People love to group ideas based on political consensus. It enables them to develop a world view using the appeal-to-majority rhetorical trick. It’s an easy way to construct one’s ethos, but it relies on unrelated tenets to draw a conclusion that cannot logically be drawn from them. It also groups people into two opposing factions.

If anti-fiat … then anti-all government … then anti-vaccine … then anti climate worry … then anti …

One does not derive from another, so a grouping of likes or dislikes is fallacious.

Unrelated ideas need to be considered independently and using the information provided to us by the smartest people in the field. The people who decline to consider the existence or the implications of short-term elevations in CO2 and CH4 either have something to sell, or they have been sold on a mythical relationship between that message and other beliefs.

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Contesting the science of climate change is a line of defense for people who think they have a lot to lose if society takes climate change seriously.

Many Bitcoiners think they have something to lose. They don’t. Discussions about the implications of carbon transfer from mineral sinks to atmospheric gasses will lead to the use of more renewable sources for mining… more economic mining… a greater hash rate… and a more bulletproof network. Mining will always move to more economical energy options… which will end up being more carbon-neutral options. Miners know that, but they push back on policies that encourage this movement. This is an appreciation of the nature of Bitcoin mixed with a self-serving hope that Bitcoin’s incentive structure will somehow act differently.

For anyone seriously interested in considering the confounding issues that invade a logical climate discussion, here are a few recommendations.

Climate-Challenged Society. John Druzes. Oxford 2013

United Nations Environment Program. 2013 Update

Communicating Climate Change. Suzanne Moser. Oxford 2007

Greenhouse Economics. William Nordhaus. The Economist. July 1990

Economic Models of Global Warming. William Nordhaus. Cambridge/MIT. 2000

People don’t turn on the news to find out what’s new in the world. They turn on the news to find out how their chosen peer group expects them to order new ideas into collections of accepted beliefs and disbeliefs.

This would certainly appear to be one of the dynamics of cable news, yes.

Turn on, tune in, drop out. 🪷