[throwmylifawy]

Yes!

The promise of prosperity sounds like a long con these days. Science was the gateway for prosperity and hope and now it seems only to deliver bad news.

Here is what the tech and science crowd is projecting these days:

You are no longer the center of the universe, you are infinitesimal and unimportant.

Everything you do is destroying life in someway.

There is no meaning; everything you believe was wrong and misguided.

The world is capricious and your personal security can change at any moment no matter how hard you work. Adapt or die.

Most of humanity is too dumb to understand how great this is!

Who wants to hear that?

The average Joe has lost all faith, so in order to cope they drop all pretense of rational behavior and go with what feels good at the moment.

[lotsofpulp]

> Who wants to hear that?

Science is telling people that everyone driving 20k miles per year in large individual vehicles and flying to a tropical island twice a year for vacation will eventually result in altering the parameters of nature so that it’s no longer possible to do that.

People don’t want to hear that, but they need to hear that. Covering their ears and going lalalala isn’t going to exempt their kids from the future. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem most people are adult enough to face the music.

[crocodiletears]

Who can afford to fly anywhere more than once every few years (assuming no surprise expenses), or not to drive 20k miles a year across urban sprawl to their jobs?

The first restriction is so alien to much of the population as to be meaningless, the second is a threat to their livelihoods. An accompanying promise of public transit rings hollow for many Americans, who think of their local governments as only marginally competent enough to fill potholes in the road sometimes.

Naturally people will bristle at the abstract of many climate restrictions. Not because the fun will stop, but because they aren't having any fun in the first place, and they just don't want things to get less fun than that.

[AnthonyMouse]

Climate change is also tied up in politics, because the fossil fuel industry is worth more than a trillion dollars and employs millions of people.

Then the problem is not that people don't understand the science, it's that profit-seeking entities pay money to muddy the waters and people whose paycheck depends on the non-acceptance of the truth choose to believe the convenient lie.

Worse, because it then becomes a political issue, the side that was originally right starts to fight anyone who says anything at all convenient to the other tribe, even if it's correct.

So you lose the ability to do good science because both sides are polluted by politics and money.