Redefining Climate Change Denial | Patrick Belmont | TEDxUSU

Climate change denial has historically been defined as the overt refusal to accept the scientific understanding that climate change is happening, humans are causing it, and that it will have bad, to catastrophic, consequences for humans and the ecosystems upon which we depend. But as that viewpoint has become untenable in the face of overwhelming evidence, this talk explores the more subtle, passive forms of climate change denial that are still pervasive in the 2020s. By recognizing these passive forms of denial in our everyday lives, we enable ourselves to move past them, and begin working towards climate solutions every day. Patrick Belmont is a dad and river scientist with a rapidly shrinking carbon footprint. He thoroughly enjoys studying some things that almost nobody cares about, like how and why rivers meander, but he spends most of his time trying to solve society’s most pressing problems, like figuring out where all that mud in the Mississippi River comes from and how to reduce impacts of wildfire in the western US. And of course, he is dead serious about stopping climate change. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx