Insidious Climate Change Denial: Do You Have ICCD?

international | environment | other press Sunday July 11, 2010 22:03 by Bill Henderson

Bill Henderson writes about those who deny climate change and he also touchs on some other hot topics.

There are people who deny that climate change is happening, that it is caused by increasing greenhouse gases (GHG) from burning fossil fuels, or that it is potentially so serious as to be civilization even humanity threatening. There are worldview and monetary reasons for such denial, but since 97 percent to 98 percent of the climate researchers most actively publishing in the field support the tenet that combustion of fossil fuels is the source of global climate change their denial costs valuable time now but is ultimately untenable.

But there is another class of deniers that must be overcome if we are to successfully mitigate climate change: those that do know that climate change is happening, do know the GHG cause and effect, and do recognize the spectrum of climate change dangers, but refuse to recognize that mitigation of a scale necessary is not possible within the presently configured socio-economy (developed world/global). This widespread denial keeps us telling ourselves carbon addict lies like putting a price on carbon or growing a green economy or clean coal or saving the planet by being a smart shopper as climate change solutions.