A Climate for Denial

greenhouse gases let some radiation to pass through and act as a shield for others. By doing this, they allow the sun’s radiation to pass through to our planet, but the longer wavelength radiation coming for Earth simply doesn’t get sent back to the cosmos and instead gets trapped, thereby heating our planet

The overwhelming conclusion is that the greenhouse gases humans have been emitting into the atmosphere since the industrial revolution are contributing to what is known as the greenhouse gas effect and global warming. And already, we get into a problem with terminology. The term ‘global warming’ creates a perception that the globe is continuously and ‘linearly’6 warming. That’s why people say to me:
‘if there’s global warming taking place, how come it’s so cold today?’

Earth receives energy from the sun in the form of ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared radiation. Of the total amount of solar energy available at the top of the atmosphere, some is reflected to space by the atmosphere and clouds and some absorbed by the atmosphere and clouds. Most of the rest is absorbed at the surface of the Earth. And this has been happening from the beginning of time. But here’s the difference greenhouse gases make. Because it is warm, the Earth’s surface radiates at wavelengths much longer than the wavelengths that were absorbed. The long-wavelength infrared heat that is trying to escape to space is more absorbent by greenhouse gases and is reflected back towards Earth and trapped by the atmosphere, thereby warming it.

our social need to belong to a group may drive us closer to a particular ideology which may then affect the way we begin to view the world

Discussion or explanation of climate change is complex due to the many elements of greenhouse gas emissions, the natural climatic patterns and the many facets of how the climate behaves. It’s also about understanding human responses to such issues.

I believe the scientific community could have done a much better job of explaining the basic facts behind greenhouse gases and their impact on the climate

But there is a big difference between denial in our personal lives and the denial of climate change science. The difference is that one is a highly personal issue which normally only affects ourselves or at the most those immediately around us, the other affects future generations.

Climate change1, its causes, its effects, and whether and how we should respond globally, nationally and individually is arguably one of the most divisive and polarising issues of the past decade. And it’s still going on