Two Degrees

We can’t ignore climate change skeptics – even if we really, really want to

John D. Sutter
By John D. Sutter, CNN
4 minute read
Updated 1:35 PM EDT, Tue July 7, 2015
The consequences of climate change go far beyond warming temperatures, which scientists say are melting the polar ice caps and raising sea levels. Click through the gallery for a look at 10 other key effects of climate change, some of which may surprise you.
Melting polar ice caps —
The consequences of climate change go far beyond warming temperatures, which scientists say are melting the polar ice caps and raising sea levels. Click through the gallery for a look at 10 other key effects of climate change, some of which may surprise you.
Josef Friedhuber/Getty Images/File
In the coming decades climate change will unleash megadroughts lasting 10 years or more, according to <a href="http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00282.1" target="_blank" target="_blank">a new report</a> by scholars at Cornell University, the University of Arizona and the U.S. Geological Survey. We're seeing hints of this already in many arid parts of the world and even in California, which has been rationing water amid record drought. In this 2012 photo, a man places his hand on parched soil in the Greater Upper Nile region of northeastern South Sudan.
Drought —
In the coming decades climate change will unleash megadroughts lasting 10 years or more, according to a new report by scholars at Cornell University, the University of Arizona and the U.S. Geological Survey. We're seeing hints of this already in many arid parts of the world and even in California, which has been rationing water amid record drought. In this 2012 photo, a man places his hand on parched soil in the Greater Upper Nile region of northeastern South Sudan.
Julien Behal/PA Wire/AP/File
There's not a direct link between climate change and wildfires, exactly. But many scientists believe the increase in wildfires in the Western United States is partly the result of tinder-dry forests parched by warming temperatures. This photo shows a wildfire as it approaches the shore of Bass Lake, California, in mid-September.
Wildfires —
There's not a direct link between climate change and wildfires, exactly. But many scientists believe the increase in wildfires in the Western United States is partly the result of tinder-dry forests parched by warming temperatures. This photo shows a wildfire as it approaches the shore of Bass Lake, California, in mid-September.
Darvin Atkeson/YosemiteLandscapes.com/AP
Scientists say the oceans' temperatures <a href="http://blog.nature.org/science/2014/03/31/ipcc-coral-reefs-science-climate-change/" target="_blank" target="_blank">have risen by more than 1 degree Fahrenheit</a> over the last century. It doesn't sound like much, but it's been enough to affect the fragile ecosystems of coral reefs, which have been bleaching and dying off in recent decades. This photo shows dead coral off the coast of St. Martin's Island in Bangladesh.
Coral reefs —
Scientists say the oceans' temperatures have risen by more than 1 degree Fahrenheit over the last century. It doesn't sound like much, but it's been enough to affect the fragile ecosystems of coral reefs, which have been bleaching and dying off in recent decades. This photo shows dead coral off the coast of St. Martin's Island in Bangladesh.
Majority World/UIG/Getty Images/File
<a href="http://ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg2/" target="_blank" target="_blank">A U.N. panel found in March</a> that climate change -- mostly drought -- is already affecting the global agricultural supply and will likely drive up<strong> </strong>food prices. Here, in 2010, workers on combines harvest soybeans in northern Brazil. Global food experts have warned that climate change could double grain prices by 2050.
Food prices —
A U.N. panel found in March that climate change -- mostly drought -- is already affecting the global agricultural supply and will likely drive up food prices. Here, in 2010, workers on combines harvest soybeans in northern Brazil. Global food experts have warned that climate change could double grain prices by 2050.
Andre Penner/AP/File
Are you sneezing more often these days? Climate change may be to blame for that, too. Recent studies show that rising temperatures and carbon dioxide levels promote the growth of weedy plant species that produce allergenic pollen. The worst place in the United States for spring allergies in 2014, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America? <a href="http://www.aafa.org/pdfs/FINAL_public_LIST_Spring_2014.pdf" target="_blank" target="_blank">Louisville, Kentucky</a>.
Pollen allergies —
Are you sneezing more often these days? Climate change may be to blame for that, too. Recent studies show that rising temperatures and carbon dioxide levels promote the growth of weedy plant species that produce allergenic pollen. The worst place in the United States for spring allergies in 2014, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America? Louisville, Kentucky.
GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP/Getty Images/File
Climate change has not been kind to the world's<strong> </strong>forests. Invasive species such as the bark beetle, which thrive in warmer temperatures, have attacked trees across the North American west, from Mexico to the Yukon. <a href="http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2012/03/14/discovery-pine-beetles-breeding-twice-year-helps-explain-increasing-damage#sthash.PCdFWhdi.dpuf" target="_blank" target="_blank">University of Colorado researchers have found</a> that some populations of mountain pine beetles now produce two generations per year, dramatically boosting the bugs' threat to lodgepole and ponderosa pines. In this 2009 photo, dead spruces of the Yukon's Alsek River valley attest to the devastation wrought by the beetles.
Deforestation —
Climate change has not been kind to the world's forests. Invasive species such as the bark beetle, which thrive in warmer temperatures, have attacked trees across the North American west, from Mexico to the Yukon. University of Colorado researchers have found that some populations of mountain pine beetles now produce two generations per year, dramatically boosting the bugs' threat to lodgepole and ponderosa pines. In this 2009 photo, dead spruces of the Yukon's Alsek River valley attest to the devastation wrought by the beetles.
Rick Bowmer/AP/File
The snows capping majestic Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak, once inspired Ernest Hemingway. Now they're in danger of melting away altogether. Studies suggest that if the mountain's snowcap continues to evaporate at its current rate, it could be gone in 15 years. Here, a Kilimanjaro glacier is viewed from Uhuru Peak in December 2010.
Mountain glaciers —
The snows capping majestic Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak, once inspired Ernest Hemingway. Now they're in danger of melting away altogether. Studies suggest that if the mountain's snowcap continues to evaporate at its current rate, it could be gone in 15 years. Here, a Kilimanjaro glacier is viewed from Uhuru Peak in December 2010.
Chris Jackson/Getty Images for Laureus/File
Polar bears may be the poster child for climate change's effect on animals. But scientists say climate change is wreaking havoc on many other species -- including birds and reptiles -- that are sensitive to fluctuations in temperatures. One, this golden toad of Costa Rica and other Central American countries, has already gone extinct.
Endangered species —
Polar bears may be the poster child for climate change's effect on animals. But scientists say climate change is wreaking havoc on many other species -- including birds and reptiles -- that are sensitive to fluctuations in temperatures. One, this golden toad of Costa Rica and other Central American countries, has already gone extinct.
U.S Fish and Wildlife Service
It's not your imagination: Some animals -- mostly birds -- are migrating earlier and earlier every year because of warming global temperatures. Scholars from the University of East Anglia found that Icelandic black-tailed godwits have advanced their migration by two weeks over the past two decades. Researchers also have found that many species are migrating to higher elevations as temperatures climb.
Animal migration —
It's not your imagination: Some animals -- mostly birds -- are migrating earlier and earlier every year because of warming global temperatures. Scholars from the University of East Anglia found that Icelandic black-tailed godwits have advanced their migration by two weeks over the past two decades. Researchers also have found that many species are migrating to higher elevations as temperatures climb.
Shutterstock
The planet could see as many as 20 more hurricanes and tropical storms each year by the end of the century because of climate change, according to <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/110/41/16361.full.pdf+html" target="_blank" target="_blank">a 2013 study</a> published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This image shows Superstorm Sandy bearing down on the New Jersey coast in 2012.
Extreme weather —
The planet could see as many as 20 more hurricanes and tropical storms each year by the end of the century because of climate change, according to a 2013 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This image shows Superstorm Sandy bearing down on the New Jersey coast in 2012.
Norman Kuring/Ocean Color Web/NASA
Effects of global warming around the world

Editor’s Note: CNN columnist John D. Sutter is reporting on a tiny number – 2 degrees – that may have a huge effect on the future. He’d like your help. Subscribe to the “2 degrees” newsletter or follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. He’s jdsutter on Snapchat. You can shape this coverage.

Story highlights

John Sutter: Climate change is real, but the United States can't leave climate skeptics behind

Sutter is traveling to Oklahoma this week to talk with them for CNN's Two° series

CNN  — 

When it comes to climate change, they’re the elephants in the room: the climate skeptics, or the 18% of the American public that doesn’t believe climate change is actually happening.

As a person who writes about climate change for CNN, I hear from them (from you?) an awful lot. Skeptics clog up my e-mail, flood the comments sections of my columns in the Two° series, overrun Facebook chats and, at times, make my Twitter feed feel like a firing range.

To be completely honest, I’m tempted to ignore the skeptics. Climate change is real and very likely is caused by humans – as 97% of climate scientists will tell you. Why engage in this “debate” any longer? Why not move on?

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Many people who study climate change take that view.

“Polls show most people get it, overall, so I think we need to shift the conversation to solutions,” said Naomi Oreskes, a professor of the history of science at Harvard University and author of “Merchants of Doubt,” about industry efforts to mislead the public on climate change. “Fussing about (honest) skeptics seems to me to be basically barking up the wrong tree.”

Or here’s a view that’s bleaker: “Engagement of so-called skeptics is ill-advised,” Stephan Lewandowsky, a psychology professor at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom told me recently. “It is a hopeless task to try to talk to them and change their minds.”

Hopelessly ill-advised, huh?

Well, I guess I’m about to embark on a hopelessly ill-advised journey.

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For the next week or so, I’ll be in Woodward County, Oklahoma, which, according to polling data from the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, is one of the places in the United States most skeptical of climate change’s existence.

Only 51% of the 22,000 people in Woodward County believe climate change is real, according to the data, and 30% of people say the climate is NOT changing. That second percentage is the highest rate of any county in the United States, tied with six other places: Trimble County, Kentucky; Platte County, Wyoming; Beaver County, Utah; Dewey County, Oklahoma; Morgan County, Utah; and Rogers County, Oklahoma.

For comparison, only 4% of people in Washington, D.C., say climate change is bunk.

A larger percentage of people, both in Woodward County and nationally, believe climate change may be happening but isn’t influenced by human emissions of fossil fuels. Again, this is a view that is refuted by nearly all climate scientists, who say it is “very likely” we’re to blame.

It would be far easier to pretend climate skepticism doesn’t exist in the United States – but that also would be untrue. My hunch – and my hope – is that by talking with skeptics, and by honestly listening to their life stories and points of view, there will be something to learn about how we can move on as a country together. I’m a person who believes swift action is needed to blunt the potentially devastating effects of climate change. But I also understand that not everyone sees it that way. I’m genuinely curious to try to understand how the “other side” thinks.

Readers of CNN’s Two° series prompted this expedition when many of them asked in a Facebook chat why so many people don’t believe in climate science and what to do about it. “How do we converse with the naysayers?” is how one reader phrased it.

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It’s a great question, and I’m not sure I have the answer. I figure I do know how to converse with climate skeptics, in part because I’m from Oklahoma, which is one of the most climate-skeptical states. But I’m not sure I know how to convert them or that trying to would be effective.

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My goal, instead, is to understand where they’re coming from – to lend an open, honest ear, to hear their stories, and to get a better sense of why this issue continues to divide too many of us.

I’ll report back soon.

If you want to follow along in real-time, consider adding me on Snapchat – I’m jdsutter – or subscribing to the Two° newsletter. I’m reporting on what 2 degrees Celsius of warming, which international policymakers regard as a dangerous threshold, would mean for the future of the planet and how we collectively can make sure the world doesn’t cross that mark.