This article describes my concerns over global warming and the
disappearing Arctic sea ice more articulately than I can manage.
The writer holds the Centre for International Governance Innovation
Chair of Global Systems at the Balsillie School of International
Affairs in Waterloo, Canada, so I was pleased to find him backing what
I wrote in my recent rant.
"But social scientists have identified another major reason: Climate
change has become an ideologically polarising issue. It taps into deep
personal identities and causes what Professor Dan Kahan of Yale calls
"protective cognition" - we judge things in part on whether we see
ourselves as rugged individualists mastering nature or as members of
interconnected societies who live in harmony with the environment.
Powerful special interests like the coal and oil industries have
learned how to halt movement on climate policy by exploiting the fear
people feel when their identities are threatened."
What he does not say is that the meteorologists AND climate scientists
are only people, and they too are vulnerable to protective cognition :-
(
Here is the full article:
http://www.todayonline.com/Science/E...s,-a-real-fear
Cheers, Alastair.