To believe climate change or not to believe

At a recent family festive gathering, I was inclined, over a glass of red, to engage with some of those gathered about the issues of limits to growth and climate change. 

As a passionate reader of the climate science literature and a concerned advocate in my normal circles, I was surprised at the lack of understanding and was faced with the challenge that I was a “climate believer”, which is the alternate term used when one is not a “climate denier”. 


 Now this term sits very uncomfortably on my head, as I no longer believe in the cultural myths from my childhood, including those of red chubby men or bunnies in hats or virgin births. As an adult, I choose not to wear this tag of “believer” of any unknown, rather to define my level of understanding or, in the case of the stock market, open heart surgery, or wine making, my lack of understanding. Pondering on this dilemma, I came across the term “Climate Literate” which I now assume. 


 Certainly, I am literate in several areas, although not always a specialist. I am literate in the English language, and literate in skills to run a small business, and somewhat literate in aspects of the solar industry. Over the past five years, I also have read extensively about climate changes on the planet, both the writings of climate scientists as well as those who deny the climate science. 


 In the future, in such social situations, I will refer to myself as “climate literate” and offer to pass information to those who do not yet have such literacy. It is not now a matter of belief, urban myth, or fairy story that we are influencing the climate - although I do accept that science should always be updating the information and revising as new data comes to hand. 


 Knowledge is knowledge at that time, and facts are the best available based on peer reviewed research done under controlled situations. At this time, in 2012, the most accepted knowledge derived from an overwhelming majority of scientists is that the climate is changing rapidly as a result of our actions, and that this carries significant risks. 


 It is about time that we stopped “believing in fairy stories” and that we all seek to become climate literate, learners not believers, planet carers not climate deniers.


Image Decorations taken by Author