"As The Vast Majority Of Climate Change Deniers Are Thoroughly Unpleasant And Vile People . . . "

[hatrack]

Climate change deniers continue to be vastly over-represented in many leading economies, such as the United States, Canada, and Australia. But they are a diminishing rump, and spending time and effort to convince the average denier is a waste of time. There are only four paths out of climate change denial, and only two of them are likely to be taken by more than the tiniest fraction of deniers.

Death

Deniers skew old, much older than the rest of the populace. As a result, many of them will die denying, but still, they’ll be dead and their science denial will die with them. As the vast majority of climate change deniers are thoroughly unpleasant and vile people — I’ve been dealing with them for at least a decade in online communities around the world but rarely in person — I hope for the loved ones and caretakers who still tolerate them that this happens sooner rather than later.



Major Tribal Shift

In the USA, most deniers are Republicans, or outright white supremacists. Republican strategists and senior leaders made a strategic decision to accept fossil fuel oligarch money in the 1990s, and scooped up the vast majority of the climate change deniers to go with their evolution deniers. The result is that climate change “skepticism” is vastly more prevalent in the Republican Party rank and file than anywhere else in the USA (or anywhere else in the world).



EDIT

It’s deeply unlikely that anyone still denying climate change in 2021 has the faintest shred of intellectual honesty and integrity, but there’s always one exception. And it’s happened before. Jerry Taylor was a professional climate change denier. He did that for the Cato Institute, that mostly horrific Libertarian think tank created by oligarchs to spread the gospel of leave-rich-people-alone-and-unregulated. He spoke to Congress. And one of the scientists, Joe Romm, asked him to read the material he was citing, say that it didn’t say what he thought it did. And to Taylor’s credit, he did read it, and more, and realized that he was not only wrong about climate change, but that he was actively being hostile to good governance, politics, and the economy.

He jumped ship, formed the Niskanen Center, and now tries to bring conservatives into the climate light, without much success in my opinion. He, the Center, and everyone affiliated with it have actually stopped calling themselves libertarians at all because of the tribal dogma within libertarianism regarding climate change. To be a libertarian, you have to pass the values test of denial now, and Taylor refused to.

EDIT

https://cleantechnica.com/2021/07/27/the-grim-reaper-the-republican-party-embracing-climate-action-are-the-only-things-that-will-eliminate-us-climate-change-deniers/

[Random Boomer]

1. 51% of 18-34 believe global warming will pose a serious threat in their lifetime

Which means 49% of them are in for a rude shock.

[DavidDvorkin]

2. Yes, that's a very odd response

By contrast, the low number of older people who say yes to that makes some sense, at least for the very old (can't tell because the chart doesn't break it down any further than "55 and older&quot .