Imagine this. You are about 40 years old, today another flash heat wave has just begun, they happen so frequently now that everyone knows to stay inside with their families to avoid heat stroke. After the rise of sea level some states are underwater and you never know when flooding could occurs or what the extreme weather fluctuations could bring. Lately more and more wildlife is going extinct, but the citizens around you refuse to change their habits still and the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached a critical point. This could be a reality. The world has known about climate change since the heat wave of 1988 when James Hansen, a NASA scientist, released a press conference stating that global warming was upon us about thirty years ago. Yet still thousands of Americans today refuse to believe in climate change, and these nay sayers are hurting whole populations of humans int eh long run. So why do they not believe?
Well, according to the PEW research center there is a consensus from the democratic party (including those who are independent leaning towards the democratic party) that believe government should do more to combat climate change. This indicates that most democrats regardless of age, gender, or ethnicity believe in global warming and human contributions to the change in climate. On the other hand, only 65% of liberal republicans believe the same ideology, and an even fewer 25% of conservative republicans believe the same, while 48% believe the government is doing the right amount of work, and 26% believe they are doing to much.
We know that most of the conservative republicans refute the government efforts for climate change, but why exactly do they not believe in this devastating fate? Well, some believe that the current warmer temperatures are due to a natural cycle of cooling and warming periods and are not connected to the carbon dioxide emissions, because carbon dioxide is such a small part of our atmosphere. Others say that the warmer temperatures are beneficial because they will result in longer summers, or they imply that since other countries are not taking action we do not need to take action. In reality it is important to understand that climate change in the long term has many more effects than just a rise in temperature. An increase in only 2 degrees can cause a rise in sea level, extreme unpredictable weather patterns, flash flooding, bleached coral, and a decrease in biodiversity.
Now that we know some of the reasons individuals deny climate change, how can we find a solution to changing their minds? Unfortunately I believe that people who are set in their ideas about climate change are too far gone to change, but we can educate the next generation and generations to come. If we implicate education programs at elementary, middle, and high school ages in science classes pertaining to climate change we can inform the younger children about eh facts that can influence them to make a change when they grow up. These educational programs could be critical to raising a new generation that massively decreases greenhouse gas emissions and slows climate change.