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Comment by hcks | Hacker News Reader

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Indeed, there were a lot of scaremongering about covid. It then turned into the worst global pandemic in a century which killed millions and millions of people, and hundreds of millions of people (if not billions) was afflicted with it, many of them with symptoms that affect them for years. I'm not entirely sure what point you are trying to make.

Is there a downside to people being more afraid of climate change?

Yes, I see it all the time.

There's no shortage of people who are on the "we're doomed, there's no point to even trying" train. If you try to point out any improvements (e.g., US per capita emissions drop), they won't just say it's not enough—they'll deny it's even possible that it's true.

I want people to believe in climate change, and to be concerned about climate change, but also not be petrified into inaction about climate change. Many, many people are on the wrong side of the fear level.

Unecessary anxiety etc if it actually isn't real or isn't man made. (I'm probably on the 'it is man made' side though.) Could ask the question "is there a downside to people not being paralyzingly afraid of a potential meteor strike every waking hour"

> isn't man made

I don't see how that would make people's anxiety unnecessary. I'm in the "of course it is man made, what are you talking about" camp, but let's assume it's not man made for now, but climate change is real.

Wouldn't that be even more anxiety inducing? If it is man made presumably with the right incentives and changes we can unmake it. If it is not man made, then what? We just lost out on the cosmic lottery, it was good while it lasted? How is that less anxiety inducing?

Textbook false equivalence. A potential meteor strike is very, very unlikely.

At this point catastrophic climate change is almost certain. The only question is whether it's just a mass extinction or whether it crosses a tipping point and creates a runaway greenhouse effect.

Climate scientists are not relaxed about this. They are running around in terror desperately trying to warn people. And - so far - getting shouted down by the polluter lobbies.

Of course. Even when justified, the longer you are hysterical, the more regular people tune you out. They just get emotionally tired. It's even worse if your predictions are off.

If just showing a graph is 'scaremongering', shouldn't we be scared? What are the options for communicating bad news that would not be accused of being 'scaremongering'?

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