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I honestly believe that this is one of the main reasons why there is so much push back on climate change. Every time scientists say something catastrophic migh

by kemiller2002 7y ago

I honestly believe that this is one of the main reasons why there is so much push back on climate change. Every time scientists say something catastrophic might happen (even though it might be true), I think people look at it and think that it must not be possible. If we were a little better in choosing the words we used to convey its urgency, I think it would reach a lot more people.

core-questions 7y ago
Well, first, we need to decide if the average person is expected to have to take personal initiative (i.e. over and above what is actually required of them by society / law) in order for this problem to be solved. If that's the situation, we can safely assume a solution won't be forthcoming because, on the whole, most people will not do more than they need to. If we do need people to step it up, we have to ensure that we're not losing credibility. July has been a cool, wet month where I live, certainly not as warm as last year, so when we get articles saying "IT'S A CLIMATE EMERGENCY, HOTTEST MONTH EVER", and meanwhile I'm sending my kids off to school / daycare with sweatshirts in case the cloud cover sticks around... yeah. I can recognize the data, and I can believe that overall things are hotter, but it's not meshing up with personal experience, and so it makes it bloody difficult to, say, leverage my finances in order to buy an electric car (when my reasonably-efficient gas car is working fine and has decades of useful life left), and so forth. "Climate emergency" rhetoric is simply going to burn everyone out and get laughed at, even if it's true. I think we should focus more on changes that don't require individual action over and above the norm. Legislating a new normal is hard, but more productive than voluntary change.
- chiefalchemist 7y ago
  > "Climate emergency" rhetoric is simply going to burn everyone out and get laughed at, even if it's true. To your point, it doesn't help that the weather - for local and national "news" - is used an attention and sensationalism tool. The threat of couple inches of snow is The Rapture. The possibility of an above average rain storm is Armageddon. When these things don't live up to that hype the public subconsciously loses faith. Add in a complete lack of leadership (to get the public involved) and most ppl just consider it another "what can I do?" issue. I don't blame them. I don't necessarily agree. But I understand why they feel that way.
  - core-questions 7y ago
    I'm sure you realize that this is why the term "fake news" exists today, and isn't even wrong.
- coffeecat 7y ago
  > and so it makes it bloody difficult to, say, leverage my finances in order to buy an electric car (when my reasonably-efficient gas car is working fine and has decades of useful life left) This is tangential to your point, but given the carbon footprint of manufacturing a car, this would almost certainly be counter-productive.
  - core-questions 7y ago
    That's what I think, too. We could see much better environmental gains long term from a real serious push to make things more repairable so that we don't have people buying new cars as often as now. Obviously, the incentive structure isn't set up to make that make sense for auto manufacturers, of course. Look at a Tesla, it's even less repairable than a normal car!

core-questions 7y ago

Well, first, we need to decide if the average person is expected to have to take personal initiative (i.e. over and above what is actually required of them by society / law) in order for this problem to be solved. If that's the situation, we can safely assume a solution won't be forthcoming because, on the whole, most people will not do more than they need to. If we do need people to step it up, we have to ensure that we're not losing credibility. July has been a cool, wet month where I live, certainly not as warm as last year, so when we get articles saying "IT'S A CLIMATE EMERGENCY, HOTTEST MONTH EVER", and meanwhile I'm sending my kids off to school / daycare with sweatshirts in case the cloud cover sticks around... yeah. I can recognize the data, and I can believe that overall things are hotter, but it's not meshing up with personal experience, and so it makes it bloody difficult to, say, leverage my finances in order to buy an electric car (when my reasonably-efficient gas car is working fine and has decades of useful life left), and so forth. "Climate emergency" rhetoric is simply going to burn everyone out and get laughed at, even if it's true. I think we should focus more on changes that don't require individual action over and above the norm. Legislating a new normal is hard, but more productive than voluntary change.

chiefalchemist 7y ago
> "Climate emergency" rhetoric is simply going to burn everyone out and get laughed at, even if it's true. To your point, it doesn't help that the weather - for local and national "news" - is used an attention and sensationalism tool. The threat of couple inches of snow is The Rapture. The possibility of an above average rain storm is Armageddon. When these things don't live up to that hype the public subconsciously loses faith. Add in a complete lack of leadership (to get the public involved) and most ppl just consider it another "what can I do?" issue. I don't blame them. I don't necessarily agree. But I understand why they feel that way.
- core-questions 7y ago
  I'm sure you realize that this is why the term "fake news" exists today, and isn't even wrong.
coffeecat 7y ago
> and so it makes it bloody difficult to, say, leverage my finances in order to buy an electric car (when my reasonably-efficient gas car is working fine and has decades of useful life left) This is tangential to your point, but given the carbon footprint of manufacturing a car, this would almost certainly be counter-productive.
- core-questions 7y ago
  That's what I think, too. We could see much better environmental gains long term from a real serious push to make things more repairable so that we don't have people buying new cars as often as now. Obviously, the incentive structure isn't set up to make that make sense for auto manufacturers, of course. Look at a Tesla, it's even less repairable than a normal car!