Are you the third type of climate change denier?

Thinking about global warming is scary but ignoring it will not make the problem go away, writes TweedCAN chair Conal Hanna.

In an article on The Conversation in 2019, academics Iain Walker and Zoe Leviston laid out three types of climate change deniers.

1. Those who don’t believe the world is warming;

2. People who believe it’s warming but the causes aren't human-induced;

3. By far the biggest group. Those of us who don't deny the climate science, but are in denial about what it means.

“What is denied or minimised are the psychological, political, and moral implications of the facts for us," they wrote. "We fail to accept responsibility for responding; we fail to act when the information says we should.

“Ignoring the moral imperative to act is as damning a form of denial as any other, and arguably is much worse.”

It's not hard to see the appeal of living in denial when the facts about climate change can be be terrifying. Walking around all day every day with that much anxiety in your brain is not healthy for anyone.

And yet, it's hard to see how the world gets avoids catastrophic heating, with a much higher risk of natural disasters, without greater acceptance that our way of living needs to change.

A lot of people believe that governments and corporations need to take the bulk of the responsibility for climate change, rather than push it onto individual citizens.

I believe that's true, but I also believe that governments and corporations take their lead from us - the people. They won't change until society changes.

And while it would be nice to reach 100% consensus about the need to act, I'm convinced we can't wait for that before we begin taking action. Far easier to get the 60% of Australians who DO believe in human-induced climate change to start making changes now.

So how do you make a difference on climate? That's where TweedCAN is here to help. We aim to make it as simple as possible for residents in the Tweed region to take climate action. Join a project or community group. Come along to an event. Sign up to our volunteers register, and tell your friends.

Our area knows the pain of major weather events, such as the floods of 2022 and 2017. Science says these events are going to become more likely the worse climate change gets.

We may not be able to single-handedly halt rising temperatures, but each of us can play a part in putting society back onto a more sustainable footing.