Climate change, why so emotional?

So recently a chapter from the new book Superfreakanomics has sparked another round of the seemingly endless, and shrill, climate change debate. Why is this issue so emotional? The standard (and probably correct) answer is because of all the money that is tied to it. Having said that I suppose whenever talking about this topic it is prudent to give the disclaimer that I actually believe in human induced climate change. I'm not sure how much effect we are having, nor am I particularly optimistic that we can actually "combat" climate change. But, if we are to believe this article, we may not even have to.

With that said it should be blindingly obvious that there is no excuse for pumping more nasty stuff into our atmosphere than we absolutely have to. So I guess my point is since when did we need childish scary bedtime stories to motivate ourselves to do the right thing? Especially when those bedtime stories are often based on predictions that have proven to be about as accurate as a Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale? All this does is give ammo to the SUV driving, rain forest destroying, private-jet flying, wackos who will take any excuse they can find to continue with their decadent and profligate lifestyles.

We don't need emotionally-driven campaigns to see the value in living frugally and stepping lightly on our lovely planet.

Climate change, why so emotional?