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ESSAY ON CLIMATE CHANGE
Offering a skeptical perspective is not cynical; in fact quite the opposite is true. Cynics doubt
and mistrust not on the weight of evidence or lack thereof but on suspicions of underlying
motivation. Cynicism can lead to the rejection of a claim but not to new discoveries, unlike
skepticism which can lead to both.
Provisional disbelief is often mistaken as cynicism; the two are not equivalent. It is perfectly
reasonable to start out unconvinced that humans are causing our climate to change. But that
shifts to cynicism and faith-based opposition with the inability to modify that position in the
presence of overwhelming evidence. What matters, independent of one’s starting hypothesis,
is the willingness to draw conclusions when a claim is confirmed “to such an extent that it
would be reasonable to offer temporary agreement.”
Skepticism is fully embedded in the scientific method: the application of systematic
observation, reproducible measurements, and experimentation in order to gain new
knowledge about and a deeper understanding of our physical and biological world. The
entire reason for applying systematic observation is that we are open to but remain skeptical
of any claim’s validity until observation, reproducible measurements and experimental
confirm or reject the claim (Schweltzer, 2016).
The above mentioned passage reflects how skeptical perspective can be differentiated
from that of cynical view. It shows that skeptical viewpoint hinders in accepting both the new
finding and the claim of the existence of the new experience while cynicism is not on the side
of doubting the new detection rather it doubts the very claim and the experiment going on to
make the discovery look truthful and believable. Both these perspectives are discussed in the
above mentioned passage in a very generalized way so that this can be used in any topic to
show how skeptical understanding rejects the whole idea while cynical idea still supports the
honesty of the discovery. The second highlighted theme is that provisional disbelief cannot be

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Essay on Climate Change

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