Discovering the Doubters
The topic of Climate change has been a heavily debated issue in recent political elections and will be in the 2016 race. The debate is normally about the severity of the issue and whether or not it is man-made. However, It is important to note that not all members of each party feel the same way and believe the same things about the subject. Each and every day a new scientist comes out with more and more information about Global Warming and sheds light on just how serious the issue may be. However, even having science and reason to back up the case, there is still a large portion of Americans who ignore the warnings and completely dismiss the claims. This phenomenon is important to get to the bottom of because a country divided could never begin to deal with an issue on this scale. With all of the research and signs pointing toward an obvious issue, one can only help but ask the question; Why are there still so many Global Warming doubters?
Former member of the United States Senate, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, once famously said, “Everyone is entitle to their own opinion.”. Even thought those words were uttered in the Senate over twenty years ago, the statement still holds truth today. In today’s society we are constantly told to respect one another’s ideas and outlooks on life because we need to be accepting of everyones different qualities and what makes them unique. However, that outlook can be very difficult to abide by when looking into or discussing politics. For years Democrats, or liberals, have been attempting to shed light on the signs of climate change and the long term effects it may cause to our planet if we don’t do anything to stop human’s direct involvement in the issue. Conservative Republicans, on the other hand, have been known to dismiss these claims,debunk the idea of any human involvement, and direct their attention to different economic ideologies and other topics they claim to be more important. From 1999 to 2012 there were 24 peer-reviewed articles that rejected the idea that humans were directly linked to causing climate change, where as there were 13,950 peer-reviewed articles accepting the fact that there had to be some sort of human involvement. From 2013 to 2014 there were only 5 articles rejecting these claims and over 24,000 articles again, accepting fault. With scientific research increasingly pointing towards the existence of a man-made change in our planets climate, its important to understand both sides of the issue and ultimately come to a conclusion on who is right and who needs to be more understanding.
People that identify themselves as left wing, or liberals, have attempted to come up with ideas as to why some conservatives continue to reject the scientific claims. None of these claims can be proven to be true because its virtually impossible to speak for the entire Republican community; However its important to look into these ideas because there is always a possibility that they have some truth to them. I myself, have come up with a few ideas as to why some people may not believe that Global Warming is a man-made issue, or that it even exists. For example, I believe it could be completely possible that some people don’t want to take responsibility for such an issue. Admitting that our human race is at fault for changing the climate of the earth and ultimately putting all that inhabit it in serious danger might not be the easiest thing for some to accept responsibility for. Another theory could be that they simply do not believe in the severity of the issue and really do find other issues to be more important. People that identify themselves as conservatives have historically been more concerned with America’s economic state and less concerned with environmental issues. Its no secret that our current economic state is not at an all time high, which is a very high concern for the republican party, making this theory much more plausible.
Another theory concerns religion. A large majority of conservatives identify themselves to be more religious than their opposition, specifically evangelical christians. It is a serious possibility that most christians or hyper- religious people would reject the claims of Climate change simply because it does not fall in line with their religion. Most evangelical christians believe that our world was not made to last and that we should exploit it to its fullest potential. If their religion tells them that the earth will not be here forever, why would they feel the need to save it? My last and final theory is that some conservatives might think that the term Global Warming is just used to scare citizens and make them believe in it in order to gain more votes. This theory might be more difficult to believe,given the number of scientists that are constantly working towards making people realize the serious effects of climate change, but nonetheless opposition politics could most definitely be playing a factor in this argument. If the democratic party could strike fear into the American people and convince them that they are the only party that is going to do something to stop the issue it would mean gaining many more votes in their direction.
While such assumptions seem plausible, the only way to truly get to the bottom of the doubting when it comes to climate change is to talk to individuals who openly speak out about their beliefs in Global Warming. To find out, I set out to interview people who were interested in this topic in order to learn from them why they believe that this issue is receiving too much attention. Here is what I discovered.
The Religious Point of View
The first interview that I conducted was with Tara Carroll, a United States History and Religious studies teacher at a small private school in San Diego, California. Tara claims that she gave her life to Jesus Christ when the father of her child left them both when she was only 21 years old. “Jesus was the only one that was there for me when I had no one”, Tara said.
After hearing Tara’s background story, I dove into the important questions. I started by asking her to explain her attitude towards Global Warming and she replied with, “I understand that people are concerned about the earth and I think thats good! God created this earth for us and we should do our best to preserve its beauty”. I then asked if she was upset about the assumptions some people have when they hear that someone doesn’t believe in Global Warming. “Its not that I don’t believe in the efforts people are making, its just that everything that happens will happen because of God’s will. And theres nothing any of us can do about that.”, she said.
Tara seemed to have a very calm demeanor when talking about the subject throughout our conversation. It was almost as if she wasn’t concerned about the issue because she’s just comfortable with anything that could happen. She never mentioned the idea of Global Warming not fitting into the Bible, but instead told me she’s not worried because what ever will be will be. This laid-back outlook made me think that maybe evangelical Christians don’t necessarily not doubt the existence of climate change, but instead just don’t seem to be very concerned about it.
The Business Point of View
The next interview I conducted was with Bill Graves. Bill is a seventy-two year old man that grew up in a small town in Georgia working for his father’s carpet mill. After years working for his father, Bill decided to move himself and his family out to California in order to use his knowledge of the carpet business to start his own company. Over 30 years, his carpet company, Unique Carpets Ltd., became a huge success and now is considered to be one of the most successful carpet manufacturers in the United States.
Bill is a self made man that donates a decent amount of money to the Republican Party each and every year. Being the conservative man that he is, I figured he might have a strong opinion on the issue. I started our phone conversation by asking him a few basic questions about his political beliefs and where he gets it from. “I was raised by a very poor family that taught me being lazy would get me nowhere. I feel as if the GOP is a true indication of what the American dream is all about”, he said.
After getting such straight forward answers about why he considers himself to be a conservative, I knew I was in store for some rather powerful responses to the rest of my questions. When asking him what he thought about the issue of Global Warming he answered with, “My answer is quite simple. I do not believe it is an issue at all.”. I followed up by asking him whether or not he would call it a “hoax”, just as many members of the republican party do. “Yes I would call it a Hoax. It is a way for the American Government to trick us into spending more money. It gives them a way to keep us on our tows and assume we need their help.”.
After his rather surprising response through his deep southern accent, I asked him whether or not he was concerned about some of the assumptions environmentalists my have toward someone with his opinion. Bill responded with a chuckle and said, “I will let them believe whatever it is they want to. And I will continue to believe what I believe.”
Bill’s interview gave me a sort of insight that I wasn’t expecting to learn. He seemed to have a very forceful way of communicating his responses which made him seem almost stubborn. This interview should obviously not speak for all older, wealthy conservative men, However, Bill’s responses did make me wonder whether Bill, or anyone like him, would ever be open to learning more about this issue that some find so serious. This particular interview made me wonder whether or not some conservatives are actually concerned but are in some sort of, “Climate Change Denial”.
The Student Point of View
After hearing from two older conservative people, I felt it would be useful to find someone a little closer to my age that had the same type of views. Trevor Alexander is an International Affairs major at the University of Colorado and identifies himself as a, “moderate conservative.”. Trevor’s family has an interesting background with multiple family members that worked for the Australian Government. Trevor’s upbringing was extremely liberal and decided to go against it and make a difference in to world when he chose his major shortly after coming to college. After calling himself a, “moderate conservative”, I was correct in my assumption that this interview might not be quite as biased as the last.
When asking about his overall attitude towards climate change,Trevor answered, “Its a huge issue in today’s politics but Im not sure it should be. I think it just gets to much hype because of the way its portrayed to the people. I mean look, I see the science coming out all the time about how serious of an issue it is, so its hard for me to say it doesn’t exist. I think it probably does exist but isn’t as bad as we hear it is.”.
Trevor seemed to cry skeptical with his answers, making me think he wasn’t sure what he believed. “I read a lot of the WallStreet Journal and watch a lot of BBC because I think its the most unbiased news station. I’m not some conservative that sticks to Fox. I hear about it a lot.”.
After letting Trevor explain himself, I asked him why he thought Republican leaders seem to dismiss it all together. “ They’re probably afraid to say anything about it existing cuz they don’t want to lose any money. People won’t endorse them if they say its real. Either that or they’re like me and don’t see it as a major issue.”.
Trevor’s answer confirmed my earlier assumptions. Throughout our entire meeting in the local starbuks, never once did he claim himself to be a complete doubter, but rather made it seem as if he thought there were larger issues. This interview, and all the others I conducted, made me wonder whether or not republicans truly doubt it or if they just don’t think it is worthy of discussion. I also couldn’t help but find myself asking, if an issue that deals with the overall safety of the entire planet isn’t important for discussion; What is?
Back to the Facts
Global Warming doubters come from all around and have their own reasons for believing what they believe. My previous hypotheses as to why some conservative individuals dismiss the claims of climate change were not completely off the mark. When it comes to the evangelical Christians, the assumption was that they didn’t believe because their religion didn’t mention any talk of such an event. However, the idea of not being concerned because the wasn’t meant to last forever proved to be true in Tara’s case when she talked about God’s will. Christian’s lackadaisical view toward the issue could make them lean farther right when it comes to the importance of policy in modern day America.
The idea of republicans thinking that the term Global Warming is just a tool to get citizens to be concerned or afraid of the possibilities came to be true when conducting Bill’s interview. His stubborn attitude shed light on the idea that some people might think that anything, or anyone, that disagrees with their parties’ point of view is wrong and isn’t even worthy of discussion. This issue can fall in line with both left and right wing affiliates. If someone feels very strongly about their party’s platform and beliefs than they would be the first to dismiss anything important to the opposition. When it comes to the idea of people not wanting to take responsibility for the issue, the interviews conducted didn’t really shed light on to whether or not this theory could be true. I believe that this theory could be very likely but also very difficult for any person to openly admit. Conducting interviews and hearing first person accounts is a very valuable source of information to take in when looking at this question, However failed to give a clear consensus to speak for all doubters.
Tom Bethel, a conservative journalist that regularly writes for The American Spectator,says that, “Carbon dioxide is itself a benign and essential substance, incidentally. Without it, plants would not grow, and without plant-life animals could not live. Any increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere causes plants, trees, and forests to grow more abundantly. It should be a treehugger's delight…And if man-made global warming is real, atmospheric as well as surface temperatures should have increased steadily. But they haven’t.” This quote shows that even though the majority of scientists are starting to believe that climate change is a man-made issue that needs to be addressed, there are still a majority of scientists that believe the opposite. As stated before, its important to keep in mind that all people should be allowed to form their own opinions and we must be able to accept them; so its important to not completely dismiss the works of people like Bethel. Educating ones self is especially important when talking about issues such as this so that we are able to form our own opinions and not let anyone make decisions for us. This is clearly what is happening when it comes to the issue of conservative doubters. If my studies and interviews have proven anything, its that Americans today are very stubborn people that will not let anyone persuade their personal beliefs on any level. People, such as Trevor, might be able to recognize where others are coming from but will still believe what they want to believe at the end of the day. Unfortunately, we live in an America that favors a two party system that cannot seem to come together and solve issues in a way that will make both sides happy. Whether we are discussing an issue such as global climate change or abortion, people tend to stick to the views of their party and form their own personal opinion around it. This is obvious when we consider the three conservatives that were interviewed that each had their own way of explaining their doubts. There is no clear answer as to why “Global Warming Denial” exists because the truth is there are a number of reasons why people believe what they believe. However, I believe the most clear reasoning as to why this phenomenon exists boils down to the idea of people believing whatever it is their party tells them to believe.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. Our country was founded on freedom and the idea that we are able to form our own opinions and beliefs and not be punished for them. This freedom opens the door for people to have difficult discussions and debates to try and persuade others to hop on board with any cause they see fit. Whether or not people dismiss the idea of global climate change because they are afraid to admit it, or because they are too stubborn to admit it, or because it doesn’t fall in line with the teachings of their religion, or any other sort of explanation, they are simply exercising their right as an American. With this right comes great liberty but also great danger. If Americans don’t come together and start solving their problems as one nation instead of two parties the result could be fatal. Because if the environmentalists are right and the conservatives continue to ignore them, our country and our planet could be coming to an end faster than we think.