[hitsurume]

I don't think they believe its a hoax. A lot of it is also hoping someone else will solve the problem for them. Or because climate change hasn't dramatically changed their normal lives yet that forces them for action. People are not really good at preventing problems, hence why history tends to repeat itself.

[jfengel]

I cannot vouch for what is going on in their heads. But they tell pollsters it's a hoax. They vote for politicians who say explicitly that it's a hoax. They tell each other, and everybody else, that it's a hoax on social media.

Maybe deep in their hearts somewhere they don't believe it, but it's so deep that it's impossible to locate.

[blunderchief]

I can speak to this, at least anecdotally.

Some of my family are conspiratorial thinkers, trumpy types. They’re in Texas, where the power grid is continuing to slowly buckle, and they will happily agree it’s hotter than it used to be, even getting too hot. They also agree that pollution is bad.

But they simply don’t connect the two. They don’t think we can possibly be the sole reason for climate change, but why they think that is fluid — it’s gods creation and we can’t mess with that. Or if we can it doesn’t matter because we’re destined for a heavenly kingdom and this planet will pass away. Or they say more “grounded” things like we’re getting closer to the sun or the sun itself is hotter. Or they buy into the idea for a while that it’s just a natural oscillation. We’re actually headed towards an ice age!

My theory is they’re inconsistent because they do accept it, but accepting it means they have to understand consciously that shit is bleak and it makes all the work they’ve done in their lives potentially meaningless. They don’t want to face the reckoning of disillusionment so they close their eyes to it.

Or maybe they just don’t believe it. I don’t know, I’m not in their brains.

[Paul-Craft]

Oh, they do. 14% of American believe the Earth literally is not getting warmer. Another 26% believe it is getting warmer, but due mostly to natural weather patterns and not human activity.

11% of people believe the US federal government should literally not be doing anything about climate change.

The article I'm getting these numbers from literally uses the word "hoax" several times: https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2023/08/09/why-some-amer...

[Loughla]

No, many people believe it's a hoax. Either from our government (for control) or China (for money and control) or some other sort of total world government (for control).

[LorenPechtel]

The basic problem here is that people prefer to hear positive news.

"It's a hoax" is a lot more palatable than "It's a serious problem that requires major action to be taken." Denying the problem is much easier and they'll do some substantial mental gymnastics to avoid having to take the hard path.