Climate of Fear: Why We Shouldnt Worry about Global Warming

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data. Moore, Thomas Gale. Climate of Fear: Why we shouldn't worry about global warming/. Thomas Gale Moore.
Table of contents

The real story, written by Jeffrey Kluger, was an examination of the things that could be done to combat global warming.


  • Related Stories.
  • Life Reflections: A ghost story;
  • Environmental Health for All: Risk Assessment and Risk Communication for National Environmental Heal?
  • The Road Less Travelled - Camino Primitivo-?
  • Climate of Fear: Why We Shouldn't Worry about Global Warming.
  • The Uninhabitable Earth?

It was probably always too much to believe that human beings would be responsible stewards of the planet. That means that we can also be shortsighted and brutish, hungry for food, resources, land—and heedless of the mess we leave behind trying to get them. And make a mess we have.

When Will Climate Change Make the Earth Too Hot For Humans?

Dismissing the death of a major American city is something else entirely. This past year was the hottest on record in the U.


  • Climate of Fear: Why We Shouldn't Worry about Global Warming - Thomas Gale Moore - Google Книги.
  • Special-Needs Kids Eat Right: Strategies to Help Kids on the Autism Spectrum Focus, Learn, and Thriv.
  • Climate of Fear: Why We Shouldn't Worry about Global Warming by Thomas Moore | LibraryThing?
  • We have every reason to fear Trump’s pick to head Nasa.
  • Macroeconomic Issues!
  • Its All About the Woman Who Wears It: 10 Laws for Being Smart, Successful, and Sexy Too.
  • Quick Links.

The deceptively normal average temperature this winter masked record-breaking highs in December and record-breaking lows in February. When former Vice President Al Gore made his triumphant return to Capitol Hill on March 21 to testify before Congress on climate change, he issued an uncompromising warning: Some lingering critics still found wiggle room in the U.

Available anywhere

Atmospheric levels of CO2 were parts per million p. Of the 12 warmest years on record, 11 occurred between and By Lily Rothman May 15, It can also help to consider the moral components of climate change, which as the result of human decision-making is fundamentally a moral issue. The world's poor will be disproportionately impacted by climate change, even although they contributed the least. Similarly, the choices that we make today will likely impact the quality of life of our children and grandchildren.

Psychological research shows that people are often intrinsically motivated to help others.

Paris climate conference: 10 reasons why we shouldn't worry about 'man-made' global warming

What about those who want to motivate friends and family to change their behavior? I often tell my students that social influence is a part of everyday life; whether we intend to or not, we are constantly influencing the behavior of others, and others are in turn constantly influencing our own thoughts and actions.

Because of this, we all have the power to institute or change existing social norms. Social psychologists distinguish between two separate sources of influence, informational and normative. Informational influence simply involves providing people with information about the behavior of others, as people often use information about what others are doing to inform their own behavior. In this case, that would mean simply informing your friends and family about all the things you are already doing to help reduce climate change.

Normative influence is more direct and includes telling friends and family what you think they ought to be doing to help. You might feel that your family won't listen to you, but what people often don't realize is that you have a special status with people you know. You are an in-group member, which means that even when your peers may not admit it, your opinion is given more weight than a stranger's.

Yes, as with any type of risk, it is possible for people to worry so much about the issue that it paralyzes them.

Climate Of Fear: Why We Shouldn't Worry About Global Warming

Worry is an active emotional state that often motivates people to find ways to mitigate a particular threat or problem. Fear, on the other hand, often overwhelms people and can lead to inaction, denial, and other maladaptive responses. So yes, a healthy amount of worry can motivate action, whereas too much worry can result in the exact opposite. One factor that has proven useful in explaining climate denial is an individual's ideological worldview, particularly a strong endorsement of a free-market ideology.

A related construct is system justification, which refers to a tendency to rationalize and prefer existing social, economic, and political structures.

Strong free-market endorsement, system justification, and political conservatism are all slightly different concepts, but what they have in common is an ideologically-motivated reason to deny climate science and resist government action. Ideologies are very inflexible type of worldviews that often cause people to filter information about the world in a way that is consistent with they already believe confirmation bias and make them likely to reject any information that challenges these beliefs motivated reasoning.

Is there any hope for convincing ideologically driven deniers to change their beliefs? One approach would be to emphasize expert consensus. Our research finds that people's subjective perception of the level of consensus among scientists acts as a "gateway" to other key beliefs that people hold about the issue, such as the belief that climate change is happening, human-caused, and worrisome problem that requires policy support.

See a Problem?

What's especially important is the finding that highlighting consensus seems to speak particularly well to those who are often skeptical e. One potential reason for this finding is that changing one's perception of what scientists' think is a non-identity threatening belief to change. As such, it appears to be an attractive gateway to changing other personal beliefs. In short, emphasizing agreement may help reduce perceived conflict.