Consciousness of Sheep
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There is a big social division opening up over climate change according to Dana Nuccitelli at The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.
It is common knowledge that people with conservative political beliefs are more likely to reject evidence for man-made climate change. But this is far from the only division. Encouragingly, younger generations are more likely both to accept the reality of climate change and to demand action to address it.
Nuccitelli found a similar gap between women and men – with women much more likely to demand action – and between white and non-white people – with white people much more likely to deny climate change.
Perhaps predictably, given the political gap, rich people are much more likely than poorer people to deny climate change.
Although Nuccitelli doesn’t get there, what all this adds up to can be summed up in a single word – “privilege”. The climate debate is seldom about facts; it is more often about rich, old, white men who would prefer to bring about the extinction of humanity than give up a single dollar’s worth of their over-privileged, unsustainable lifestyles.
