When the phrase global warming is heard, there still can be some passionate arguments on both sides if it is true or not. But then again in disaster films there is always a group of people heading in the wrong direction as well.
It is part of human nature to be skeptical, we all need to be convinced before we head into the unknown. It is also a known fact that no two people have exactly the same logical conditions that must be met before believing something to be true or safe. That consideration is based on each persons experience in life. There are still people trying to prove E=MC2 is wrong as well as Darwin’s theory of evolution for that fact.
So when it comes to global warming, most people are convinced it is a real event and that the increased extreme weather events are part of it. So for lack of a better term, the people that do not believe that global warming is real and this is just part of a natural cycle, they are now being seen as the topic and not the climate change.
Looking into the heads of these people and trying to understand why they just don’t get it is becoming an interesting study. Looking to see how much convincing it will take may have some skeptical roots based in religion. Religion has powerful influence on the minds of many. So when something they observe goes against their foundational religious belief, a form of denial is seen as it is just too hard to fathom in that what they believed all their lives was being proven wrong.
This little phenomenon can be seen when a bible thumper has been challenged with logic. When they can not answer the question they simply start reading loudly passages from the bible with the hopes of chasing the demon fact presenter away.
There are still others that feel it is just impossible. Short of an asteroid snuffing out life as one did with the dinosaurs, how could mother earth suddenly become such a bitch and start killing people wholesale. That simply does not make sense so if I close my eyes when I open them things will be OK again.
There are still others that simply can not accept change. They are the people who have a plot of land they will not sell that is holding up progress. The land has sentimental value so to resist is also part of human nature to hold on to the past as it may be part of an emotional security blanket.
So as this suggests the basis in not believing is more based in denial for personal reasons, and has little to do with the facts unfolding in front of their eyes. The evidence is convincing enough but they are simply not able to accept it. So they start on a mission to prove what they see is wrong and simply can not be. The more active nay sayers become the more they are seen as a new Shepard leading the rest who can not accept what is happening to their world. With each word from the nay sayer that supports their inner beliefs, the more they start to believe each word as if it were read from the Gospel.