What can be done about peoples lack of concern for the climate? We went from an already low 14% of voters thinking it’s important, down to 8%.
https://abcnews.go.com/538/live-updates/election-results-2024/?id=115468646&entryId=115535095
by BigMax
18 comments
I don’t believe those numbers. It might be a poll where people are asked to rank order what concerns them most and it would not be unusual for people to put this at the bottom of the list even if they think it is highly important because at the moment they are worried about more immediate and tangible threats.
Concern for the climate is broad but shallow. A solid majority of the public is behind climate action at this point, but they won’t punish a party which does nothing.
The main answer is leadership. The public FOLLOWS leaders on issues, not the other way around. You have to get people who care about the environment into power, which means never supporting candidates who don’t – which is most of them.
The very first thing we have to do is to stop piggybacking all sorts of unrelated causes on top of Climate Change.
Indigenous people, Palestinian people, Elon Musk and Trump… First we have to **depoliticize** the truth of Climate Change. Let’s talk about climate and nothing else. No Palestinians, no Trans rights, no Indigenous reparations… It is not that those are not great causes well deserving of our attention but the fact is that mixing issues results in a **muddied message that confuses people**.
Second we need to stop thinking that “Saint Greta” is going to **perform a miracle** any second now… Greta is not a unifying savior, she is gritty, she tell it like it is and is not afraid of insulting anyone… That would be nice if she was an Army General but those are not the qualities that unify people. We would be much better served by someone with the attitude of a Pete Buttigieg or a Amy Klobuchar… Greta was great for a while but now she has become a ball and chain that slows down the movement.
Third, we need to run the fight for climate change exactly like we run a **marketing campaign**, this means not insulting people who do not subscribe to our point of view and to slowly bring them to see things our way by having meaningful conversations and solid facts. We do not want to scare away people, we want them to join us!
Fourth, we have to realize that our ennemies are NOT the people themselves, no matter if they are Trump voters or against Trans rights, The enemy is the oil & Gas corporations who brainwashed those people. Somehow we need to find a way to sever that hold the oil & gas have on the people and part of that is to show the vast economic benefits of going green and how it will improve their lives.
We’re up against organized money. The fossil carbon biz people think they have their fortunes to lose in the energy transition. So they’re using all the tricks of the advertising age to slow it down. Obfuscation, Fear-Uncertainty-Doubt, appeals to patriotism and truck lust, you name it. Successfully. The ozone layer campaign didn’t generate this much opposition.
Saul Alinsky said it: the only thing that is more powerful than organized money is organized people. Terrible events gain visibility. They seem to be more effective than studying data and observing trends. Hopefully we won’t need a widespread high-wet-bulb-temperature event with power failures and mass casualties to get attention.
Maybe somebody should make a nice TV miniseries of [Ministry for the Future](https://search.worldcat.org/title/The-ministry-for-the-future/oclc/1147927281)by Kim Stanley Robinson. It depicts such a mass casualty event. Certainly got my attention.
And, it will help a lot if people can get consistent and actionable guidance on what to actually do when they realize how bad the situation is.
People consistently rate “the economy” as one of their top issues, we need to get people to understand that the economy and climate are meshed together.
Climate change => poor agriculture yields => food inflation.
Climate change => increasingly expensive disasters => insurance and building material inflation.
Climate change => increased energy demand for cooling during summer => energy inflation.
Doesn’t matter – good science will always come out ahead in the long run. As long as that continues, regardless of how quickly capitalism catches up, our understanding will always be refined
The older generations are punting this problem to the younger. This country has plenty of problems and the voters (the older gens) prioritize it lower. Younger people just don’t vote very much …
The only chance is the youngest generation coming of voting age in the next 2-6 years. If they don’t basically revolt over what the boomers have done and the lack of action of the younger generations then it’s over.
Lack of money, access, and tech.
It’s too late. Spend all of your energy preparing for you and your family to strive while the rest of the world struggles.
When people are worried about the cost of their food, they forget about them problem called climate change. The new hybrid doesn’t seem realistic anymore when your cost of living has skyrocketed. The people who should care – people who fly constantly or are busy building AI cruise ships- those peeps will never care.
Make their quality of life so good they can focus on things that aren’t eating, living and keeping their family safe.
Nothing can be done. We’re just going to pack it in and go home. Wait for the inevitable.
They are always going to put their immediate needs first because most people can’t see a bigger picture. Until we fix the huge inequality of wealth I doubt we’ll make much progress. Hard to help someone understand the crisis when they can’t afford to go to the doctor or dentist when in pain.
Its not that people don’t care its that they have more immediate threats to handle and process.
Anyone think it’s worth trying to get Republicans to care about climate change?
I think there are a few organizations trying to cultivate greener Republicans.
I mean, I read Hitler liked animals and had vegetarian leanings. I read he wouldn’t kiss Eva Braun when wearing lipstick because the rendered fat in it nauseated him.
I echo decoupling climate change from other special interest stuff. It’s science and affects everyone. Blowing my mind that Florida has turned more red since the last election.
I also think the DNC needs to be dismantled.
If the data showed we needed a moderate older white male in 2020, who decided to run a childless woman attorney who is half black half Indian and married to a Jewish guy, and who didn’t come out of a primary process?
I’m young and live in a progressive place. I have like two friends who care about climate change.
Even my friends who say they claim about it don’t, they don’t really know anything about it and just claim we should do something about it. It has made me incredibly doomerist.
People are terrified about other things that they feel will make their lives harder on a day to day basis. Yes, climate change will kill people, but in the meantime, there’s guns, poverty, and dozens more threats that feel much more serious, scary and deserving of anxiety.
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