4-1 Discussion
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Southern New Hampshire University *
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101
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Geography
Date
Feb 20, 2024
Type
docx
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3
Uploaded by CountCrown1152
My topic is on Climate Change. More specifically, it is on what is sometimes called “Soft Climate Denial”. This is the kind of climate denial that does not ignore or sometimes even downplay the negative effects of climate change, but its rhetoric ends up not giving the problem the urgent attention it requires, in contrast to hard climate denial which will deny that climate change exists. There are a few forms that I am familiar with, ranging from last minute scientific breakthroughs, terraforming, carbon capture, and solar radiation management. It is worth noting that even if these technologies were successful, their substantial impact on ecosystems is not without substantial consequences. Further, they leave the root causes (carbon emissions) to continue and even grow, rather than address the core of the issue. It is, at its heart, a social issue, and one that can only adequately be explored through a Liberal Arts perspective.
My personal interest
in this topic is stronger than the others simply because it is something I
can observe in the desert I live in along with my lifelong interest in the subject of Climate Change. Already last year El Paso received nearly 9 inches of rain in the monsoon season, with it
becoming the second all-time high to be recorded (National Weather Service El Paso, 2021). While rain in the desert might sound nice, not only is the ecosystem entirely not adapted to it (the
mountains were fully green for the first time I have ever seen in my life), but the soil does not absorb the water effectively, causing extreme
flooding with even the slightest bit of rain. The city of El Paso has a large series of water reservoirs designed to catch water and prevent flooding, but already places in the city are being flooded where the infrastructure is most vulnerable. All of this piled on top of history with dealing with hard climate deniers for most of my life has made for this to be a natural pick for me.
As for developing questions
, I have a few:
1)
What social drivers cause people to believe in soft climate denial in the US?
This question explores some of the more causal social and psychological relationships people
develop with soft climate denial and containing it to the United States to keep the scope of the question more in check.
2)
Is the age range of people who believe in soft climate denial in the US proportional to the
distribution of ages?
This question is to see if there is any data on soft climate denial that has age, as we may find that certain age ranges might be more likely to become soft climate deniers.
3)
Is the distribution of people who feel anxious about climate change similar to that of soft climate denial for the US?
This final question is to see if there is an underlying societal panic that because of its lack of being addressed drives some to seek answers, even if those answers are wrong or cause problems.
Keywords:
Soft Climate Denial
Climate Change
Climate Anxiety
Eco Anxiety
Works cited
National Weather Service El Paso [@NWSElPaso]. (2021, August 15). El Paso has received 8.94" of rain since the start of Monsoon Season(Jun 15). This is 2nd all time
[Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/NWSElPaso/status/1426926748676014080
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