Global Warming SCAM!

Even before our class read State of Fear, I had been curious as to why people were so ready to jump on the "global warming is a hoax" train. I mean, the two texts I have read about it, "Climate Change: Picturing the Science" and "The Climate Crisis: An Introductory Guide to Climate Change" were assigned by my high school meteorology teacher as supplemental readings. Our textbook had a few short pages that gave a VERY rough outline of theories. Given this as my background, I was confused as to what people had read/watched/been told that would cause their contrary view.

I suppose many people would watch something like this, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRSOkHU2ZcQ&feature=related, a video of a southern middle-class man without formal schooling in the subject, and be semi-convinced, and keep looking for similar arguments.

Why do people take to strange, unfounded documents such as this? Although the man's slogan, "go out and find information yourself" is the right idea, I hesitate to agree with him. Who should we trust to give us information? Personally, I trust scientists and doctors, since I would think they have the greatest grasp on ideas. However, many people seem willing to trust Allan instead of a climate specialist.

Reasons behind the allure, I would think, are feelings. First is the hope that the "average person" can grasp a scientific concept and problem as complex as climate change- the emotion spurning many of the 755,140 views of the video I cited.

Second is the unwillingness of a populace to read. As an English major, I feel I have a bit more introspect into the amount that my peers and others read, since it often comes up after I say I am and English major. People are likely to respond, "Wow, that must be difficult. I don't think I have read a book in months. (Sometimes years!!)". So people are much more likely to watch this man's 5:56 min video than go and pick up a scientific text about it.

In the end, I feel people would trust this man because he tries to debunk politicians and scientists, two groups of people that general populace (in my opinion) enjoys degrading. But he also constructs this ideal that, YOU, as an average person, are more informed/smart or less biased than pretty much whoever is telling you about something you don't want to hear. Right now, that is global warming. Tomorrow, who knows?

Lastly, this man, just like all of the other people in these conspiracy videos, is not proposing a better way to understand the environment or deal with the extent to which we pollute it, which would be why I have a tendency to think of him as less than worthless.