A Climate of Ignorance

It seems like everyone is an expert these days. With just the slightest amount of research, an ordinary person can know just as much as someone who studies that subject for a living. At least, this seems to be mentality of many conspiracy theorists. With the growth of the dangerous science denial movement, climate change is at the forefront of topics that everyone seems to know about. At least, it appears that way. In reality, the only reason that people feel that they know everything is because of how shallowly they know the subject area. This is known as the Dunning-Kruger effect, and it states that  low ability individuals don't realize that they're low ability, or paraphrased, "if you're incompetent, you can't know you're incompetent." This seems to come into play in every conversation related to a trending scientific controversy, be it vaccines or climate change. Even the head of the EPA seems to fall victim to this phenomenon, as he has recently stated that he does not believe that CO2 is a primary contributor to global climate change. Belief doesn't play into science though. What matters is facts. The facts are that global warming is real, and that the rapid increase in global temperatures is caused by man. This counter-culture seems to be more popular than traditional trust in some places, and the rise in distrust and paranoia leads to a more unsafe society. With every new climate change denier, or radically aligned "expert" on vaccines, we march ever closer to a self manufactured dystopia.