Climate change: Acknowledgement and Accoutability

 

“Internet Blogs, Polar Bears, and Climate-Change Denial by Proxy” explores the methods of persuasion and beliefs that are held by anthropogenic global warming deniers. The article states, that out of all of the research and work done by scientists on climate change, much of the public still denies the effects of it and the role humans played in it. Science- deniers use the media as a way to spout their disbelief of AGW (anthropogenic global warming). According to the article,“...media outlets consistently misrepresent our fundamental understanding of AGW.” The deniers, including politicians, use social outlasts such as Twitter, Facebook, and blogs to share personal beliefs and opinions on the matter.  There are a large number of denier blogs that hold great influence,having no real tangible evidence for their cause, they resort to personally attacking scientists, remove key information from scientific blogs to strengthen their argument, and focus on observations taken out of context. Even going as far to say that climate change has not affected Arctic-sea ice or polar bears, gathering evidence from one unreliable source, a woman named Susan Crockford. The text says that Crockford has not “conducted any original research nor published any articles in the peer- reviewed literature…” she, like many of her supporters rely on conservative thinking and misinterpreted scientific research to advocate their cause. Despite 

the evidence of AGW’s effects, deniers still remain steadfast in their beliefs.

     I was shocked at the fact that there are still people who adamantly deny the effects of human interaction on global warming and the Earth. Going so far to discredit years of research and reliable evidence, exhibits a concerning level of childishness and lack of accountability.Deniers further undermine themselves by blatantly taking the research of scientists out of context, manipulating and editing it to benefit their stance. It is scary that people who value personal beliefs over proven scientific facts have such a great influence on the beliefs of others. There is not much hope to address and fix global warming if there are still a large number of be who relentlessly deny the existence of it and their contributions to it.

VOCAB:

Anthropogenic- a result of the influence of humans on nature

Bioaccumulation- accumulation of substances or chemicals in an organism from environment

Empirical- verified by personal belief rather than logic or fact