Weather disasters fuel climate change denial – does it make sense?

Article by Eric Worrell

A group of psychologists claim that fear drives deniers to reject the truth. But they ignore evidence from the academic community that hysteria is the real “climate crisis.”

Is it time to panic? How the existential fear of hurricanes fuels climate change denial

Published: 11:40 pm on October 30, 2024 (AEDT)

Jamie Goldenberg Professor of Psychology and Director of Cognition, Neuroscience and Social Psychology at the University of South Florida

Emily P. Courtney Teaching Assistant Professor, University of South Florida

Joshua Hart Professor of Psychology, Union College

As televisions across Florida played the all-too-familiar images of a powerful hurricane hitting the coast in early October 2024, people whose homes were damaged by Hurricane Helene less than two weeks ago watched anxiously. Hurricane Milton is rapidly intensifying into a dangerous storm, driven by record-breaking temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico.

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Despite this, many people deny that climate change is a worsening threat or do not acknowledge its existence at all. How is this possible as its effects become more pronounced and more damaging?

One answer lies in a unique aspect of human psychology—specifically, in how people manage fear caused by existential threats. For many people, denying the existence of the climate crisis is not only convenient but may also feel psychologically necessary.

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terror management theory

Pulitzer Prize-winning anthropologist Ernest Becker put it this way: “The idea of ​​death and the fear of death plague humans like other animals… Overcoming it by denying death in some way It is the ultimate destiny of mankind.

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Terror management theory predicts that, ironically, individuals whose ideologies conflict with environmental concerns may double down on these beliefs in order to psychologically cope with the existential threat posed by climate-related disasters. This is similar to how reminders of death can lead people to engage in risky behaviors, such as smoking or tanning. Hurricanes can reinforce denial and commitment to the climate change worldview.

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Read more: https://theconversation.com/time-to-freak-out-how-the-existential-terror-of-hurricanes-can-fuel-climate-change-denial-242390

What saddens me about articles like this is that the alarmist academics who write them never seem to openly acknowledge the possibility that they are wrong.

Because there is overwhelming evidence that claims of a climate crisis are just mass hysteria in Western academia.

The strongest evidence of hysteria and groupthink comes from all academics outside North America and Europe’s spheres of influence, who sound the alarm about the lack of supporting evidence for alarmist climate claims.

My name is Yonatan Dubi, a professor of chemistry and physics at Ben-Gurion University in Israel. I am also one of the leading advocates of rational environmentalism and climate realism in Israel. Together with several colleagues, we conducted an excellent study that details and quantifies the flaws in Lynas et al.'s famous consensus study, which (erroneously) claimed a ridiculous 99% consensus. After a year of journey, our paper was finally published in the peer-reviewed journal Climate, the link is https://www.mdpi.com/2225-1154/11/11/215.

or from the Russian Academy of Sciences;