Climate change may seem so remote, big, or abstract that you may not feel you should be concerned. To help, I’ve devised a simple test of two questions to help people determine if they should be concerned about climate change.

I do not want you to dismiss these questions as silly, meaningless or even insulting. I want you to seriously consider both of them as genuine questions which require a response from you. Even if you find the questions easy to answer, I encourage you to think about each of your answers and then move to the conclusion.

Question One

1. Do you care about anything?

This is not a facetious question. It is possible that there are nihilistic apathetic misanthropes who might not care about anything. So, how about you? Give it some thought. Think about a few of the things you really care about. Again, this may seem pointless, but it is a very good question for everyone to think about from time to time. So, go ahead and give it some thought. Once you have decided about the people, things, animals or places, you care about, take a moment to appreciate them and then move on to the next question.

Question Two

1. Do you believe in science?

Answering this question requires that we understand what science is. Above all science is a method, a way of pursuing and developing knowledge. We might rephrase the question: do you believe in the basic principles of scientific discovery?

This opens another, important question: What are the basic principles of scientific discovery?

First, is a commitment to not making stuff up. This means not accepting anything as true unless you have evidence to support your conclusion. The gathering of evidence is fundamentally done through sober and systematic observation. Equally fundamental is that your conclusions are open to testing and retesting by others and that you are open to being proven wrong. These two qualities are known as reproducibility and falsifiability.

So, do you believe that this method is a valuable and reliable tool for determining facts about the material world?  Keep in mind that I’m not asking about ultimate or spiritual truths here, but rather, demonstrable facts about the observable world. If you your answer is yes, jump to the conclusion. If you’re still not sure, keep reading.

Still here, great. Keep in mind that science made possible the computers, smartphone, internet, automobiles, televisions, and all kinds of devices we use every day. In other words, all those things prove that science works as far as being able to explain facts about our world. So, if you use these kinds of devices and believe they are useful you should answer yes to this second question. But your answer is up to you, and I want you to really feel it.

The Conclusion

Warning!: It’s going to get real, real fast.

If you can answer yes to both questions, in other words you care about someone or something and you believe in science, you should be mortally concerned about climate change because it is a scientifically validated apocalyptic scenario that threatens everything and everyone you care about.  So you should do everything you can to follow the best scientific advice available to help prevent catastrophe. This advice is clear and this blog will help introduce and explain it in detail.

In short, first and most importantly we must transition from fossil fuels as our energy source to clean forms of energy. The most important clean sources of energy are solar, wind, geothermal, and hydro-electric. The second most important solution is the development of carbon capture technology to help reduce atmospheric carbon. The third most important change is to radically reduce our consumption of beef and in turn reduce cattle herds. Why are all of these important and how do we do this?  For now you can explore further here, here and here.  You should also come back to this blog where I will continue to elaborate these points and provide information on the hows and whys of transition. And, importantly, don’t despair. Join me and countless others in fighting for our future. It won’t be easy, but we can do this.

If you are able to answer no to one of those questions, consider the possibility that you may have misunderstood one of the questions and give it some more thought. I’m happy to respond to any genuine questions about science (or caring). 🙂

Need more evidence of the scientific consensus?
I’ve begun to compile links and information here.