1 in 4 Americans is skeptical of climate change -- "Who gives a shit? You don't need people's opinions on a fact."
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I don't normally share stuff like this but Community just got cancelled and I may never see John Oliver again and I'm having trouble with that notion. Also he makes a damn good point about the prevalence of one to one debates on climate change.
His shows have actually been kind of interesting. They're a direct rip-off of The Daily Show but one thing Oliver's doing that Stewart never did is take a side. The "1 out of 4 Americans are wrong about something" part was the best. "Do owls exist?" made me laugh out loud. After all, about one in ten Americans think Elvis is still alive. Related: Project Steve.
Damn I already miss Community. You'll probably see John Oliver often enough though, he seems to make a cameo in every other good comedy show. But on climate change: one of the larges problems is that climate change is not bad enough yet to be really seen as a problem by the general public. And normal fluctuations cause disbelief in the rise of temperature - I recall a couple of years ago, when Obama opened a climate top in Denmark or something which was covered in thick snow, talking about how rising temperatures are becoming a bigger issue. A lot of people don't know that what we mean by climate is at least 50 years long, but often much more.
Another problem with the public perception of Climate change is that everyone links climate change directly to "Everything's going to be warmer all the time", which isn't the case. For example, I experienced my new personal record for cold temperatures this past winter: -42 C, with a wind chill around -50 C (that's -40 F, with the wind chill around -58 F down into the -60s, for those paying attention in fahrenheit). This was likely caused by the changing climate up north. Climate change means the everything about the climate is changing. Plains could turn to desert, rain forests into swamps. The sea level is going to rise with the melt of the ice caps. I don't mean to be the one crying "The SKY is FALLING", but we've got to look at coping strategies now. It's too late to try and reverse it, all we can do is work our ass off to try to keep it from getting worse than it is.
i think a big issue with trying to spread info or raise activism is that what is often published widely is pretty alarmist, which i think makes it easy to dismiss. its easy to read about drastic shit that's going to happen in 20-30 years, look around and see things aren't that serious and dismiss the issue all together. that sorta falls into the what veen said about changes in climate not being a notable enough for the general public to be bothered. still totally worth preventing, i got to school for env studies and with all that said i think there's no time like the now to change how we produce energy, dispose of waste, and get around, i think its just hard to get the average person involved if you don't give it to them strait. fake edit; on a phone so ignore any errorsss