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The social anatomy of climate change denial in the United States (nature.com)
11 points by RafelMri 3 months ago | hide | past | favorite | 7 comments



Not everyone needs to be convinced of climate change. There are many good reasons to wean off of climate change. Air pollution kills 10m/year[1]. For context, COVID deaths are 6.5m+ over 3 years, about ~2.2m/year.

[1] Air Pollution Kills 10 Million People a Year. Why Do We Accept That as Normal? https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/08/opinion/environment/air-p...


Absolutely, it always mystifies me that the cost-effectiveness of renewables and EVs doesn't appeal even to some sense of self-interest in people who dismiss climate change.

I often bring up the fact that, with the mechanical efficiency of combustion engines being ~25% (the rest being waste heat), for every 4 gallons of gas you buy, you're basically throwing away 3. Even from just an aesthetic point of view you'd think that'd bother people but it doesn't seem to.

Entrenched views from decades of marketing by the fossil industry, I guess.


> Entrenched views from decades of marketing by the fossil industry, I guess.

Not just regular marketing but specifically cultivating particular political parties and making it a tribal loyalty test. I think of my grandfather as an example: he switched to CFLs and LED bulbs earlier in the century because as a child of the Depression he’s totally on board with saving money, but last summer he made some anti-EV comments because as a long-time Republican voter people he trusted had claimed that they were a left-wing conspiracy (this is moot for him since he can’t drive any more). I doubt they ever mentioned oil directly but the money was there behind the scenes getting to that point.


The geographic anatomy seems to follow my rule of thumb: distance from the largest city in one's watershed correlates with many beliefs in the States.


The language of religion shouldn’t be substituted for the language of science. This paper reads like a religious text.


Can you provide any examples of what you think sounds religious? I see cited data sources, a variety of analytic techniques, and it passed peer review in an exclusive journal.


Which religious texts analyse large bodies of social media text to tease out associations between keyword|phrase blocks?




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