Why are people so ignorant about climate change ?

Question

it is happeing , a lot of eveidance and yet people still ignore it , its your children who will suffer i wont have any children it does not seem fair that they have to live with the problems we have created ....... so does anyone give a dam about the climate ?

Answer 1

Because they want to be.

Answer 2

Most of the world isn't ignorant and does care.

There's a lot less controversy about this is the real world than there is on Yahoo answers:

http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/a...

And vastly less controversy in the scientific community than you might guess from the few skeptics talked about here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_...

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/fu...

Some people here are speaking from political motivation, not science.  Take the answer above (which seems to have now been deleted), quoting extreme right wingers who misstate the temperature data and say global warming isn't happening.  Maybe they need to consider this:

"Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich challenged fellow conservatives to stop resisting scientific evidence of global warming"

"National Review (the most prestigious conservative magazine) published a cover story calling on conservatives to shake off denial and get into the climate policy debate"

"Pat Robertson (very conservative Christian leader) 'It is getting hotter and the ice caps are melting and there is a build up of carbon dioxide in the air.  We really need to do something on fossil fuels.”

Here's the real data from scientists, not politically motivated journalists:

http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2...

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/2007/

Answer 3

I don't care about the climate, other than deciding what I should wear for the day...I've got three kids, and they're all smart enough to stay out of the sun/rising water.  Me and mine will be fine no matter what nature decides to throw at us.  They were born to prosper, not suffer...which I guess means they'll be selling carbon credits with the best of them when they become adults.  God bless capitalism!

Answer 4

i agree with... however there are many reason... and not just people are stubborn and refuse to believe it...  

i have talked to a few people about it and there are just as much if not more evidence to suggest other and possible ever worse global environmental problems.... a lot of those people feel they would spend there time fighting those ones. So ignoring the large group of ignorant people... there is also a large group of people who don't believe in climate change but are out fighting other causes. So it's not ALL ignorance.

Answer 5

People will only believe what they are told.

Do you ONLY listen/watch liberal 'main stream media?

Do you denounce Fox News and Rush Limbaugh?

Have you bothered to listen to rational opposition?

How many lies can a person swallow before they choke up and see the light?

If you refuse to really listen to any opposition, maybe it's you who are ignorant?

Answer 6

Don't mistake outright dishonesty for ignorance. Republicans aren't as ignorant as they pretend.

"A spokesman for the Royal Society, Britain's leading scientific academy, said: "At present there is a small minority which is seeking to deliberately confuse the public on the causes of climate change.

"They are often misrepresenting the science, when the reality is that the evidence is getting stronger every day.

"We have reached a point where a failure to take action to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions would be irresponsible and dangerous." "

Why you the GOPs keep posting an devil's advocate opinion piece from Jeff Jacoby as proof of their conspiricy theories? The guy isn't a scientist. He isn't even a journalist. He is a hack writer who deliberately posts things that he knows isn't true just to get a rise out of people. If you can't tell the difference between fact and opinion, no wonder you Republicans screwed up the country so badly. This is the problem with home schooling.

That must be the main difference between liberals and conservatives. Some liberals may be as ignorant as a conservative, but at least they aren't proud of it.

Answer 7

I think a lot of people don't want to give up their 'comfortable' lifestyles in order to do something about it.

Answer 8

It is not a simple and obvious thing at all. Before Al Gore's movie hardly anybody even heard of it. All of 2 years ago there was not even a Global Warming category on Yahoo! Answers. But global warming has been understood as a possible consequence of all our fossil fuel use since at least 1970 when I first heard about the possibility, and probably much longer than that.

You are confusing your own strongly held ideas with common knowledge. Just because you saw a movie and your friends talk about it a lot does not mean that is it really an obvious thing for all to see. You need to stop and think, really THINK, how you came to know what you know, and then think how other people could have missed out on that. And maybe how you could have missed out on knowing other things. Global warming is really not a simple and obvious thing at all.

Answer 9

Change is Imminent...The real problem is most people view climate change the same way they view ageing and wrinkles...It just looks ghastly...so lets get a nip or tuck and call 70 the new 45..Sorry that just won't work with mother nature. Stop wringing your hands till the moisturizer becomes useless and realize there are things we silly humans have little or no power over...Climates have allways changed..Too bad we can't change our own need to be scared of something so we feel so vital and caring.

Answer 10

Climate change is a serious problem. I think as North Americans, most of us are accustomed to a luxurious lifestyle compared to most of the world and this is where we get our ignorant attitude from. Lots of us have little concern about all the problems that do not affect us, and climate change needs to be recognized. Some people are able to realize that this problem will seriously and devastatingly affect everyone in the future and they are able to make changes, but still, most people aren't! We have grown so dependent on all of our luxuries that contribute to the problem, such as our cars and all of our electricity, that it almost seems irrelevant or even ridiculous to walk or use public transportation. In conclusion, this is a SERIOUS problem. If we as North American's can not change this ignorant attitude of ours soon, other countries and future generations will have to live with the consequences and I personally find it very difficult to have on my conscience. Climate change is definitely real so stop being ignorant and help stop the problem!

Answer 11

There are a lot of people who give a darn. Unfortunately, the ones that don't, even though they are the minority, have the loudest voices. But its changing and they are becoming increasingly isolated in their views! We'll call it their "Little Big Horn." Don't worry, there is a movement towards "green" that they cannot stop.

Answer 12

Probably because they get their ideas from movies, which are a form of fiction, like An Inconvenient Truth for instance.