As easy entertainment goes, bumping noggins with ecodoomsayers on social media is the easiest of all. One mention of paleoclimatology research and data sets contradictory to widely-held misbeliefs triggers responses of this ilk:

“Please, educate me on what I and the world are missing, Steve. I know sciencey words like test tube and nitrogen. I’ll understand.”

No, you won’t understand. To have this conversation, the ecodoomsayer needs my 40 years of accumulated knowledge and direct research background in paleoclimatology just to begin the conversation. Four decades of typing on Facebook just to get them up to speed isn’t appealing.

Of course, the motivation is to challenge me to “prove I’m right” to an already hostile echo chamber. My answer is . . . “No.” For what I share, this isn’t the target audience. Dispassionately, it’s already a write off.

So there you go. Easy entertainment and purpose.