Many environmentalists make claims that sound something like this:
“Because of the mistakes and greed of mankind, a terrible disaster is coming to the earth. I don’t know when exactly, but we are heading in the wrong direction and things are getting worse; maybe in 100 or 200 years, maybe more, but maybe in 20. We need to be change our behaviour and prepare for the consequences, because if not there will be many terrible disasters and we could all die. However, if we change our ways and prepared adequately then we can live a harmonious existence; not only will disaster be averted but many of our other problems will be resolved.”
Clearly this is not exactly the same as the religious story or the AI story, but it definitely has a lot of similarities. And there are definitely some environmentalists who seem very ideological (e.g. those who oppose nuclear and hydro power, or claim the world will end in 12 years). But I don’t think this is a very strong argument overall for skepticism about climate change. Just because there are some bad reasons to believe something doesn’t mean we should ignore the good ones, nor ignore relevant qualified experts if we lack the ability to evaluate the arguments ourselves.
Many environmentalists make claims that sound something like this:
Clearly this is not exactly the same as the religious story or the AI story, but it definitely has a lot of similarities. And there are definitely some environmentalists who seem very ideological (e.g. those who oppose nuclear and hydro power, or claim the world will end in 12 years). But I don’t think this is a very strong argument overall for skepticism about climate change. Just because there are some bad reasons to believe something doesn’t mean we should ignore the good ones, nor ignore relevant qualified experts if we lack the ability to evaluate the arguments ourselves.