Study: US Won’t Act On Climate Change Because Citizens Believe The World Is Ending

[Redfairen]

A new study concludes many Americans have failed to take action about climate change because they believe that the world will be coming to an end anyway.

In their study, titled “End-Times Theology, the Shadow of the Future, and Public Resistance to Addressing Global Climate Change,” David C. Barker of the University of Pittsburgh and David H. Bearce of the University of Colorado argue that citizens who believe in the end of days “often resist policies trading short-term costs for hypothetical long-term benefits.”

“(T)he fact that such an overwhelming percentage of Republican citizens profess a belief in the Second Coming (76 percent in 2006, according to our sample) suggests that governmental attempts to curb greenhouse emissions would encounter stiff resistance even if every Democrat in the country wanted to curb them,” Barker and Bearce wrote in the study.

.......

That sentiment is not just confined to average citizens. The chairman of the Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy, Rep. John Shimkus, said in 2010 that he opposed action on climate change because “the Earth will end only when God declares it to be over.”


http://www.opposingviews.com/i/politics/study-us-won-t-act-climate-change-because-citizens-believe-world-ending

[Turbineguy]

1. I believe this end of the world thinking is a hangover from the cold war

when it was a real possiblility. But yeah, what if we were to make the world a happy sustainable place for nothing?

[LiberalAndProud]

6. Or it could be that the Assemblies of God churches are growing faster than the US population.

Ever been to one of their end-time rallies? If not, you're missing out.

[Newest Reality]

2. We live in the

age of the self-fulfilling prophecy where you let it happen or make it happen because it is foretold that it will happen.

Creative logic and magical thinking, (when taken too seriously as a world view) may be a demon in its own right.

[Downwinder]

3. There are always those that clutch.

[Tobin S.]

4. I've thought of that before.

If you think the world is going to end at any minute, why bother trying to save it? I also don't think that that kind of thinking is limited to Republicans although they are the greatest source for it. Some liberals have their own kind of end times thinking and I often see it displayed here at DU.

[TZ]

5. I think its more because

they don't think its going to be a problem in their lifetime, so why should they care. Americans are pretty good at the self centered and short sighted crap

[ElboRuum]

7. I don't know...

...seems to me that I'd find your assertion more likely if I could find a person who doesn't believe we're living in the end of days who is also indifferent enough to their children to think it OK to leave them a climatological disaster as a bequest.

[dgsand]

8. End of society not the world

I think that the earth is telling us to change our ways. The world will not blow up or dissolve, but I believe that all the abuse that modern civilization has laid upon the earth will destroy our current life style and hopefully we will be able to start a new civilization that will not abuse and misuse what our earth has to offer, without destroying the earth.
An issue that was bought up a while back is the earth ballast system. I know, not again! But, if one thinks about a tire on a vehicle that is not balanced properly it causes the tire to vibrate and the whole car shudders. So if one thinks about oil, not sure if we really know how oil was formed, maybe it is the earths way of keeping the earth balanced as it spins. Removing the oil from these ballast pools, may cause the spinning earth to vibrate, which we also know that the tec plates are moving constantly, over millions of years.
Would this movement cause a shift in the weather patterns and more natural disasters?
Are vibrations causing a disruption in the natural movement of the tec plates?

[trotsky]

9. You have a considerable amount of conjecture in your post...

that is not backed up by any kind of observations or known scientific processes.

[cprise]

10. K&R