Thoughts on Joplin, MO and the believability of change

My heart goes out to all those who have been afflicted in Joplin, MO.  With the videos, the media coverage, the tweets, as well as the nonprofit and humanitarian outpouring of assistance, they have truly been in the spotlight this week.
 
But that’s this week.  In the past weeks and months there have been disasters all over the world – tsunamis, flooding, storms, not to mention - aside from the strange weather - birds falling from the skies, fish dying.  The world didn’t end last weekend but something strange sure is going on – different in the past few years than in the years when I was growing up (I feel like I'm sounding old...).
 
Which brings me to the title of my piece – believability.  Why is it so hard for some people to believe in climate change?  In weather patterns changing?  In conditions all over the world being significantly different now than they used to be?  And by significant, I’m talking in statistical terms, not just the observation that it seems different than it used to be. By real, scientific measures, it IS different. Ice caps are melting.  The alps have less snow.  The list goes on and on.


Yet there are many in the world who do not see this, or believe it.  I attribute that to the influences in their lives.  Influences of people, religion, upbringing, education, geography – the list can go on.  Whatever those influencers are, they seem to be in opposition to the evidence.  Weather and temperature - as we know it - are different.  Geographies are changing.  And this shift is straining people and resources all over the world.

Perhaps it is time we look at the causes of what influences people’s belief systems – why they can’t “see” climate change – weather conditions doing their worst – what it does to humans and to nature.  For it is only by understanding what influences belief systems that we can truly communicate, understand, and – perhaps – move forward - to deal with the world as it evolves into something very different.