I'd never heard of Dan Simmons before his mention here, but today his FB post crossed my twitter feed and, honestly, I was shocked. My (admittedly naive) impression of SF authors is founded on Star Trek (and Gene Roddenberry). People who are forward thinking, earth-friendly, and attuned to the echoes of science.
Why does this Simmons character feel so threatened? Greta T doesn't claim to know more than scientists. Quite the opposite. She is begging people to listen to the scientists. Is it as simple as "she's a girl"? Because that's how it feels to me.
There's a lot of odd psychology there. I suspect it may be because a particular vision of the future portrayed by many SF writers of previous decades no longer reigns supreme in SFF circles. It's not that books of the type Simmons writes aren't still popular. They are. But more people at the table with competing views of what the future might hold could possibly feel threatening to some people who put an awful lot of
themselves into their work.
There are also some people who are, in essence, cornucopiests (I can't find out the correct spelling of this word). They believe in science so intensely and blindly they think we don't have to worry about conservation, consumption or anything else because SCIENCE will always stay ahead of whatever it is we are doing to the environment. Note most of these are not actual scientists.
Of course, there's also the thing where some older folks who simply resent being showed up by younger people. And for older men, born in an even more patriarchal era, being shown up by a teenage girl could be especially irritating.
There's also just generic resentment over being "told what to do" and "being made to feel guilty."
I think one tough challenge for liberals in general, and environmentalists in particular, is being the ones that are telling people things they love to do and consume are harmful. I get tired of Vegan preaching, for instance, and I actually know they have some good points. Still, I love eating many of the foods that aren't great for the planet. I've cut way back, but I'd hate to give up my favorite foods completely. And I read an article a while back about how we should give up having companion animals, because they exact a terrible environmental toll. That made me want to just lie down and die...
