Skepticism is a thought tool used to protect ourselves from over confidence when the community as a whole is uncertain.
Ignorance is the term for when you either don’t know something, or refuse to accept the facts represented by the best, peer reviewed consensus available.
With this in mind, there is no such thing as a “Climate Change Skeptic”. The facts are decided and inarguable.
We understand the physical mechanism by which light energy is absorbed by greenhouse gasses and transformed into heat energy.
We have measured historical levels of greenhouse gases through geological and glacial core samples, compared with current and historical biological indicators across the globe that we know are definitively indicative of greenhouse gas levels. From these studies we know that although the temperature and greenhouse gases have been this high in the past, the rate at which these changes are occurring are completely unprecedented. What changes took place over hundreds of thousands of years in the past are happening over decades right now, and we know that the rate of change is too fast for the ecological systems to adapt.
We are able to use radiation levels of varying isotopes of carbon molecules to determine where the excess carbon is coming from, which is redundant anyway because we know that after the industrial revolution, modernized farming, and the advent of the automobile that our production of greenhouse gases multiplied both measurably and exponentially. We know how much we’ve put out, and we can measure that as a percentage of total atmosphere to calculate the probably percentage effect and probable warming effect.
We know the difference in energy density between a gas and a liquid and the implications of a 1 or 2 degree raise in ocean temperature equates to a massive increase in total environmental heat energy. What’s worse is we are already seeing major shifts in ocean ecology and even the collapse of complete ecosystems.
WE KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING!
WE DON’T KNOW ALL OF THE CONSEQUENCES, but we know some, and the few that we can logically predict are worrisome enough to do everything we can to prevent any further increase in temperature.
We have a minimum measurement for the amounts of greenhouse gases currently contained beneath glaciers and most importantly, the permafrost.
We know the permafrost is melting due to raising temperatures.
We know that if the atmospheric temperature is raised above a certain level, that the melting of just the permafrost will result in the release of an amount of greenhouse gas that will unavoidably result in a runaway greenhouse effect that will result in the finalization of a full blown, global extinction event. When ocean temperatures raise enough to shift the food supplies of fish, away from their typical migration route, the dietary fish populations collapse and 1/7th of the human population on our planet lose their primary source of protein. That is predictable. That is what we know. On top of this, we know that things always tend to surprise us. It will probably be worse.
That is without considering the massive release of methane (another greenhouse gas) caused by blooming Algea that have always been a factor, but are now happening with greater size and frequency than we’ve ever seen or historically observed
With the additional warming, we know that weather patterns WILL SHIFT. What are now fertile, well watered farm lands can turn to desert in one season. We don’t know where, we don’t know when, but we know and we wont be able to adapt quickly enough to save everyone.
Global poverty is highly, HIGHLY probable. And with poverty comes social instability. People will migrate to where they know they can survive, and they will take what they need to do so, until it breaks, then they will all move somewhere else.
Best case scenario here, our resources are strained to the point where we can’t produce enough feeder crops to produce meat anymore. Worst case scenario, we very realistically face extinction.
So what does prevention look like? Reduce coal use, reduce vehicle emissions, reduce meat consumption. So what you’re super afraid of adopting sustainable energy sources, spending less on gas and eating a healthier diet? Because jobs?
What happens if, despite all the facts listed above, we are 100% wrong? You save on energy because solar and wind are already cheaper than coal. Coal is irrelevant. Coal is dead. Gas vehicles are already obsolete. Electric vehicles are faster, safer, and at the same production scales, cheaper than gas powered, both on initial cost and maintenance requirements.
Fossil fuels are on the precipice of obsolescence, with or without your support. They are going away. We can accept it an form a beneficial, responsible and sustainable exit plan, or we can remain in denial until it collapses anyway and leaves a gaping hole in our economy.
This may not make sense to you. That’s fine. But don’t do your peers the disservice of claiming to be a climate change skeptic. You’re not, because with the amount of information available, that title is a non-sequitur. You are a climate change ignoramus. You get this title because you are either too lazy to learn the facts in detail, or you don’t have the cognitive capacity to understand them. Either way, your opinion is invalidated by your lack of willingness or ability to grasp the applicable concepts.
Catch up, or withdraw. Those are your options.
“Youth ages, immaturity is outgrown, ignorance can be educated, and drunkenness sobered, but stupid lasts forever.” ~ Aristophanes
Chrooth 