It never ceases to amaze me when I end up in a conversation with someone who ‘doesn’t believe’ in climate change. For the most part society has jumped on the bandwagon; it’s fairly rare that a person today won’t at least acknowledge that the problem exists. But still, there remains a sizable portion of the country that simply doesn’t accept climate change as a reality and they are passively preventing necessary change.

To be fair, I appreciate that a large number of families and individuals have livelihoods that are directly tied to industries at the root of the problem. Hardworking Americans laboring on oilrigs and in coalmines across the country have everything at stake in the climate change debate: their mortgages, college savings and retirement funds are all based on jobs that may be in danger. These folks have good reason to demand rigorous evidence before conceding their careers and lifestyles.

But these aren’t the critics that I’m concerned with. Their opposition to the concept is both public and expected. More puzzling are the outsiders who simply don’t believe that climate change is real in the face of a near unanimous consensus among the scientific community. This phenomenon is similar to BP’s optimistic ‘worse case scenario’ that they prepared for before the Deepwater Horizon accident. Skeptics are basically ignoring the research, for one reason or another, and don’t seem to realize that this is inconsistent with the rest of their modern lives.

Inherently in science there will always be some level of uncertainty and this is a common stance of skeptics, that climate change is simply a theory and not an absolute fact. This level scrutiny, however, is absent in almost every other facet of the modern world. For example, medicine is rooted in the same evidence-based methodology that climatologists practice yet somehow this didn’t stop us from embracing vaccines, sanitation and prescription drugs. Are we certain about every medical advance? Not even close. But we do know enough that doctors have stopped using mercury to treat illnesses and children aren’t allowed to smoke cigarettes. Agriculture, transportation and communication follow this same pattern, embracing science in spite of the uncertainties for the benefit it can provide.

The cliché line “9 out 10 doctors recommend…” has been used as a selling point in countless medicinal advertisements but could just as easily be applied to addressing climate change. Many people still don’t see the connection. We routinely put our lives in the hands of doctors (MDs) who prescribe modern medicine yet refuse to believe the doctors (PhDs) that research climate, despite the overwhelming consensus of their research. It seems that the modern world has become filled with convenient scientists, content to pick and choose the science they like. In my opinion, this is a job best left to the professionals.

Who is the Expert? (via nature.com)