There is no amount of catastrophic weather or other directly observable evidence that will ever make this statement true. There certainly should be, but the fact remains that many will deny climate change even as it destroys their lives or kills them. I don't like it but that's the world we live in.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

From what I've read, there are a few things that change people's beliefs. Fact is not one of them. What your in-group believes is a big factor. So if we could murder fox news, we'd probably do the world a lot of good.

But the other thing that apparently can push people into reevaluating their beliefs? Horrific, personal, trauma. Someone who's whole town was destroyed by climate change might be shaken up enough to rethink their world view. Maybe.

You could also maybe trigger the effect by beating the living shit out of a climate change denier, because being dragged out of their coal-rolling truck and being beaten so badly they'll never walk again would be traumatic.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

But the other thing that apparently can push people into reevaluating their beliefs? Horrific, personal, trauma. Someone who’s whole town was destroyed by climate change might be shaken up enough to rethink their world view. Maybe.

Your first point needs to happen first otherwise this scenario just gets spun into "stupid liberals want you to think it's humans doing this, it's just natural cycles the earth goes through. Look back millions of years and you'll see a period where average temperatures were 90°! Do you want to let liberals charge you more for Beautiful Gasoline™ over a lie!?"

[–] bassomitron 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Not entirely true in my anecdotal experience. Most of the original deniers I know personally now say that climate change is real, just that it's not man-made and there's nothing we can do about it. I remember around a few years ago I even convinced my boss that climate change is in fact real (he couldn't come up with a valid reason to explain picture and video evidence), but he refuses to accept humans are causing it. It's still equally frustrating, nonetheless.

[–] krashmo 13 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I mean, is that functionally any different? They're still going with their own "alternate facts" over listening to scientists. They're still refusing to support politicians and/or policies that might give us a shot at avoiding the worst of the problem. If they're still doing all the same shit then nothing has changed.

[–] bassomitron 3 points 1 month ago

Right, I was just pointing out that there are plenty who do believe in climate change, but are still missing/refusing to see the underlying cause and support reform.

[–] gac11 1 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I have a friend that claims climate change is not man made. He always talks about volcanos and ice ages. Does anyone know what evidence I can actually hand him to show him man's contribution is the leading cause?

[–] ShittyBeatlesFCPres 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

https://xkcd.com/1732/

[–] Pretzilla 1 points 1 month ago

Wow. The 'Current Path' was very optimistic. We are accelerating roughly twice as fast as was predicted here in 2016.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

You can start by showing them that every mass extinction event earth has witness was the rapid climate change after massive volcanic eruptions spewed greenhouses gases... (including the dinosaurs, the asteroid was basically kicking them while they were already down)... and we're doing the exact same thing at break neck speeds.