Climate Change: All the fault of old people

[fretslider]

h/t The Spectator – Guardian author John Gibbons has written an extraordinary piece which blames climate denial on old white people.


Climate deniers want to protect the status quo that made them rich

Sceptics prefer to reject regulations to combat global warming and remain indifferent to the havoc it will wreak on future generations

From my vantage point outside the glass doors, the sea of grey hair and balding pates had the appearance of a golf society event or an active retirement group. Instead, it was the inaugural meeting of Ireland’s first climate denial group, the self-styled Irish Climate Science Forum (ICSF) in Dublin in May. All media were barred from attending.

Its guest speaker was the retired physicist and noted US climate contrarian, Richard Lindzen. His jeremiad against the “narrative of hysteria” on climate change was lapped up by an audience largely composed of male engineers and meteorologists – mostly retired. This demographic profile of attendees at climate denier meetings has been replicated in London, Washington and elsewhere.

…

Short-termism and self-interest is part of the answer. A 2012 study in Nature Climate Change presented evidence of “how remarkably well-equipped ordinary individuals are to discern which stances towards scientific information secure their personal interests”.

This is surely only half the explanation. A 2007 study by Kahan et al on risk perception identified “atypically high levels of technological and environmental risk acceptance among white males”. An earlier paper teased out a similar point: “Perhaps white males see less risk in the world because they create, manage, control and benefit from so much of it.” Others, who have not enjoyed such an armchair ride in life, report far higher levels of risk aversion.

Another 2011 paper observed uncontroversially that “conservative white males are likely to favour protection of the current industrial capitalist order which has historically served them well”. It added that “heightened emotional and psychic investment in defending in-group claims may translate into misperceived understanding about problems like climate change that threaten the continued order of the system.”

A paper earlier this year from Vanderbilt University pinpointed what motivates many who choose to reject climate change: not science denial, but “regulation phobia”. Most deniers accept science in general, and even pride themselves on their science literacy, however, combatting climate change means more regulations and, the paper says, “demands a transformation of internalised attitudes”. This, the authors conclude, “has produced what can fairly be described as a phobic reaction among many people”[/i]

www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/sep/22/climate-deniers-protect-status-quo-that-made-them-rich


I have an alternative theory.

The middle age engineers and meteorologists in that room in Ireland, and other similar gatherings, were taught how to think for themselves, back in an age when schools were focussed on education.

We learned our history – we learned that democracy is fragile, that sometimes people trade freedom for safety, even when the threat is imaginary.

We learned we should not believe everything we read – that people who call themselves scientists sometimes lie about their work.

We learned that it is OK to evaluate the evidence for ourselves, to reach our own conclusions.

And yes, we also learned that racial stereotyping is silly and wrong; that not all climate skeptics are white.

wattsupwiththat.com/2017/09/22/guardian-climate-denial-is-the-fault-of-old-white-people/



Identity politics hits a new low.

[mouse]

for once let us be brutally honest .. perhaps white males have a right to have enjoyed a so called armchair ride in life
for the very simple fact they created the comfortable armchair.. but they didn't pluck the armchair out of the air...no indeed they didn't
they slogged and worked.. bled and died for milenia and centuries before they had the right to the armchair that they invented
before blaming the white male for every ail under the sun...take a look around .. the white male has more than paid his dues and his right to sit in the armchair as a reward for his labours and people every where have benefitted whether they admit or not
because there was nothing repeat nothing stopping any other peoples from ..earning... the right to sit in the armchair..
the fact that others had traditions/religions/cultures which left them without the urge or even the need to improve almost every thing is hardly the fault of the average while male..

[Dex]

Sept 24, 2017 6:53:44 GMT -5 mouse said:

for once let us be brutally honest .. perhaps white males have a right to have enjoyed a so called armchair ride in life
for the very simple fact they created the comfortable armchair.. but they didn't pluck the armchair out of the air...no indeed they didn't
they slogged and worked.. bled and died for milenia and centuries before they had the right to the armchair that they invented
before blaming the white male for every ail under the sun...take a look around .. the white male has more than paid his dues and his right to sit in the armchair as a reward for his labours and people every where have benefitted whether they admit or not
because there was nothing repeat nothing stopping any other peoples from ..earning... the right to sit in the armchair..
the fact that others had traditions/religions/cultures which left them without the urge or even the need to improve almost every thing is hardly the fault of the average while male..

I agree with the last part of your post, but our military is made up of males and females of different races and creeds, so that's not a very good example to use for "white males".

[mouse]

"""but our military is made up of males and females of different races and creeds,"""

but that's very much a recent thing and is not the historical norm of the last couple of milenia plus centuries
when thinking of White[though I dislike the term]we have to start at the very beginingtheres a group whose name I cannot remember..
then theres Rome.. Greece. Vikings,.. the Magyar . Saxons the Gaels the Celts and they all traveled and brought back ideas.. different ways of doing things even if they got no further than other European cultures than their own..they had curiosity and the spirit of adventure
of course other cultures did as well.. both China and Islam both reached Austrailia before we did but for reasons all their own they made nothing of it... their loss our gain... it all comes down to who dares wins and lots of other imputs as well our cultures our religions and our traditions and our politics
a simple thing such as stained glass..and our UK builders traveled or heard news of this from France .. and then like the French it was incorporated into church buildings .. its small things such as that nothing on their own but all gathered together that make the differences

[fretslider]

Sept 24, 2017 10:06:17 GMT -5 Dex said:

Sept 24, 2017 6:53:44 GMT -5 mouse said:

for once let us be brutally honest .. perhaps white males have a right to have enjoyed a so called armchair ride in life
for the very simple fact they created the comfortable armchair.. but they didn't pluck the armchair out of the air...no indeed they didn't
they slogged and worked.. bled and died for milenia and centuries before they had the right to the armchair that they invented
before blaming the white male for every ail under the sun...take a look around .. the white male has more than paid his dues and his right to sit in the armchair as a reward for his labours and people every where have benefitted whether they admit or not
because there was nothing repeat nothing stopping any other peoples from ..earning... the right to sit in the armchair..
the fact that others had traditions/religions/cultures which left them without the urge or even the need to improve almost every thing is hardly the fault of the average while male..

I agree with the last part of your post, but our military is made up of males and females of different races and creeds, so that's not a very good example to use for "white males".

The British army, or rather what's left of it, has a very different tradition. The army's top brass are doing their best to create the 1st Armoured Transgender brigade, though.

The Army welcomes transgender personnel and ensures that all who apply to join are considered for service subject to meeting the same mental and physical entry standard as any other candidate.

www.army.mod.uk/join/38473.aspx


Despite the hype, they're 0.0001% of the population.

[mouse]

""Despite the hype, they're 0.0001% of the population."" and for that teeny weeny group our children are manipulated into thinking trans is the be all and end all of existence
pity that so much attention is not paid to some of the real problems of todays world instead of pandering to loud supporters of the most recent ...in.. thing
if as much time and attention was paid to education and the quality of education of our children there would be less need to jump on bandwaggons..