Climate change and when human nature can lead to rejection of science

When the Reserve Bank announced recently that it was factoring climate change into interest rate calculations, it underlined a mainstream acceptance of potential impacts for a warming planet.

Applying climate data at a local level can help
resolve distrust between farmers and scientists.

Climate change now had economic consequences.

But resistance to the premise of human-induced climate change still rages, including in regional and rural communities, which often are the very communities already feeling its effects.

"When you look at the results of different surveys going back a few years, farmers were four times more likely than the national average to be climate change deniers," said Professor Mark Howden, director at the ANU's Climate Change Institute.

"That was about 32 per cent versus about 8 per cent for the population average.”

So, why do so many people in regional and rural areas not believe in climate change?

ABC Central West's Curious project put that question to some experts, who say the answer has more to do with human nature than scientific reasoning.

Read the story from ABC News by Micaela Hambrett - “Climate change and when human nature can lead to rejection of science.”

(Maria Taylor wrote about this issue in her 2014 book - “What Australia Knew and Buried - then framed a new reality for the public” and just recently was interviewed on “Climate Conversations”)