Fiona的新聞英語：如何說服美國共和黨相信全球暖化現象是真的？

看新聞學英文，透過時事精進英文閱讀能力，雅思托福考完留學之前自修英文。

看時事新聞學英文。

這一篇文章英文程度比較高，可能會適合托福100分以上的同學。

文章一開始先說明，過去數十年來，liberals一直找尋方法企圖說服美國共和黨的人，全球暖化是真的正在發生的現象。

作者說這跟本沒有用，因為共和黨的人相不相信全球暖化，不是說你找到更有力的證據，或是更好的論點，就會說服成功，因為人們對這些跟自己生活沒有直接相關的議題，像是政治或社會議題，他們有什麼樣的立場不是因為他們自身思考過，論證過，考查過，而是因為他們的社群，或是文章中用的英文字tribes（原指部落）有什麼樣的共同的立場。

所以要如何說服共和黨的支持者全球暖化呢？唯一的辦法就是先說服他們的領袖。只有他們的「專家」或「領袖」說全球暖化是真的，他們的支持者才會跟進說「是真的」。

這一篇文章並沒有詳細說明到底要如何說服共和黨的領袖們，最後一段只說這個討論不在本文範圍內。但是作者提出來，說服的方法不外乎跟金錢、權力有關。

www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/12/28/14074214/climate-denialism-social

clever new arguments are beside the point: they do not work or they do not matter

climate denialists: people who deny that climate change is happening

liberals: people with liberal views

to find just the right argument: the find the exact argument 

periodic flurries of headlines: 'headlines' refers to news article headlines; 'periodic' means 'appearing at intervals'; 'flurries' means 'a sudden surge of excitement' or 'a sudden surge in numbers'; every now and then, there will be a series of news articles on which argument can finally persuade conservatives

journosphere: this is a made-up word, it is a combination of 'journalism' and 'sphere'; it refers to the circle of journalists

to finally crack the nut: when a nut has a hard shell, it is difficult to crack open

with all these easy ways to change their minds floating around = with all these easy ways (to change their minds) floating around

bridged the political divide: if there is a divide, there is a gap; bridging the divide means to bridge the gap or to find common ground so both sides can come to an agreement

untouched form: pure, unpolluted form

opens up a promising avenue: avenue is a large road; to open up a promising avenue means to find a new way to discuss an issue

for reasons I'll get into: because of reasons I will later on talk about

the research was hyped beyond all reason: people got very excited about the research and this excitement was unreasonable

oy: 語助詞，表達義奮填膺的情緒

Individualism has misled many areas of inquiry in the West (someday I’ll write about how it has screwed up ethics), but among the victims is epistemology. = Individualism has misled many academic disciplines. One of these disciplines is ethics. The author will write about how individualism has screwed up ethics later. Among the many victims of how individualism has misled academic disciplines is epistemology. 

epistemology: the study of what constitutes knowledge, truth, fact, belief, etc. 

We imagine people coming to know things inside their heads, using their own thoughts and sense data.: come to know something means 'eventually knowing something; sense here refers to the five senses such as seeing, hearing, and feeling

brains in vats: vats are large tubs that are usually used in scientific experiments

we take on faith: we accept based on faith

heuristic: this word is used as a noun here; a heuristic method, or a method that enables a person to discover or learn something for themselves

tribe: 原指部落，這裡指社群

Having an understanding of the world and your place in it — an understanding shared by your tribe — feels like safety. It feels like control. Questions that unsettle that understanding are instinctively treated with skepticism or outright hostility. = Questions that challenge one's understanding of the world are seen as being suspicious. 

motivated reasoning: this is an academic term; it means that our reasoning are motivated by other concerns such as what our peers think

bits and bobs: pieces (of information or objects)

They certainly don’t have enough invested in issues to warrant risking their tribal ties on behalf of particular beliefs.: to be invested in something means to be emotionally, economically, or in other ways concerned about something; 'to warrant doing something' means 'to be worth doing something' 

settle for their parochial, inherited tribal beliefs: 'settle for' 通常是指接受，而且是附尊紆貴的接受，或是在找不到更好的代換品的狀況下，接受現有的; parochial means 'related to the parish church' or the local church, here it means 'with a limited scope' or 'narrow-minded' 

humans gonna human: humans are going to be just like what human beings are like; humans is a noun but human is a verb, this is a made-up verb meaning 'to do what human beings are expected to do' 

an exalted state: an advanced state

matters of social import: 'import' is a noun, it means 'importance' or 'significance'

will tend to yield conflict: 'yield' is a verb, it means 'to produce'

tend to reinforce myth and retard economic and technological progress: 'reinforce' means 'to make something stronger' where as 'retard' is a verb which means 'to slow down' 

We imbue these institutions with an authority that extends across various tribal lines. = imbue means 'to give'; across various tribal lines, a tribe here means a social group, across various tribal lines means the same authority spans across social groups, various social groups respect the same authority

short-term interests: 'interests' means (N) 'benefits'

backdrop: background

institutional architecture: architecture means structure

demagogue: a populist leader

schmo (pl. schmoes): a stupid person

first-order: primary, main

When it comes to climate change, leaders of the conservative movement have waged a decades-long war to weaken the authority of scientific institutions, to cast them as tools of the liberal tribe, distorting truth for political ends. = 'wage a war' means 'to declare a war'; to cast them  = to cast liberals; the liberal tribe = the liberal group of people; conservatives think that liberals distort truth to achieve their political goals

Sunspots. Natural variation. Milankovitch cycles.: together, they mean a natural cycle of things; the Milankovitch cycle refers to the earths orbit around the sun

affective reactions: emotional reactions

the conservative reverts from isolated cognition unit to human being, i.e., social creature embedded in overlapping tribes = reverts from A to B = changes back from A to B

“Ha ha you got pwned by a libtard!”: 這裡有拼錯字，pwned應該是owned，you got owned意思就是「被騙」，libtard沒有這個英文字，這是兩個字組合出來的 liberal + retard，意思就是（從共和黨的角度來看）a retard with liberal values

deference to: respect for