I see another inevitable thread here on “the greatest threat to mankind”. In general, it’s not interesting, since of course it will (or already has) turned into a debate about the reality of “the biggest threat ever”, which is a different debate than “why nobody gives a shit about it”, which is actually a good topic. But will facts matter at all?
Of course not.
While it’s possible to carefully explain why that statement is wrong, and in ways difficult to explain, it’s so wrong, it won’t matter. We can see this in the next two, much easier, examples.
There is no “theory that the earth is not flat”, so it’s an absurd statement. (there is also no theory that the Earth is not supported by elephants standing on turtles either). It’s impossible to counter that sort of rhetoric, since it’s nonsense. The irony follows close behind.
Obviously that is insulting, all the more so since we just saw how unfactual the argument before it was. But you could spend weeks, hell, the rest of your life trying to lead that horse to water, and it will never drink. Most likely the horse will kick you. Take a few bites.
The psychology of why this is so is fascinating, and yes, I am aware I suffer the same flaw. The very spirit of science is about overcoming this all too human nature, where we get an idea in our head, and no amount of fact based scientific evidence will change it.
Obviously those seriously concerned over the disaster coming feel the exact same way about their enemies.
And hell yes, it’s frustrating. We think more facts will matter, but science is telling us it won’t. That in fact, something happens in our brains, and instead of going “Wow! I did not know that. This is important, it changes things”, we get mad instead. Mad at the person showing us something.
That Freeman Dyson is a Global Warming Skeptic, that should make anyone educated enough to understand what that means take notice, do some thinking. But it doesn’t. In fact, rather than even slow down for a moment, it actually seems to make the person preaching doom even more sure. Sure that they actually know more than somebody who is possibly the smartest person on the planet. They think they know more than top Nobel Prize winning actual scientist who actually worked on climate models, and knows a lot about the science.
And it happens, just as the MRI scans show, with out conscious thought. A switch gets thrown, and the rational part of the brain shuts off, and anger rises up.
This actual tendency, this actual thing that happens in our brains, it seems important. If you got angry while reading this, then you know in your brain it is true.
But it won’t matter.