HOW TO TALK TO CLIMATE CHANGE DENIERS

Maybe you can change people’s minds about climate change after all

Chris Mooney, October 28, 2014 (Washington Post)

“…[C]onservative and pro-free market beliefs are strongly correlated with dismissal of climate science…[and conservatives] who are more scientifically literate, or better at math, are even less likely than their ideological compatriots to accept global warming…[raising the question of] whether educational initiatives can really make any difference…[A new study in the journal Climatic Change] suggests education may work…In middle school ‘individualists,’ as their level of scientific knowledge about global warming increased, so did their acceptance of the idea that it is caused by humans. In fact, the knowledge-acceptance relationship was stronger in these young individualists than it was among kids who had a disposition toward communitarianism…In other words, climate science education may well work to counteract political ideology after all -- at least if you get to kids when they're young enough…Somewhat surprisingly, the study suggests that middle school kids do seem to have ideology -- at least in a nascent form…” click here for more

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