Regardless of the political context, Climate change has not only been proven consistently but continues to worsen with inaction and denial.

Denial, in appropriate settings over short periods of time, acts as a component to the minds immune system helping people to rationalize hard news or traumatic events; but outside of this context denial breeds cognitive dissonance between individuals and how they perceive reality; left unchecked this can be disastrous from an individual level all the way to an international level. Climate change denial is, undoubtedly, an inappropriate application of denial as a psychological coping mechanism. Much like an auto immune disorder uses the body against itself, climate change denial uses the minds coping mechanism in combination with each other to create delusion and dismantle a person’s ability to accept reality and function accordingly.

Unfortunately, piling on facts would do little to resolve climate change denial because by nature climate change deniers have consciously or otherwise decided to deny evidence based finding most often opting to preserve their way of life and the local status quo at large. As counter intuitive as it may seem convincing a climate change denier begins by allowing them to say their piece because denial leads people to craft elaborate conspiratorial narratives or methodically accept parts of facts. Allowing climate change deniers to openly flush out their stance creates an opportunity to retool their existing skepticism and has similar benefits to mental health as allowing someone to express grief about a traumatic situation. However, the period following this expression leaves a climate change denier especially vulnerable for polarization as much as readjustment.

This period of vulnerability can likely explain why climate change denial is a persistent problem at least within America and most in other countries as well. As it stands 5% (16,505,906) of the U.S. population does not believe in climate change at all (a falsely held belief) while 19% of the U.S. Population (62,722,444) believes climate change is real but not manmade (also false). Considering the prevalence of social media from person to person misinformation as much as accurate information is accessible to a wide variety of people some of whom may be unable or unwilling to discern credible and non-credible sources. Furthermore, some sources conveying information on climate change may not only be inaccurate but even predatory. People in a position of economic or political power are in a position where they can weaponize misinformation that polarizes their audience; and because of lobbyism a sort of positive feedback loop has emerged that mass produces delusions as a primary product.

Corporate enterprises particularly in the fossil fuel industry lobby politicians to endorse policy and legislation that is deregulatory and allows for capital expansion capital which is then used for lobbyism; simultaneously, politicians actively or passively disavow planetary science in order to rally public opinion behind corporate interest which in turn stimulates capital gains for political entity as much as corporate entities. As a result, climate change deniers are manipulated to believe one of three delusions: climate change isn’t controllable, climate change isn’t manmade, or climate change isn’t real.

Traditionally, transitioning away from denial can be facilitated by introducing a degree of separation between person and event; meaning a change in pace, exposure, or subject matter creates opportunity for new perspectives to be introduce. Unfortunately, introducing separation between people and a problem as consequential as climate change would only serve to marginalize the gravity of the situation. Instead to deal with this particular type of denial it may be more effective to employ a combination of repeated minimal exposure to the top from a wider variety of sources, and generalizing skepticism across all sources as opposed to sources that fall under a political or social demographic (i.e. left leaning or right leaning). Ideally, the skepticism that most climate change deniers direct towards planetary science can be retooled to target the delusions and conspiracy in a way that leave sentiments of denial collapsing in on themselves. By essentially redirecting a climate change denier to think as critically about anti-climate change arguments as they do about pro-climate change arguments the become more receptive to conversation, discussion, and ultimately reformation.

The reality of climate change is Daunting: the planet is being severely damaged and without action that damage will become irreparable in how it impacts all the factor biotic and abiotic comprising the biosphere; knowing that much and only that much about climate change leaves many to outright deny the reality of things but climate change is complex and still solvable as long as we act sooner rather than later. Keeping that in mind leaves a pathway open to inform people and resolve  It is imperative that people are informed as thoroughly as possible.