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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 6684849" data-attributes="member: 177">So, I'd like to elucidate a few of the emotional issues involved in the Climate Change discussion.  Any and all of these can come into play, and make it very difficult to engage in constructive discussion.  These things can make a person's brain into a crazed weasel within your skull, searching for *any* way to not accept points.1) Us vs Them.  In the US (and other places in the world) this topic is, for several reasons, attached to political parties/philosophies.  Generally, people of the other party are The Enemy.  And The Enemy cannot be allowed to win.  A staunch member of one party or philosophy will emotionally resist the notion not on any merits of the notion, but because it comes from the other side - a kind of internal ad hominem, dismissing and resisting the notion due to who its proponents are.2)  Admitting you are Wrong.  This is a big one.  Nobody likes to admit they are wrong.  If you say, even just to yourself, "I believe X is true," then any argument against X is a challenge to you, and engages not just your reason, but your ego - in effect, admitting you are wrong entails a sort of loss of status and face to the group, and nobody likes to face that.3) Accepting Responsibility.  Similar to admitting you are wrong - but this isn't just about an intellectual curiosity.  This is *real*.  If you accept antrhopogenic climate change, you accept that *WE* did this.  We undertook Wrong Action, and have actively resisted correction, making things worse - it is confessing guilt, which most folks really don't like doing.4) Accepting the Cost of Action.  If you Accept Responsibility, you then also accept that it is up to you to do something.  This will be difficult and expensive.  It is so, so much easier to reject the notion, and not accept the cost and effort and change in our lives required to make it better.5) This Crap Is Scary.  We are talking about things that could mean, on the one end, massive property damage and loss of life, to the other end, destruction of all current coastal cities and perhaps reducing the planet to being no longer suitable to what we currently consider civilization.   Humans are known to avoid fear and anxiety through denial and rejection.</blockquote>

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