# What constitutes climate change denial? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 15, 2017, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-constitutes-climate-change-denial/786662 "2017-05-15T16:28:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-constitutes-climate-change-denial/786662/1 "2017-05-15T16:28:50Z")
I doubt the accuracy of climate change predictions but I think you have to be denying a lot of reality if you believe the climate doesn’t change. I don’t know that there’s a good way to measure how much human activity is affecting the climate but you have to be out of your gourd if you don’t believe terraforming the planet, changing the entire distribution of plant and animal species, and spewing tons of pollution into the air and the water is not affecting the climate. So what defines a climate change denier? Do you have to believe the climate doesn’t change? If you believe the change are cyclical and the current trends will just reverse soon are you a denier? If you believe human activity is not the major factor in measureable climate change are you a denier? If you are just a general skeptic and believe any predictions are wrong are you a denier? ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-constitutes-climate-change-denial/786662/2 "2017-05-15T16:33:40Z")
If you believe the current climate trend isn’t a warming one and/or that the cause isn’t human activity, and you claim to have looked at the available evidence at least on a surface level, you’re a climate change denier. If you haven’t even had a look at the evidence you’re just willfully ignorant. “You” here being the generic “someone”. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-constitutes-climate-change-denial/786662/3 "2017-05-15T16:33:56Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > If you believe human activity is not the major factor in measureable climate change are you a denier? This. Because I’ve never heard anyone claim that climate cannot change. The debate is between those who think we need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissiont to lessen our impact on the climate, vs. those who think we can emit as much CO2 as we want without any ill effect. ---
**Author:** ![Walton\_Firm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/45deac/32.png) [@Walton\_Firm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walton_Firm)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-constitutes-climate-change-denial/786662/4 "2017-05-15T16:42:37Z")
What about someone who believes that the climate is changing and that human activity (specifically CO2 emissions) is a major factor, but that the predicted consequences won’t be as bad as some people fear, and/or that attempting to massively reduce our CO2 emissions to the extent needed to turn the tide would do more harm than good? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-constitutes-climate-change-denial/786662/5 "2017-05-15T16:48:32Z")
The recent Dilbert Sunday strip. ---
**Author:** ![Mikeisskeptical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@Mikeisskeptical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mikeisskeptical)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-constitutes-climate-change-denial/786662/6 "2017-05-15T18:09:53Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > So what defines a climate change denier? Do you have to believe the climate doesn’t change? If you believe the change are cyclical and the current trends will just reverse soon are you a denier? If you believe human activity is not the major factor in measureable climate change are you a denier? If you believe any of those things, the evidence is against you. If you have expertise in the field, the onus is on you to present your findings and convince the rest of the scientific community. If not, you’re almost certainly unjustified in taking that position. Whether that makes you a “climate change denier” or not is, I suppose debatable. That’s why I prefer more general terms such as “crackpot”. People who, without compelling evidence, reject one scientific consensus, invariably reject many others. I see no great practical need to categorise them too finely. I would say that the skeptical position is that if an overwhelming majority of the experts support a hypothesis, it is not necessarily true, but it is probably unwise to positively assert that it is false. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-constitutes-climate-change-denial/786662/7 "2017-05-15T20:13:20Z")
> [@Walton\_Firm](#): > > What about someone who believes that the climate is changing and that human activity (specifically CO2 emissions) is a major factor, but that the predicted consequences won’t be as bad as some people fear, and/or that attempting to massively reduce our CO2 emissions to the extent needed to turn the tide would do more harm than good? Hard to say. I can see why someone without preconceived bias might come to this conclusion. On the other hand, some deniers profess to having this viewpoint, but it turns out to be just a strawman attack on climate change - by focusing on the more extreme predictions and arguing against those, and by extension, insinuating that _all_ predictions of negative consequences should be dismissed. E.g. “they said the Arctic will be free of ice by now, but it isn’t, so you shouldn’t trust them when they say \.” ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-constitutes-climate-change-denial/786662/8 "2017-05-15T20:16:10Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I doubt the accuracy of climate change predictions but I think you have to be denying a lot of reality if you believe the climate doesn’t change. I don’t know that there’s a good way to measure how much human activity is affecting the climate but you have to be out of your gourd if you don’t believe terraforming the planet, changing the entire distribution of plant and animal species, and spewing tons of pollution into the air and the water is not affecting the climate. > > So what defines a climate change denier? Do you have to believe the climate doesn’t change? If you believe the change are cyclical and the current trends will just reverse soon are you a denier? If you believe human activity is not the major factor in measureable climate change are you a denier? If you are just a general skeptic and believe any predictions are wrong are you a denier? Nobody in their right mind denies that climate change occurs. The issue is when someone doesn’t fall into lockstep with the liberal assertions that we humans are causing it. Then the namecalling starts. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-constitutes-climate-change-denial/786662/9 "2017-05-15T20:19:18Z")
Climate change warns us that significant attitude adjustments and palpable life changes are necessary to ward off climate change and avert a social apocalypse. Deniers hold that even if there is measurable change, it is not that bad and we can continue with our current world-view paradigms, and if anything starts to go bad, we can fix it later. ---
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-constitutes-climate-change-denial/786662/10 "2017-05-15T20:58:59Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > The recent Dilbert Sunday strip. Oh. Thanks for letting me discover Scott Adams’ opinion. I didn’t know. :eek: (I also found a blog post in the same vein, from last December.) ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-constitutes-climate-change-denial/786662/11 "2017-05-16T04:49:27Z")
Anyone who disagrees with Bill Nye is a science denier. ---
**Author:** ![Dereknocue67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6de8d8/32.png) [@Dereknocue67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dereknocue67)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-constitutes-climate-change-denial/786662/12 "2017-05-16T09:11:52Z")
Many people maintain their beliefs out of desire as opposed to facts. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-constitutes-climate-change-denial/786662/13 "2017-05-16T09:14:17Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > This. Because I’ve never heard anyone claim that climate cannot change. I have. I’ve met people who when I explained that we can even know what the climate was like before there were written records (from analyzing tree rings, among other things) responded “well, that’s just daft!” Some people think Ice Age is just a bunch of animated movies.