What Pushes Adults to Bully Children and Deny Science?

Research on how a threat to the status quo shapes belief & behaviour.

To the shame of adults on the planet, it takes children to step up and demand action. Greta Thunberg has quickly become a lightning rod for climate change activism, and her young voice reverberates throughout our global consciousness. Her impassioned pleas and unvarnished condemnation are, for many, seen as long overdue and just what the doctor ordered. For many, she is a hero. For others, an object of scorn and humiliation.

Climate Change Science

According to NASA, the evidence is incontrovertible that climate change is real and represents a serious threat. Based on studies in peer-reviewed scientific journals, they report that at least 97% of working climate scientists agree that “climate-warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activities”.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), “established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 to provide the world with a clear scientific view on the current state of knowledge in climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic impacts” reports unequivocally that climate change has multiple negative impacts on the environment and is extremely likely to be caused by human-made greenhouse gases (go here for the Synthesis Report, IPCC, 2014).