By Paul Homewood
Our descendants will be horrified when they allowed corrupt lefties to destroy their lives on the altar of a false prophet:
The Hill posted an opinion piece by William S. Becker titled, “Climate denial is tearing our nation apart — we can’t wait much longer to act,” in which Becker asserts climate change is leading to both worsening weather and worsening politics. Becker is wrong on both counts. Polling consistently shows that although most people believe climate change is happening, the number very worried about it hasn’t changed much over the past few decades, and very few people are willing to sacrifice much in an attempt to reduce future climate change – so there is no evidence whatsoever climate “denial” threatens to rend the political fabric of the nation. In addition, data clearly prove Becker is simply wrong about worsening extreme weather.
“We know from decades of scientific research, and now from brutal experience, that global climate change is real,” writes William S. Becker, former U.S. Department of Energy official who founded its Center of Excellence for Sustainable Development under then President Bill Clinton. “Few, if any, places in the U.S. are safe from its many consequences. They are as quick as flash floods and as slow as rising seas, but they are undeniably real and growing worse.”
“One result is personal and society-wide cognitive dissonance — the mental and emotional discomfort we feel when our actions clash with reality or beliefs. a recent Gallup poll shows that 63 percent of Americans believe global warming is underway, and that 48 percent — a record — believe it will seriously threaten their way of life,” Becker continues. “Yet more Americans are moving into places with high risks of climate-related disasters rather than out of them.”
Becker is wrong, there is no cognitive dissonance in peoples’ positions, but rather it reflects a rational assessment of the relative importance of climate change as a threat to their lives and well-being when compared to other issues, like the economy, jobs, health care, education, crime, and illegal immigration.
Polls cited in Climate Realism, here, here, and here, for example, and at Climate Change Weekly, here, here, and here, consistently show that although a plurality of people believe climate change is occurring and are worried about it to some degree, it ranks last or near last in their list of concerns, and they are unwilling to pay much to prevent or mitigate it. The same polls also show the vast majority of those concerned about climate change are not willing to change their lifestyles very much, such as by reducing travel, buying electric vehicles, or giving up meat, to fight climate change.
Indeed, as recently as early July CNN’s senior data reporter, Harry Enten, reported on a new Gallup poll on climate change and natural disasters which found that the percentage of Americans “greatly worried” about climate change had declined by six percentage points since 2020, down to just 40 percent. That’s the same percentage of people surveyed who expressed worry about climate change in Gallups 2000 survey asking the same question. Meaning that despite 25 years of mainstream media constantly warning of climate doom, the public is largely unmoved.
This would seem to suggest that the majority of people understand that to the extent climate change threatens harm, the threat it poses is distant, and would have far less impact on their lives and neighborhoods than ensuring low crime, high quality health care, and continued economic growth. They also seem to instinctively understand that fossil fuels are the foundation for the modern society they take for granted. That’s not evidence of cognitive dissonance, rather that’s hardheaded resistance to propaganda.
In short, polls don’t show that climate denial, whatever Becker means by that, is tearing America apart, and he provides no evidence, direct or indirect, that it is doing so, just pseudo-psychobabble about the public suffering from cognitive dissonance. In case you are wondering, Becker is neither a psychologist nor a psychiatrist.
What about the instances of extreme weather and rising seas that Becker claims climate change is making worse or more severe?
Read the full story here.
Just suppose our Victorian ancestors had put a stop to the Industrial Revolution, on the sole basis that the weather might otherwise be a tiny bit warmer than their Little Ice Age, now known to be the coldest era sine the real Ice Age.
If you pay people to lie, they will carry on lying.
Mr Becker exemplifies this well.
via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
August 1, 2025 at 03:31PM
Iowa Climate Science Education 