Blog: Stages of denialism  



Denialists never want to admit that they are wrong about anything, so they keep a debate going as long as possible to sooth their egos. Then, when their views are discredited by the mainstream scientific communities, they appeal to the prejudices of the general public instead.

Global Warming (GW) denialist stages:

  1. "Global warming is not happening and may not happen. Why worry about it?"
  2. "Global warming IS happening, but there is no evidence that humans are a factor in the problem."
  3. "Global warming is happening, humans are a factor, but there is nothing we can do to stop it anyway."
  4. 'Global warming is happening, humans are a factor, we can stop it, but the costs of trying to stop it would outweigh the benefits."

Decades ago, most GW denialists were at stage one. Today, most of them are at stage two, with some already moving to stage three or four. Truly honest and fair people should have stopped at stage one.


Creationist (evolution denialist) stages:

  1. "Species are eternal and unchanging, existing in their present form since Creation. There is no evidence for evolution."
  2. "Species do change, but only within the limits of created kinds. Evidence cited for evolution can also fit within Creationism."
  3. "Even if evolution occurs, an Intelligent Designer must have been involved, so complex are some biological forms."
  4. "Evolution is as unscientific as Creationism."

The difference between a skeptic and a denialist, on any subject, is that a real skeptic knows in advance what evidence would convince him that something is real or that action of a certain kind is justified. A denialist has no such standards. His commitment to an ideology trumps any scientific standard. Gaps in scientific knowledge, which would motivate most scientists to look for more data, are wrongly used by denialists to reject completely a concept they do not like because of prejudice. This is dishonesty.


Posted: Sunday January 13, 2008, 8:51 pm
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Mari Enchanted Basque (1409)
Thursday January 31, 2008, 6:13 pm

Global Warming Denialism is a disorder. It is an extremely dangerous disorder that threatens to kill the human species and all animals if we allowed it to.

I personally know a number of people that deny climate change. That is what has brought me to put this in the news here at Care2. This is a serious issue. If denialists are allowed to spread lies unchallenged and poison the opinions of too many people, their disinformation could easy result in many people dying. If people do not realize the truth and do not take action against Global Warming, the consequences will almost certainly be deadly for large numbers of people. Those people may even be you or I.

If global warming continues unchecked, considerable areas of densely inhabited land will be permanently flooded. Millions will be forced to migrate to new areas. Such huge numbers of refugees will be certain to result in conflicts and great hardships.

Floods and changing weather patterns will cause areas that are currently prime farmland to experience crop failures. These crop failures are likely to occur worldwide. The result will be massive famines.

Huge numbers of refugees suffering from famines will be a likely breeding ground for all sorts of nasty diseases. There will be many deaths and much suffering.

Hearing claims that global warming is untrue is scary. The possibility that those false claims may be believed by gullible people is even more scary. They are scary to me because their denial could very well result in death and suffering for myself, my loved ones, nature, wildlife, & humans all around the planet.

http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/574737

Please Note News, Sign Petions & View Thread On Denialism. Thank you!

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