An Inconvenient Ignorance

I recently had another high school friend find me on Facebook. It's great to get back in touch with people I haven't spoken with in... let's just say many years. One day, however, this particular friend's status read, "[friend] is happy FAY is a dud, so much for global warming, het Alaska had it's coldest year in 133 years." After considering this for a bit, I wrote on his wall that global warming manifests itself as much in volatility as it does in average temperature increase. For good measure, I added that the North Pole would soon be out of ice (which is enough to end many a party). His response was swift and furious. I received a deluge of wall postings and messages telling me that what I (and so many scientists) thought was global warming was just part of the natural cycle of things on Earth.

What bothers me is that my past acquaintance is not alone. Just today, a story showed up on Digg making the same claims. Nevermind the references to the "Nomanic Time" and the "Greecian Empire," it's as if these people don't think that the science community or Al Gore ever picked up a 4th grade science book to learn about climate cycles - like the science community, upon hearing this, would slap its collective head and say, "Duh! Why didn't we think of that... Oh, well. Let's all drive our SUVs to the antarctic and spray Lysol at penguins for laughs."

I don't get why people so strongly feel the need to deny that 6 billion of us using up the good stuff and spewing the bad stuff might have a negative impact on the environment. I mean, my refrigerator goes through natural cycles of grocery quantities. If I all of a sudden have ten house guests and my groceries are getting depleted more quickly, do I just write it off as the natural cycle of things? I may run out of ice, and that would end the party pretty quickly.

Even if I (and so many scientists) are wrong, is the call to action from the deniers to carry on? "Nothing to see here, folks. Keep slashing and burning as usual. While you're at it, why not fuck an endangered species. Could be your last chance..." What sort of irresponsibility are these folks hoping to preserve?

Can anyone tell me?