So a university survey indicates that, despite decades of unrelenting warnings about global warming, when asked, "Is Earth getting warmer mostly because of human activities?" 56 per cent say no, similar to numbers in Britain, Australia and the U.S.
Arthur Williams (Citizen editorial, Feb. 26) seems rather upset with such wrong-headed people with their heads in the oil sand about climate change. He suggests that the way to change them into believers is to show them there is a better future on the other side of the fossil fuel horizon.
Sorry Mr. Williams, but that won't do it. There's no way you'll ever convince someone with a high school education, pulling down $200,000 operating a machine in the oilsands that he's going to do better when there's no oil industry.
The first thing you need to do is determine why the unbelievers believe as they do. What you'll find is that those who have the most to lose from the end of the fossil fuel industry are the most motivated to check the claims of both sides, and having done so, they've been convinced by the evidence that the skeptics have it right. Admittedly, that's what they hoped to find out.
So then there are two things that must be done to change their minds.
First, the activists and politicians who push the global warming doomsday scenario must start practicing what they preach. There are whole countries with smaller carbon footprints than Leo DiCaprio and Al Gore. The average worker has a smaller lifetime carbon footprint than Prime Minister Trudeau and President Obama do in a month.
How can you expect an oilsands worker to believe when global warming's biggest promoters act like they don't?
Second, and most important, you must show them where the skeptics are wrong.
Don't just say they're wrong, don't talk about consensus, don't say the science is settled, don't use straw-man arguments, don't use ad hominems or smear tactics. Just show them the science that rebuts the science that the skeptics are using.
That's all it would take. If you can do that, they'll believe.
Art Betke
Prince George
