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UK heatwave: Weather forecasters report unprecedented trolling

bbc.co.uk

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Re: UK heatwave: Weather forecasters report unprecedented trolling

#5
I have a theory that the real damage from climate change will result from the anti-science, anti-expert attitudes that were fostered to extend fossil fuel usage for a few more years.

If we're lucky it's just confused old people who had a bit too much lead in their childhood and the beliefs will just die out with them, but considering how long anti-evolution, anti-dinosaur etc. stuff remained an active political battle, it's somewhat depressing to imagine how long this can continue.

Re: UK heatwave: Weather forecasters report unprecedented trolling

#6

I have a theory that the real damage from climate change will result from the anti-science, anti-expert attitudes that were fostered to extend fossil fuel usage for a few more years. If we're lucky it's just confused old people who had a bit too much lead in their childhood and the beliefs will just die out with them, but considering how long anti-evolution, anti-dinosaur etc. stuff remained an active political battl…

What scares me is that these anti-science, anti-expert values are having negative effects right now. Climate change will remain a murky unpleasantness for most of my remaining life (~50 years), boiling many frogs before the real disasters become obvious, daily occurrences.

As I see it, it began with creationism, creating a base of concerted and deliberate ignorance. That perfected the tactics used in climate change denialism. At that point it was down to a science, and they created COVID antivax literally overnight. And that's killing people right now.

That anti-evolution stuff is still an active battle. In the US, only a bare majority accept evolution. Among the political party associated with climate denialism, it's only 33% accepting a science that became obvious well over a century ago. It's part of a constellation of just-plain-false beliefs; not mere differences of opinion but simply and objectively wrong.

It will only get worse. I see it coming to a head before climate change has really gotten going. I don't know what form it will take, but I expect it to be very, very bad.