Understanding Resistance to Climate Change Resistance

Abstract

Fifty years after the emergence of warnings over the effects of the environmental impacts of industrialization and other conditions of a planet subjugated by humans, we are still entertaining discussions about the existence of the phenomena of climate change. Worse still, we have not checked the behaviors and conditions that exacerbate the rate of environmental destruction. Older people, particularly those who are economically vulnerable, are among those most at risk in disasters, including events resulting from climate change. By applying the “epistemologies of ignorance” outlined by Nancy Tuana, I attempt to understand the rooted ignorance that prevents acceptance of the environmental impact of human kind’s unrepentant misuse of the world’s natural resources and the refusal to curb the excesses that have lead to environmental damage that has had, and that will continue to have, dire consequences on the planet and for the most vulnerable denizens of Earth. Far from being a pessimistic project of abjection and despair, this article proposes that an examination of climate change denial can provide guidance for the development of a better counter-narrative.