Originally posted by accountability
www.buzzflash.com...
The anxiety and conflicting reports of global warming may be too much for many people. It is indeed hard to change personal habits, but it takes only
two weeks to break a bad habit.
Tell that to people who have quit smoking for a month only to pick it back up again
For me at least it is most definitely more a habit than an
addiction. (For what it's worth, I'm not denying that its an addiction at all. From my attempts at trying to quit, the hardest part for me is
getting past the associative things--a smoke with coffee, a smoke while driving, etc. I've been through the withdrawal symptoms a couple of times,
and actually find them quite fun...)
If the threat appears to be long-term and/or unmanageable, only the most capable individuals can manage the emotional distress. More anxious
individuals will resort to reactive thinking for reassurance and anxiety control. A recent study found that conservatives tend to be more anxious and
less able tolerate conflicting facts and ambiguity, than are liberals. Greater anxiety makes reactive thinking and outright denial of dangers more
likely.
I hate statements like this and those the link provided. There's no way to argue with them without feeling like you're proving them right in some
way. If I sit here and say that the environmental fear-mongers are blowing everything out of proportion, then I just can't handle the truth. This
is actually a very good strategy for getting people to believe what you tell them, and it's used in everything from debunking UFOs to Religion to
virtually any other conspiracy that has been analyzed on both sides.
Personally, I think there is a lot of problems with how people treat the environment. I think there's a lot of things that should be changed. But
at the same time I don't necessarily believe that we're on the verge of a catastrophic climate change anytime soon because someone uses too much
hairspray or drives an SUV. I don't think that the ice caps are melting any more than other ice sheets are growing. I think that a lot of
environmental research doesn't look at other factors that contradict or nullify some of the findings. People like to be scared, people like to think
"the End is nigh". People will jump on any bandwagon that talks about armeggedon because they like the chill they get. I'm the same way--start
talking about potential of an asteroid hitting or an alien invasion and I'm glued to it. Just my opinion though.
