Guest essay by Eric Worrall
According to Dana Nuccitelli, climate “denial” will end when the current generation of “deniers” die off. But Nuccitelli glosses over why older people are so skeptical of climate claims.
A generation gap, when it comes to climate change?
By Dana Nuccitelli, March 15, 2019(Editor’s Note: Judging from recent letters to the editor, there seem to be a lot of young people who will be skipping class today to go on strike against climate change. And a lot of older people who are accusing them of just wanting an excuse to walk out of school on a Friday. It seems that there is a climate change generation gap going on. So we thought this would be a good time to re-print this 2016 article by climate scientist Dana Nuccitelli, about this little-acknowledged angle to the climate change discussion.)
A record number of Americans now view global warming as a serious threatand blame human activities as the cause. But there is apparently a generation gap out there when it comes to accepting the scientific evidence. And an ethnic gap, a gender gap, and a gap in political leaning—along with whether one can be considered one of society’s “haves” or “have nots.” So, who are these climate deniers? What is their profile?
A June 2014 Washington Post-ABC News poll asked a nationally representative sample of American respondents several questions about their support for climate policies. Specifically, those surveyed were asked whether they would be in favor of government greenhouse gas regulations that increased their monthly energy expenses by $20 per month. Overall, 63 percent of respondents expressed support for the proposed policy, including 51 percent of Republicans and 71 percent of Democrats.
Interestingly, there was a significant age gap among the responses. For Democrats under age 40, support for the policy proposal was 78 percent, as compared to 62 percent over age 65. Among Republicans, 61 percent under age 50 supported the proposed regulations, as compared to 44 percent over age 50. According to a Pew Research Center survey, younger Americans are also more likely to correctly answer that the planet is warming and that this warming is primarily due to human activities.
The climate acceptance age gap. Unfortunately, there’s been little research that investigates the causes of this age gap. It is tempting to speculate that perhaps younger minds are more open to new ideas—such as the potential for humans to alter something as large and complex as the Earth’s climate, ushering in a new “Anthropocene” geological epoch. Perhaps our educational system is succeeding in teaching these concepts to younger generations.
…
Climate denial caters to a small and dwindling population of old, white, conservative, American men. As with global temperatures, American acceptance of and concern about human-caused climate change is currently at record levels, and is certain to keep rising in the long-term.
Read more: https://thebulletin.org/2019/03/a-generation-gap-when-it-comes-to-climate-change/
The cutoff at age 40 seems to be quite sharp – a 17% difference for Republicans, 16% for Democrats. Although Democrat belief in climate alarm is stronger, the difference is almost as pronounced amongst Democrats as it is amongst Republicans.
One possible explanation for the skepticism amongst older people is the 1970s global cooling scare.
In 1978, Leonard Nimoy‘s iconic documentary “In Search of – The Coming Ice Age” aired on TVs across the world. I clearly remember seeing it on TV in Australia, my parents were worried about global cooling, everyone was talking about it.
Nimoy’s “In Search Of” series was wildly popular at the time, the Ice Age episode was arguably the most talked about episode of the entire series.
1978 was just over 40 years ago.
Older people are more skeptical because we’ve heard this nonsense before – but with the plot reversed, with human induced global cooling the villain, rather than global warming.
Nuccitelli wonders why there has been “little research that investigates the causes of this gap”, why older people’s lack of acceptance of climate messages hasn’t received more attention – though Dana leaps to the conclusion that the the skeptic demographic is ageing, despite not understanding the reasons for their skepticism.
It seems implausible that the gap has received so little attention, given the strong political motivation to increase acceptance of the need for more taxes to save the planet. More likely researchers know what the problem is, and don’t want to draw attention to it.
What does this mean for the future? Given climate scientists’ track record of disappointment with their defective predictions, I suspect the younger generation’s “In Search of” moment is rapidly approaching, at least for the older members of that demographic. Years of watching corrupt politicians trouser political donations from friends who are recipients of government climate subsidies and loan guarantees, and failed scientific prediction after failed prediction, can wear at even the most accepting minds.
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A Mafia Don would understand the CAGW scam implicitly. Are they old white guys?
No “science” required. Just Street Smarts.
Hello HOTSCOT, many thanks for your kind words.
Ever since I was about 12 year s of age I have wondered WHY.
For example I wondered why so many people went to Church ? What for, they got down on their knees and prayed, but why.
I was very influenced by HG Wells ” Outline of History””, its still available and highly recommended reading. Plus Jack London, his “White Fang” and the “Call of the Wild” of course, but the lesser known, ” Managerial Revolution”. This was written about 1898, yet anticipated the rise of Big Businesses, some as wealthy as a whole countries GNP.
He was apart from being a alcoholic, see his “John Barrylecorn” book, but was clearly a Communist in his thinking. I myself was a Communist ? in the 1940 tees, along with most of the UK. After all we were told what a wonderful man Uncle Joe was, and we had the Hollywood film, “Mission to Moscow.”. Its all Propaganda of course, but as a teen ager I lapped it up.
Of course I then grew up and as Jesus said, I became a man and thought as a man.
Today my wife of 81 years and self live in a retirement village in Gawler, South Australia,. We are fortunate in it having a husband and wife team to manage it, who are first class and nice people with it. Sadly many of the 52 people sufferfrom various degrees of Alzheimer’s, the slow loss of memory and the abilityto think. Its the one thing that scares us
While my wife is in good health, I have the usual old mans problems, that of Prostate Cancer, its gone into the bones, bout to my surprise the Doc. said yesterday that I could with treatment, now commenced, I could last another 10 years. I think that is a bit
optimistic but hope for the best as I enjoy living.
Enough from me, this is boring stuff.
MJE VK5ELL
“But there is apparently a generation gap out there when it comes to accepting the scientific evidence.”
Yeah – the inexperienced young are credulous and accept wild claims unsupported by evidence, while the older people do not because they have a clue what they are hearing, and have heard such scams before. The Madoffs of the world rely on the credulous who have not previously been scammed.
“Specifically, those surveyed were asked whether they would be in favor of government greenhouse gas regulations that increased their monthly energy expenses by $20 per month.”
“Interestingly, there was a significant age gap among the responses. For Democrats under age 40, support for the policy proposal was 78 percent, as compared to 62 percent over age 65.”
___________________________________________________
And that’s the reason for the AGE GAP:
“In 2016, young people in the EU did not leave the parental home until the age of 27 years for men and 25 years for women.”
“In 2015, the average age for women to be wed for the first time was 29.9 years, while that for men was 32.4 years.”
“Family structures in the EU Member States vary, reflecting cultural and normative differences. The general postponement of financial and social independence by young people indicates a delayed transition to adulthood.”
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Being_young_in_Europe_today_-_family_and_society
___________________________________________________
And that’s the reason for the AGE GAP-
The subprime mortgage crisis devastated American homeowners and played a huge role in the 2008 stock markets:
https://www.google.com/search?q=2008+financial+crisis+subprime+mortgage&oq=2008+mortgage+subprime&aqs=chrome.
“The general postponement of financial and social independence by young people indicates a delayed transition to adulthood.” says
___________________________________________________
With “delayed transition to adulthood” staying home till their 40ies the however “YOUNG” of course say
“Let the old man pay
in favor of government greenhouse gas regulations
the increased monthly energy expenses by $20 per month.”
Perhaps it is because old men who read widely remember the climate scientists of the time predicting inevitable fall into the next ice age. White because at the time back then when they were young, like to admit it or not, the US was pretty racist so only white men tended to have that education to have read it. Conservative because simply the “liberal ” are so intolerant that anyone who is not a true cult believer is so ostracised he or she is automatically a conservative.
OK I am an outsider so I could well be wrong but I somehow suspect not.
I’m young (36 to be precise), white (of European Jewish ancestry), middle of the road (as much liberal as conservative, and in favour of issues like gay marriage and marijuana legalization), and Canadian (but of American parents). And I’m proud to be a CAGW skeptic, or what alarmists would call a “denier.”
Why are a lot of us older guys and gals “skeptical”?
Because when the the news hypes a weather event as “the worst in (fill in the blank) years”, we can remember when when it was worse than the hype.
The Great Blizzard of ’78 and The Blizzard of ’78 were both worse than this winter’s “bomb” thing.
The Storm Channel said the flooding in Nebraska was “THE WORST IN 50 YEARS!!!!”. That means that there are old Nebraskans that remember when the flooding worse.
Of course the point of hyping the weather as the “…est since…” is to imply that Man’s CO2, and not nature, is the cause of it.
Some of old “hippies’ are ashamed of how naive and gullible we were … and the things we did when we thought we knew it all.
In 50 years today’s “child climate crusaders” will feel the same … those that survive The Green New Deal if it’s ever enacted.
I stopped reading after, “by climate scientist Dana Nuccitelli
“Climate denial caters to … old, white, conservative, American men”. Don’t care what color they are. As long as they can shoot straight, old, are conservative, and are men. If that makes me a climate denier, which simply means I deny climate, whatever. Hell, I’m still trying to deny I’m old! Besides, only idiots think that “climate deniers” is a “thing”.