- Until a few months ago, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more classic climate skeptic than D.R. Tucker. A conservative author and radio talk show host, he didn't buy the notion that greenhouse-gas emissions were causing temperatures to rise. He was pretty sure global warming was a hoax perpetrated by Al Gore and a cadre of liberal, grant-hungry scientists. Then Tucker did what partisan pundits and climate skeptics rarely do: He changed his mind. "I was defeated by facts," Tucker announced on FrumForum, the popular conservative blog. In an April 18 post, "Confessions of a Climate Convert," Tucker told readers how he came to question the ideologies of the climate debate, examine the science, and conclude that global warming was, in fact, very real.
- This is alarming: Only 48 percent of Americans believe that global warming is at least in part "a result of human activities," according to a 2010 Gallup poll, down from 60 percent in 2007 and 2008.
- Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, attributes this decline to five factors: The economic collapse, a severe decrease in media coverage, weather events like "Snowmaggedon," the efforts of the "denial industry" (the network of industry-funded think tanks and political advocacy groups that push skeptic views), and the "ClimateGate" debacle.
- Tucker's conversion began when he read Morris Fiorina's Disconnect, which outlines the way partisan divisions take shape between Democrats and Republicans, and points out that environmentalism used to be one of conservatives' chief concerns. Tucker's curiosity was piqued.
- a friend convinced Tucker to take a look at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Fourth Assessment Report—the authoritative synthesis of the most recent peer-reviewed climate science. "Initially I was a bit skeptical. But I kept on reading it, and there was just so much evidence, and it was so detailed, and it was so backed up, and it was so documented, that I was like, 'holy shit, this is for real.' "
The article goes on to highlight the struggles that Tucker and other converts have had in changing other skeptics minds regarding global warming. It is unfortunate how entrenched biases can be in our society, especially those that aren't based on facts.
Wow this guy did the exact opposite thing that I did. Years ago I was a climate alarmist. In 2007 the UN IPCC released the AR4 report to much media fanfare; they said that the report showed that AGW was unequivocal and the time for discussion was over, it was time for action. I cheered. Then I downloaded the report and read it, I was stunned. Their conclusions were not unequivocal at all; they were one equivocation after another. The conclusions were distorted, the science was weak and to conclude that humans were responsible for climate change represented a leap of faith. It took me 6 months of research and wrestling with myself before I realized I had crossed to the denier side. Since then i have continued to read these studies and I still remain a denier. Cheers.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, it is a pretty dramatic move to advance from one end of the spectrum to the other. Do you deny the data gathered by climate scientists or just their conclusions? In regards to the data, do you regard the Keeling curve to be false? In regards to the curve, there is believed to be a positive correlation between global temperatures and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, has your research refuted that correlation? Just curious here. Thanks
ReplyDelete