Regardless of the political context, Climate change has not only been proven consistently but continues to worsen with inaction and denial.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_dnJOQCTHs
transcript:
As human civilization grows and develops, we over exhaust the resources of the planet we occupy, while simultaneously polluting the atmosphere, oceans, and landmasses we directly and indirectly depend on. the increase in pollution, caused by human activity, polarizes the environment to become less hospitable: oceans increase in acidity and plastic saturation, the atmosphere is imbalanced by greenhouse gas emissions, and the globe is warming at disproportionate rates. The situation is becoming dire, and yet people actively deny these facts; some going so far as to refuse any form of conversation around this topic.
From a psychological standpoint, reactions to climate change fall into one of three categories: acknowledging climate change, believing climate change is not man made, or completely denying climate change. Acknowledging climate change, and the human factors that have been proven to cause it, signifies a healthy application of skepticism that works to rationalize how large the problem is and what steps should be taken to create solutions. Completely denying climate change hints at an excess of skepticism, and a larger inability, or unwillingness, to accept reality out of a sense of self-preservation or self-interest. Believing climate change isn’t man made likely evolves from a miss use of skepticism which creates a layer of separation, removing any moral responsibility to solve this problem. On a regional scale, in a sample of one hundred people surveyed in a poll over twitter, eighty eight percent of participants believe climate change is real, eight percent believe it is real but not man made, four percent outright deny climate change. This trend is reinforced by national U.S. statistics which show seventy six percent of the population believing in climate change, nineteen percent of the population believing climate change is real but not man made, and five percent of the population outright denying it.
While the people who deny climate change are the minority, it is worth acknowledging that five percent of the U.S. population is just over 16 million people, some of which occupy position of high social and economic power. Their denial presents a significant obstacle to other people actively trying to solve climate change. A global problem like climate change requires a global effort to create and apply solutions, so to rehabilitate climate change deniers we first need to understand their intent and the medium used to communicate denial. By understanding the medium any attempt to spread or receive misinformation can be contained, which in combination with evidence based research, can readjust the brains natural skepticisms. Understanding intent is much trickier, but by working to understand it in a clinical setting, a climate change denier can be accommodated without being misled by internal and external biases, to respond inappropriately to climate change.
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