I found it surprising that it's a concern to figure out what storms are worsened by climate change and what storms are natural because I would just focus on the fact that storms are being made worse in general by climate change and that needs to be addressed. I don't understand the need to quantify how bad the effects of climate change are and instead believe that if climate change has a negative effect at all, which it does, then it should be addressed as soon as possible. In the astronomy class I'm taking, we learned about the greenhouse effect on other planets and how it's very clear that it's human actions that are leading to climate change, so I don't understand why someone would still deny climate change's effect or even the fact that it exists.
One question I would ask Gina McCarthy is where she thinks the hesitance to believe in climate change certain people and parties have comes from because it's clear to me that science backs up the fact that climate change is happening. Is it just because they don't want to have to change their lives or take responsibility for their actions? Is it financial? A mix of all of the above? I think it would be interesting to hear her take on this topic which wasn't explored enough in the interview. Many of the people who deny science proving that climate change is real also believe that there are only two genders and that science proves that, and they additionally don't believe in the science behind covid at times, so this seems to be a pattern that I think would be interesting to discuss.
Why would some people deny climate change exists? Certainly for some people there's a financial or political incentive to deny climate change. I think another part of it is, as you suggest, people don't want to accept responsibility or change their actions. But at the same time it's not clear how much impact an individual actors can have. The general pattern you note of making reference to "science" as confirming dogmatic beliefs is interesting, but I feel a little bad asking random researchers to comment on these vague social phenomena.