Asklemmy

"Why don't you call anymore?"

It's all a hoax, it's not a big deal, it's just hot out.

My family is from Iowa, where they've had record breaking storms 3 out of the last 5 years, heat waves lasting longer than ever in history, record cold, and to top it off, wildfire smoke for the first time ever. (Note that this is after they made fun of Cali for being Cali and being on fire). No, none of these events have registered as connected in any way.

According to my father in law: everything's fine, actually. It's hot, sure, but it's been hot before. The actual problem is that The Weather Channel has started to get political/go woke and push an agenda.

So next time it's so hot the power grid can't take it or your house is destroyed in a flood or forest fire, it's just that pesky Weather Channel!

They don't care about the heat wave in southern Europe because northern Europe has had a relatively cold and rainy July.

The slightly less dumb ones now say "Yeah it's happening but we shouldn't fight it, we should just accept it" (and then proceed to complain about refugees, which will increase x1000 if we don't do anything but they don't make the connection)

The dumber ones say that it's "natural cycles"

My dad: "the earth goes through natural temperature cycles, I've got some good scientific sources who say it's all natural and climate change is just scaremongering"

Guess that's another topic along with the EU, immigration, COVID, vaccination that I can't talk about with my family.

Makes it hard and frustrating to continue to have a relationship at times.

"hottest summer on record? Give it a rest, they say that every year!"

Also I'm in the UK which has been raining and dreary for the last month so it's not getting as much coverage here.

They complain about how weird and unprecedented the weather has been the last few years, but if I so much as mention the word "climate" an awkward silence descends. I also had a guy hint at some weird conspiracy theory about the sun recently.

Friendly reminder that it’s not about denial anymore. It’s about how urgent is the existential threat of tipping points and how radical and fast should we act.

One side says, let’s stay reasonable, let’s not hurt the economy, don’t panic because of the these crazy Greta maniacs. Source: We managed a lot of crisis in the past, sometimes it’s not that hot, lobby money.

The other side says we have to hit the breaks immediately or a lot of people are going to die. Source: Science.

I don’t have climate change denialists in my life. That’s usually indicative of other beliefs and values that don’t jive with mine, and we end up being incompatible as friends.

"There is no climate change! It's China and liberals trying to take more of our money!"

My brain... 😮‍💨

Nothing. They just talk about Biden destroying the economy with Hunter's laptop and Hillary's buttery males.

"It's only natural" seems to be the go to.

The people in my personal life, though, are mostly just EXTREMELY wary of just about any information at all.

They are more comfortable putting shit down to some conspiracy, rather than looking at how awful some people are outright.

I don't think they want to admit, or submit to the hopelessness of the situation, especially economically. So they rather keep themselves busy with petty bs.

Mostly "There have always been hot Sommers."

"I'm following the real scientist. They're called climatists and they just all banded together and said 'stop all this bullshit reporting' to the mainstream media!"

My soul left my body and I died.

It's all being done by HAARP. When confronted by sentences like that, all words escape me.

They compare it to heatwaves from the 1970s…

"There was climate change when the Vikings were around so it's not as clear cut as people make out."

In my country we've had the opposite of a heat wave, the worst summer I can remember with rain almost every day and temperatures barely making it above 20 degrees. He says that this shows the planet isn't heating up and jokes that we need more carbon.

Some are now pivoting to “Climate change is good so we shouldn’t do anything about it.” A US representative fork Wisconsin said that recently, since it means Wisconsin would be warmer during the winter.

"It's summer what do you expect of course it's going to be hot"

Same as 20 years ago — "the fact that they want me to give up my truck and Nestle gets to dump plastic in the ocean proves it's all liberal bullshit."

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I do not have climate change deniers as friends because idiots cannot be my friend.

By now it's pretty obvious what is happening and what probably will happen. The ones unable to understand will inevitably have a hard time and a lower chance of passing on their genes which is fine by me.

They would rather make up for lies than admit they are wrong

No idea, I've either changed their minds or stopped talking to them.

Don’t know any anymore. I am a passionate debater and educator on climate science so I either convince them or they distance themselves from me.

I feel like I don't hear from them much anymore. Maybe it's because I've managed to finally cut all of them out of my life. Or maybe it's because they've realized that even the people who do accept that climate change is real still aren't going to do anything about it because even the softest, most hands-off forms of mitigation would be too disruptive to capitalism.