Unfortunately, denial is a completely natural part of the unfolding of climate change. Just like any other great loss, climate change implies a loss of the world we thought we knew, the ecology we studies as kids, for example. All the emotions one goes through in any other loss, denial, anger, bargaining ("maybe 450ppm will be safe"), despair, etc. are going to happen. The level of denial is some indirect evidence that climate change is humanity's big challenge. Why has it become a political question? Because it has such huge implications for civilization and civil society. It affects our food, our settlement, our health, etc. So naturally, since the issue is tied to so many consequences, it becomes a larger social issue, and eventually simply a social metaphor. Already, "global warming" is abstracted enough that when talking heads drop it into their conversation they could easily be saying any other abstract political issue. My own observation about the drive behind the hard core deniers is that they are having a different conversation. That is, their primary concern is about the threat of "world government." At least that is what I observed once watching Michael Crichton speak. The biggest cheers were for "... and government will not control our lives." To my mind, this is not much different than someone whose whole life is consumed by sports. It's the conversation they are having, and everything gets filtered through that conversation. Of course, the general dumbing down of the population, and the general lack of critical thinking in our mainstream media irritate the problem. Collectively we could focus more on "carbon" than "temperature" and that might help, but in the end, I expect we'll just have to live with it until Mother Nature makes it just too obvious. Oh, and also stand up a little more firmly for our priorities. As I said recently in a blog post: If you’ve got a hole in the boat, how much time do you have to waste with someone who is disrupting the discussion of what to do now, by someone who doesn’t believe the boat has a hole, or is listing …when you’re already having the conversation standing at an angle? (http://12daysofcopenhagen.com)