Suppose a poll were conducted asking the American public this question: given that global warming is a real and dangerous phenomenon, do you have a preference as to whether or not it is anthropogenic? How do you think most people would respond?
The rational preference is yes because if humans were the cause of global warming, then we'd be in a position to stop it. Despite this fact, I suspect that most people would have the opposite preference. (I don't have any evidence to back up my claim; I'm basing it entirely on conjecture and my own experiences with people.) Accepting blame comes at a cost to one's ego (even if its merely by association to one's species), and I think a lot of people are unwilling to pay that cost, even if doing so would allow them to proceed to take corrective action, improving quality of life.
By now, most people do agree that global warming is caused by humans. But if this poll were conducted, I think the results would be a partial explanation of what took us so long to take the blame.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment