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A lot of people people still don’t believe in climate change. But WHY?! We’ve got facts, we’ve got figures, we’ve got freaking superstorms swamping major cities every couple of years. Why is it so difficult for people to get climate change through their thick skulls?!

To this question, Joe Hanson of It’s Okay to Be Smart offers up a handful of answers, beginning with those thick skulls. It turns out that we are stuck with Stone Age instincts, while trying to tackle the heady problems of the Machine Age. For instance, take our Paleolithic bias toward more immediate threats or our persistent optimism (“surely that saber cat won’t eat me!”). Plus, our reserves of abstract worry are probably a non-renewable resource — you can only hear “climate change” so many times before you start to tune it out, along with “federal deficit” and “you should really floss daily.”

But here’s another precept to keep in mind: “Know thine enemy,” especially if the enemy in question is your own brain. Watch the video for more.