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> This is why I am completely, totally baffled that anyone tries to still deny the anthropogenic source of climate change. Few people ever really change their

> This is why I am completely, totally baffled that anyone tries to still deny the anthropogenic source of climate change. Few people ever really change their mind about anything; they just get older and die and their opinions get removed from the discourse. I'm mostly referring, of course, to the baby boomers, which is a bit ironic because they're the ones who actually remember that the Jersey River used to freeze every winter (mentioned elsewhere in this discussion). My own father has a degree in geology and had a career in the mining industry… his own take drifted from "this is ridiculous" to "okay it's happening but there have been plenty of similar shifts in the geological record over history." I had to actually show him graphs that illustrated that yes, the earth has shifted temperature by 2º plenty of times in history… over periods of hundreds or thousands of years, not a single century. Now his take has drifted to "there's probably nothing that can be done about it." Anyone pushing for societal change and progress needs to get themselves out of the mindset of "changing minds," it's like swing voters, they're barely real.

cmrdporcupine 2y ago
They're the combustion engine generation. In their life most of the roads and highways were built and all cities became fully motorized. Most of them in the western industrialized countries could never imagine or want another way of living because this was the promise and evidence of progress and success since they were born. Unfortunately I wish I shared your optimism that things will change after the boomers pass. I am from and have family in Alberta, oil country, and there's... just no chance. Some of the most vicious deniers (or worse, the "don't carers") are young. I feel like things are swinging back the other way, and quickly. When things start to fall apart people can have two reactions to it... stick and work together to solve the problem, or scatter and hoard and everyman-for-himself and proclaim "I got mine, now get lost..."

cmrdporcupine 2y ago

They're the combustion engine generation. In their life most of the roads and highways were built and all cities became fully motorized. Most of them in the western industrialized countries could never imagine or want another way of living because this was the promise and evidence of progress and success since they were born. Unfortunately I wish I shared your optimism that things will change after the boomers pass. I am from and have family in Alberta, oil country, and there's... just no chance. Some of the most vicious deniers (or worse, the "don't carers") are young. I feel like things are swinging back the other way, and quickly. When things start to fall apart people can have two reactions to it... stick and work together to solve the problem, or scatter and hoard and everyman-for-himself and proclaim "I got mine, now get lost..."