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Guest essay by Eric Worrall
To make progress we need to overcome the “Dragons of Inaction” – our distressing tendency to believe what our senses tell us, instead of listening to the warnings of climate scientists.
How your brain stops you from taking climate change seriously
Science Jan 4, 2019 7:13 PM EST — Updated on Jan 4, 2019 9:16 PM EST
By — Nsikan AkpanInaction on climate change has been stymied by politics, lobbying by energy companies and the natural pace of scientific research — but one of the most significant barriers is our own minds.
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Finally, there are what Gifford calls “dragons of inaction” — the specific cognitive barriers that dominate someone’s view of climate change.
“The perception of not having control over the situation is certainly one of the biggest” barriers, Gifford said.
Whenever the NewsHour covers climate change, the most common responses we get from those who don’t believe that humans influence climate change point to the ice ages. They cite how the Earth has experienced natural cycles, between extreme cold and heat, for millennia.
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For instance, even if many people know that the average American emits about 17 tons of carbon every year, they don’t realize half of those emissions could be eliminated with simple fixes.
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Washing clothes in cold water can save up to 15 pounds of carbon emissions per load, depending on your washing machine and your energy supplier.
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Read more: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/how-your-brain-stops-you-from-taking-climate-change-seriously
My Dragon of tedium almost defeated my struggle to read to the end of Nsikan Akpan’s rather long climate monologue. But what stood out more than anything is the sheer inanity of Akpan’s proposed solutions. Buying more electric cars. Washing clothes in cold water. Turning down home heating.
Instead of glorifying the utterly inconsequential 15 lb of CO2 you save by not heating the water you use to wash your clothes, instead of struggling to win people’s belief, lets sidestep the issue of whether people believe climate change is a problem, by converting the economy to zero carbon nuclear power, the way France did in the 1970s.
By embracing zero carbon nuclear power, greens would get their bipartisan support for a policy to reduce CO2 emissions, without upsetting people with ridiculous belief building exercises, and earnest campaigns to make us all feel virtuous about wearing smelly, badly washed clothes.
The reality is that based on the paleoclimate record and the work done with models, one can conclude that the climate change we are experiencing is caused by the sun and the oceans over which mankind has no control. There is plenty of scientific rationale to support the idea that the climate sensitivity of CO2 is zero. OK, the next load of laundry will be with only cold water and the climate crisis will be over and the IPCC will get defunded because there no more will be any climate related problems.
Washing clothes in cold water works fine if you don’t wear them much.
The massive increase in the use of salt in clothes detergent is starting to… DESTROY THE ENVIRONMENT.
No problem washing clothes.
Give me a river, give me women, give me time.
https://goo.gl/images/zZ2MC1
Especially if you live in a van down by the river.
In every ethnics narratives:
https://www.google.com/search?q=die+T%C3%B6chterd+des+H%C3%A4uptlings+waschen+am+fluss&oq=die+T%C3%B6chterd+des+H%C3%A4uptlings+waschen+am+fluss&aqs=chrome.
These people would be happier if we all had to force our women to wash clothes in cold water by hand.
The washing machine is a miracle device that frees many hours per week of labor in a household, and makes a higher standard of living quite attainable. You may think that eliminating the use of hot water is their goal, but they would rather eliminate the machine all together.
An oldie but goodie:
https://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_and_the_magic_washing_machine
“Washing clothes in cold water can save up to 15 pounds of carbon emissions per load, depending on your washing machine and your energy supplier.”
If there was ANY truth in that statement, there would already be laws in California requiring all commercial laundries, all hospitals, all jails and prisons and all other institutions with laundry facilities to only use cold water.
No mention of any plan to follow through on their statements.
Newer GE and other washers prevent use of hot water to comply with law. Few people seem to know it. The water from my washer and the other 300 washers in this newer luxury apartment complex are lukewarm. We complained. From GE’s own troubleshooting website about ‘no hot water” complaints, the washer now mixes in cold water on the ‘hot water’ setting, but I assure you it is more than just a little cold water. Do not plan on washing guest’s bedding, killing many bacteria, etc in hot water just because your washing machine says ‘hot’. Use plan B whatever that is for you.
From GE’s own website on complaints about ‘no hot water’:
“Effective March 6, 2015: The U.S. Department of Energy revised their standards and federal guidelines for hot water energy consumption for all clothes washers. These changes affect all washer manufacturers in order to save energy and conserve resources. All manufacturers must comply with the new standards.
We are committed to meet the Federal energy standards and deliver a product that upholds GE Appliances wash performance standards. To comply with these standards, HOT water temperature selection is a mixture of hot and cold water from your household plumbing. When you select HOT, you will receive some cold water with the fill; this is normal. …… Since the appliance is designed to fill with limits on the amount of hot water filling the appliance, it is not recommended that the cold water supply be turned off during a HOT water fill. The appliance is designed to fill with a mixture of hot and cold water to save energy, and is operating normally when doing so.”
My view: The government has passed laws that effectively outlaw hot water washers. Like a lot of laws that say one thing but know the effect will eliminate something else, you can’t get, or are very likely not going to get, a newer hot water washing machine any more, because of the law. As I commented above, few people know it. And its my continued belief it all goes back to global warming. It is also my continued belief that it is another example of forced reduction in standard of living to satisfy GW alarmism.