have not yet seen it John Oliver did a great job of addressing the ridiculous nature of this 'balance' on his show.

The science is overwhelming at this point.  Average global temperatures are rising, and the rise in temperatures is anthropogenic.  The scientific consensus behind these two facts is as solid as the consensus over gravity and the heliocentric nature of the solar system.

Given the overwhelming fact of climate change the deniers should be given the same kind of time and attention that we give to flat earthers and creationists.  The opinions of climate change deniers are based on a blatant denial of reality and are therefore wrong.  Arguing with them over the scientific merits of their arguments is useless because there is no scientific merit to their arguments.  Climate changes deniers will likely always exist, just like Holocaust deniers will always exist.  The difference though is that Holocaust deniers are mocked, ridiculed, and marginalized in the popular media, whereas climate change deniers are not.

The beliefs of climate change deniers are dangerous and threaten our chances of effectively mitigating the worst effects of climate change.  Their beliefs are more dangerous and threatening than those of Holocaust deniers or anti-vaccers because unlike the latter two groups the opinions of the former are treated as being just as valid as those of us who live in reality.  This is not acceptable especially when considering that these deniers actually have a great influence over public policy in this country.  News networks, newspapers, and websites that give these people a platform to spread their delusions and pseudo-science should be shamed and boycotted.  If you read an op-ed from a climate change denier in a popular newspaper write a letter to the editor letting them know that this is not acceptable.  If the same happens on television e-mail that station and shame them for allowing these moronic, science denying scumbags to pollute our airwaves.

So let's begin.  Let's make it a point to mock, ridicule, shame, and marginalize all of the climate change deniers and their enablers.  We need to make it so that those who are still on the fence regarding whether or not they believe climate change is real are afraid for their own dignity and self respect to be associated with climate change denial  Let's call out people such as Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin, David Bellamy, James Inhofe, Ted Nuggent, Michale Chrichton, Ann Coulter, Donald Trump, and all of their enablers for being the superstitious, reality averse, anti-science, planet raping, science hating, Bible thumping, dumbshit, motherfucking troglodytes that they are.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you. The time has passed for civil discussion.

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  2. I'm a Bible thumper (a Fundamentalist Christian anyway) and I and a lot of other Christians happen to accept the science of climate change and also believe that the Bible in both the Old Testament and the New Testament commands us to be good stewards of the Earth. Why cheese off allies, namely most Christian denominations? Pope Francis also thinks climate action is a priority. All your other insults are appropros. By the way, I called for mocking, ridiculing, shaming, and marginalizing climate change deniers years before you. Naturally, HubPages removed it even though I did not use profanity as you did.

    Ms. Toni Roman

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