Originally Posted by kutulu

Sorry but the whole 'global religion as a religion' is striaght up Limbaugh talking points. It's trollish garbage infused into discussion as an attempt to diverge the topic from science to politics.

Conservatives are threatened by the idea of global warming in a similar way that fundamentalists are threatened by evolution. If they have to accept global warming, then they have to accept that something needs to be done. If we really are going to address the problems of global warming it is going to require fundamental changes to our lifestyles and the way we do business. It is a lot easier to accept a reassuring lie than an inconvenient truth.

Here is the deal, in order to truly understand the process of global warming, a person needs a strong background in climate, chemistry, physics, mathematics, and computer modeling. All the research done by real scientists (experts in those fields) and published in scientific journals confirms the fact that global warming is both real and a threat.

Conservatives, since they do not have science on their side argue mostly on qualitative matters. They rely on anectdotal evidence, talk about how humans can't have such an impact (when if you look at other ways we have destroyed ecosystems is pretty funny), and refer to outdated studies. If that doesn't work, you can always ridicule your opponent. The statement that global warming as a religion is great for conservatives. We all know that all scientists are dirty athiests. Therefore, the idea of the athiests having their own religion makes the athiests look silly. They've tried the same thing with evolution (The Religion of Darwinism).

The funny thing is that outside of some outliers, the opposition to climate change science has generally shifted from "is it happening" to "is it human caused" Wait for the next shift from "is it human caused" to "we can't do anything to fix it so let's keep partying"