Nothing. You can’t logic someone out of a position they didn’t use logic to get to in the first place. There’s way more unmotivated and un-mobilized people out there that believe in human caused climate change that are more worth your time and energy.
Don’t. Nothing you could say is going to change their mind. They’d need to hear it from new sources they trust and their peers and then it still wouldn’t be guaranteed they’d reconsider their position. Confirmation bias and a whole host of other brain stuff makes changing someone’s mind incredibly difficult. Save your breath.
Personally, now I would say ‘fine, it doesn’t matter what you believe. We are severely fucked and we are going to be lucky to survive. Making one person accept reality is not going to change anything.’
I’ve become more and more pessimistic… simon Clark on YouTube has a bunch of accurately hopeful climate content that helps a bit, but so much hinges on ‘if we don’t actively make it worse’ which is exactly what is happening.
My one hope is we will have enough mortally devasting weather before it’s too late so that doubters will convince themselves.
My one hope is we will have enough mortally devasting weather before it’s too late so that doubters will convince themselves.
I’m sorry to say that but it’s kinda “too late” already, to some definition. Even if we stop burning fossil fuels right now, human societies will not escape unharmed, there will be more crop failure leading to more famine leading to more war, even ignoring the “minutia” such as heat-related deaths and so on. Of course that’s not to say we shouldn’t fix our shit right now, because we still can reduce the impact and try to save our global “civilization” (or whatever you want to call the sum of human knowledge, connections, industry, material culture etc).
On a more hopeful level, I also think that pretty much whatever happens, homo sapiens as a species will probably survive. As primates, we are excellent at organizing in small groups and adapting our environments to suit us, however hostile they may be. Earth is huge, its flora and fauna is diverse, and even at +6-8℃ there will be some areas with ecosystems sturdy enough to sustain small populations of hunters-gatherers and even basic agricultural societies. And then, in a few thousands or tens of thousands of years, as the nature recoils from the shock and more and more land becomes habitable for humans again, they will rebuild. Since there won’t be any easily accessible oil or gas in the ground anymore, the new industrial revolution will naturally have to be more sustainable than ours.
Nothing, there’s no use in making him feel bad for something he has no control over.
What do they think caused it? Just time passing?
Basically yes.
Nothing in nature stays the same.
What changed it the 99.999% of time (and waaay more drastically) the humans weren’t there?Climate does change over time however what WE are experiencing is a change beyond the norm - Human Activity Accelerated Climate Change. We are causing the climate to change at a greatly accelerated rate.
I tell people that burning a 100 million barrels of oil a day, everyday, has to have an impact.
Imagine how much exhaust that is everyday.
The idea that burning a million barrels of oil everyday would not have an impact on the atmosphere is absurd.
Maybe show them this:
This seems to have worked with my boomer mom: “be that as it may, wouldn’t we all be better off by reducing pollution?”
Highlight the speed of change now, since industrial revolution, compared to historical data.
Tell them you’re proud of them, they seem to be a high functioning mentally disabled person and are doing great in life.
Ask them what prompted them to be a geologist.
I told my dad that even if climate change isn’t real, or if it is humans don’t contribute… what’s the harm in doing something about it? What’s the harm in doing something to help your grandkids have a world to grow up in and enjoy?
He installed solar panels a few years ago and now likes to talk about how he heats and cools his home without paying ConEd
Just be like, “Okay, what about the pacific garbage patch? Did human activity cause that? Should we be trying to fix it?” It’s pretty hard to argue that the fish made all the used water bottles themselves.
Save your breath. It’s honestly not worth it.
Exactly, just say “you are too stupid to understand the explanation” and walk away.
We have people like this running Egypt. They’re constantly cutting down trees!
Trees in Egypt?
