Should I be terrified of climate change?
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Published 2024-03-26
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I have now come across a bunch of articles in which scientists are more or less explicitly advocating that we scare people into action on climate change. To me this is a step from information to manipulation. Let’s have a look.
Paper: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2312093121
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All Comments (21)
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my big issue with fear mongering is it makes people give up hope on the future. If people don't have hope in the future, they don't work to make it better.
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I worked in mental health support for many years. Fear and threats are really ineffective compared to identifying good options and letting people choose between them. The feeling of empowerment is the biggest motivation for making powerful things happen. Fear and disempowered “I can do nothing” feelings go with decision paralysis.
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"If you press the Red Button, you become a billionaire, but decades after your death... did you just press it? At least wait for me to tell you what happens! Stop pressing it!"
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They are not scaring people they are overwhelming them, which makes them more prone to give up instead of help
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The problem with fear is that the limbic system will spike for a while but then the brain will compensate with mechanisms such as habituation. So fear only works short term.
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I'm only terrified of human stupidity. Everything else is manageable.
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In the next decade or two, you are going to learn why old people are skeptical and stubborn. The problem is by the time you learn this, you are going to be old too!
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But most people don't think rationally. They are bundles of emotions and beliefs not logic.....
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"When in danger, when in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout" - Robert Heinlein Thanks for advocating against emotional manipulation. Fear is a lousy guidance system.
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So maybe I should be terrified of being manipulated to feeling terrified. Uh, nvm.
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Sabine, what a crazy idea. Tell people about real facts and expect them to take rational action based on those facts. I can' t imagine that really working, most people I know aren't really rational. :-(
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Thank you, Sabine. I don't think clearly when panicked and fearful. Why would you want that? I blame manipulators, not the manipulated. We all jump at loud noises and march when the band strikes up. We need better leadership, less hysteria in the media, and innovative policies coming from the public sector. Seems like we've needed that for a long time.
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I am more terrified with the prospect of what humans will do when there are food, water, and land shortages. Reasonable persons should be able to adapt to the situation but my faith in humanity as a whole is basically non existent.
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When they write these scare pieces, the trust just goes through the basement
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I'm not terrified for myself. I'm old, I'll be dead. I'm terrified for future generations, especially those in "underdeveloped" countries. Things are going to be terrible for the people of Bangladesh, Africa, any the populations around the world that are too poor to move out of the way of rising seas, wildfires, or drought. Even if we made big changes NOW, millions will still likely die. And there will be about a billion refugees. Something to be terrified about in my book.
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The bright side is that soon we won't need horror shows or science fiction for entertainment. The entertainment will come to us.
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No more fear. I am so unbelievably sick of it. It is not a viable long term strategy to solving a long term problem. Why cant we just have a reasonable leader that inspires action rather than having more and more anxiety.
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I think that the world would be a lot better off if purveyors of news (and pandering politicians) would just back off from their unnecessary use of superlatives and unsubstantiated claims.
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I’m not terrified, but I’m brokenhearted for what we are losing.
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The problem is that humans, with lives of 70 years or so, are very bad at reacting to events that will span centuries... When the lion is chasing them down, yes. When the average global temp is going to rise 2 degrees in the next hundred years, not so much...
