Lubos Motl (a must read blogger) points out that climate change, is the new religion.
First things first – climate change is very real and very worrying, if you look at the empirical data and spread of opinion amongst people studying it. It appears to be more truth than fiction – an idea bolstered by the amusing fact that the poster child (the inadmirable Crichton) of the ‘its fiction’ camp, is indeed noted for his science fiction. The problem is not that the truth is winning, its that its winning too easily and data is being amplified and distorted as it moves into the mainstream culture, and this does not help in the long term.
What are the reasons for this?
1. Darwinism, is being distorted and muted by the negative feedback loop of people who want religious certainty and human primacy instead of evolutionary gradualism and primate-acy. Climate change is experiencing the opposite effect, it is a viral meme that happens to be true. The idea feeds off the delusional end times hysteria that tin-foil hat Christian fundamentalists have injected into millennium time, post 911, American mainstream culture and foreign policy.
2. Even for Darwininsts and people with too much body hair, our ape-like ancestry may seem remote. But the weather – well its everywhere and it affects everyone. If you have nothing else to talk about with someone, at least you can have a conversation about the weather.
3. DIMBY – Definitely In My Back Yard. A people centric, view of the world is natural. Since the weather is everywhere, it affects everyone and people care about what happens in their back yard – like the giant mud slide that just removed their back yard.
4. Human beings don’t live very long and so natural weather fluctuations that do not show any long term trend – every single Gaian twitch from earthquakes to April showers will have people subconsciously blaming climate change.
That the truth is winning under false pretences, may not be a problem – that’s pretty much how democracy works even at its best – but there is a danger that if falsehoods are exposed they could disillusion people and create a dangerous setback for the need to really do something drastic about climate change.
After all – you can only have so much doom – its no fun, and people may start partying again instead of fixing things.
Luboš Motl’s reference frame: Climate apocalypse is the new religion