Climate change denialism and what two old farmers taught me.

 

I am not that creative of a person.  Yes, I write and have written some fiction and such but I have more of an analytic mind.  I like to deal with facts, numbers and hard data.  The conclusions that I've reached are driven by columns of pluses and minuses.

I'm not going to lie, much of my belief system and philosophical views are based on rational and scientific thinking.   Most, if not all of the the work that I've done all my life was driven by data and information.  When you understand what the data tells you, it affects your world view in a lot of different ways.

For example, data from the FBI and other sources state that the most violent city in America is not Chicago or New York; but the tiny city of Bessemer, Alabama.  For a city of only 26,000 people, the chance of you being a victim of a violent crime is 1 in 30.   

In a place like New York city, the chances of you being a victim of a violent crime is only 1 in 192.  

The reason is because of population density.  No one denies that the amount of crime that occurs in NYC is higher, but because of the much higher population density, the chances of any indivdual being a victim of a violent crime are much lower.   The question then becomes....why is crime so high in Bessemer?

How were those numbers determined?  What data was used to determine such a figure?

Understand how this data is obtained and what it means goes a long way to determining how resources are allocated, how funding is spent, etc.   Realizing that your actually safer in New York City or Chicago than you are in rural Alabama allows you to enjoy the joys that both those cities offer.  Yes, you want to beware of your surroundings, but you are less likely to be a crime victim than most people think.  

Because of the size and fame of both those cities, you are more likely to hear about violence when it occurs than you are a mugging in a small city.

Today climate change is all around us and we don't even need to look at the data.  Every summer is hotter than the last.  We are seeing in real time the ice caps and glaciers melting and raising seas.   We are seeing an increase of heat waves, droughts, wild fires and floods.  Climate change is a fact.

The data that climate change is real and that man has aggravated it is overwhelming.

Today, over 60% of Americans believe that climate change is real and that it is affecting their community and lives and that man has played a role in it.   Depending on what poll you use, those numbers can approach the 75 - 80% mark.

In the scientific community across various disciplines and fields that number is nearly 100% and that little variation is more due to how indivdual scientists bicker how that data is obtained and reviewed.   

For me the question is not so much what can we do to convince the 20 to 40% of Americans who are climate change deniers that climate change is a real threat; but understanding why they don't believe it. 

Or even if we should try to change their minds.

While climate denialists are certainly a minority, they tend to be a very vocal and active.  Often this allows their numbers to seem higher than they actually are and this affects our politics, funding for projects and other affairs.  In other words, they are a problem and like any problem, is only going to get worse the more we ignore it.

Focusing on how we fight climate change should be our highest priority as a species and we have to accept that there is not a "one size fits all fix" for the solution.  

As I was researching this article I was surprised by how often a rather simplistic view of the world (black and white) was expressed by many, and a lot of it was simply due to mistrust.  Mistrust of the information, the government, universities, the news.   Frankly this mistrust has been well deserved as the government has lied to us.  The news will push a story even though it's not factual for ratings.  Educated people tend to look down on the under educated, etc.

Recently I was at an event where I started talking to two older farmers.  The conversation discussed the challenges of farming in today's environment, and these two individual's did not deny climate change but disagreed; even with each other, in what needed to be done about it.  In other words, as long as their indivdual freedom was not affected; they might be willing to buy a more fuel efficient vehicle or support wind and solar energy as long as they did not see it directly effecting their lives, jobs and indivdual freedoms.

They both felt that their lifestyle is being threatened by changes which is being forced upon them.  

Yields are falling for some crops, "factory farming" came under criticism from environmental activists and the public itself, issues over water access and the high cost of irrigation are stressing farmers.   As are rising fuel costs, equipment costs and competition with other farmers in a global market.  America's farmers are also growing older and not being replaced.

Without even realizing or trying, I had stumbled across these two older gentleman, friends for years, that agreed that something was going on...and had two radically different approach to these changes.

One of them was a cattle rancher and concentrating on hybrid species of cows that were able to grow quicker and produce more milk, once the milk production was done the cows were slaughtered for meat.  What I found interesting was this particular type of cow was mature at 15 months as compared to the traditional 25 months.  One such cow now sits in my freezer downstairs.

In his mind the faster growth and milk production added up to greater profits while reducing the cost of feed and other costs.  It also cut down on the methane they produced he told me with a sly smile.  The other farmer was practicing no till techniques and was happy with the results, "It makes sense." he told me.

Sadly I was unable to follow up the conversation or learn more but they seemed convinced that they had found a small way to reduce climate change without calling it climate change.  

That is one thing that I've learned here in the country.  The people may not want to admit that climate change is going on but when you enter an open and honest conversation with them they understand that something is occurring.   They just don't like the terms used. 

They are open to a better way of doing things, just show them how it's going to benefit them.  We are actually seeing an increase of solar panels for example in my little part of the world after the Amish started to adopt them.  "If it works for the Amish, it will work for me."

At the end of the day we will never convince everyone of anything.  Some changes will simply have to be forced onto people and they will kick and scream and cry about it.  It's the nature of humanity to do so.  

There is a distrust of outsiders here in the country due to a history I'm not going to go into here; but there is hope.  Sometimes that's enough.