Robert Manne had an interesting piece on why climate sceptics/deniers have gained such traction in recent years. He listed a 5 reasons why the deniers have mushroomed over the past decade. Each is plausible and makes sense. But I would add a 6th reason for the growth in numbers of climate change deniers.
To my observation there appears to be a marked rise in the popularity of conspiracy theories which mirrors the rise in denialism. The conspiracy goes like this:
The IPCC, the CSIRO and practically the entire climate scientific community’s factually based and cogent argument that the earth is warming as a result of man made carbon dioxide, is a gigantic unspoken conspiracy by them to ensure that they maintain their government funding. Governments worldwide are committed to reducing our reliance on big oil and coal (*irony on viz the outcome at Durban. Irony off*)
So the "warmists" produce confected results, temperature measurements and modelling which comply with what the governments want. These scientists, to a person, have sold out their soul and their integrity to maintain themselves on the government teat.
Those at the lunatic fringe take the conspiracy one step further: the aim of the warmists and the governments is to rob us of our sovereignty and form a one world government.
Why has this happened? See it’s not just climate change. It’s anything from vaccination to fluoride to the figs in Laman St. Why has this reliance on conspiracy as a means of explaining the action of those whom one opposes, taken root and flourished? Well for what it’s worth here’s my take on it.
As society has grown and evolved it has become more complex. The world around us refuses to be categorised into black and white or left and right or even good or bad. The world in which many people grew up was simple: your neighbours looked like you. They talked like you. They ate similar food. They liked football, meat pies kangaroos and Holden cars.
And the binary notions of boss and worker, men and women having pre determined roles, and the notion of class were all clear and distinct. Then in the 1960s this certainty began coming apart.
The ongoing social upheaval since has been exploited by conservatives worldwide. Parties of the left could be wedged by parties of the right appealing to the socially conservative nature of the working poor. The result was Reagan Democrats and Howard's battlers.
The focus for conservative attacks on the left were/are the so-called "elites": intellectuals and inner city trendies who were slaves to political correctness. Multiculturalism and gay rights and the republic were part of a broad left wing conspiracy to rob people of their heritage and their right to say what they like. Pauline Hanson epitomised this phenomenon. Her "ordinariness" was her greatest selling point.
Underpinning this wedging was the notion that the ordinary person was being left out of decision making. It was the elites who were making the decisions. And the decisions they were making were at the expense of ordinary people in order to take away their rights. How many email messages/facebook entries have you seen stating that schools are being banned from singing Xmas carols? How many times has someone told you for a fact that refugees or aborigines were getting special handouts?
And climate change has become yet another example of a conspiracy to make us pay more in energy charges. and to satisfy those "crazy Greens" who just wan.t to impose their political correctness on all of us.
So next time you meet a denialist give them a knowing smile and a wink. It'll make them think you're part of the resistance movement.
Oh and smile and wink at the Occupiers too. Cause conspiracy isn't confined to the right.
Or as someone wise once said: If you've got a choice between a conspiracy and a stuff up, go for the stuff up every time.
And climate change has become yet another example of a conspiracy to make us pay more in energy charges. and to satisfy those "crazy Greens" who just wan.t to impose their political correctness on all of us.
So next time you meet a denialist give them a knowing smile and a wink. It'll make them think you're part of the resistance movement.
Oh and smile and wink at the Occupiers too. Cause conspiracy isn't confined to the right.
Or as someone wise once said: If you've got a choice between a conspiracy and a stuff up, go for the stuff up every time.
