This post provides a link to download as a PDF, Chapter 20 of Climate Change The Facts 2020, “A Descent into Sceptics’ Hell”, by Scott Hargreaves.
To enter the lost city, go through me.
Through me you go to meet a suffering
Unceasing and eternal. You will be
With people who, through me, lost everything.
No one who wants a quiet or sociable life would be a climate change sceptic. I like dinner parties as much as the next man, but expressing doubts as to the coming climate Armageddon can really ruin what might otherwise be a fine evening.
One recommendation (Marohasy 2017a) is to arm oneself with some arguments, and a genteel manner, and seek some kind of dialogue. Sadly, this rarely works, as too often the interlocutors are zealots who will brook no discussion, or aren’t really that interested in climate change, but, rather, are reciting standard opinions in order to make conversation. My last experience of dinner party popularity was when I worked for an energy company that dominated the Australian market in ‘green energy’ (renewables only), and where a major part of my job was securing permits for its wind farms. When networking in my professional life, and also at dinner parties, all of this was greeted with admiration; it was clear to everyone that I was living a virtuous life and was most likely a similarly virtuous person. When I told them I was a manager of ‘Sustainability’, the approbation was a wonder to behold.