Reading Response 9 (10_26_2023)

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Oct 30, 2023

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Gould and Lewis Chapter 15 Reading Response 9 (10/26/2023) In this chapter, the author makes several arguments related to climate denial. The first argument that the author makes is that urban dwellers in rich and powerful Northern countries see climate change as “no more than background noise” despite the extreme and unusual weather events, the heat records, and the urgent warnings from the scientific community. Another argument that the author makes is that apathy in the United States is notable and that the severity of this problem is most visible in Western nations. The author also makes the argument that the public does not understand the seriousness of climate change and that their lack of understanding and nonresponsiveness is due to the lack of information. I thought it was really interesting that the author pointed out that scientists have been providing clear and dire assessments relating to climate change and its effects on the world for three decades. Something else that I found interesting was the author’s discussion about the climate skeptic movement. The author states that the climate skeptic movement has played a big role in the distortion of public understanding of climate change in the past ten years. Another topic that was discussed that I found interesting was the Norweigan government claiming that increasing oil production is the best thing that they can do for the global climate. I had no idea about the Norwegian government retreating from the Kyoto Protocol and it’s also very interesting that the Norwegian government would constantly shift the attention from the national level to the international level. The author states that people have normalized the idea of climate change in order to avoid feeling fear, guilt, and helplessness. I disagree with the author’s statement because I do not believe that climate change has been normalized. I believe that climate change denial has more of an impact. Another statement that I disagreed with was that nations with educated and environmentally engaged populations can find the ability to respond to climate change. The reason I disagree with this statement is because the

author was referring to the United States and I believe that people can receive all the education and resources regarding climate change but they will still deny it because of social media posts that they see and especially due to political party beliefs, which has caused a huge divide in issues like climate change.

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