I think this is pretty accurate, and a closely related variation on the theme is the idea that most of the proposals to fight climate change sound like they’ll

I think this is pretty accurate, and a closely related variation on the theme is the idea that most of the proposals to fight climate change sound like they’ll make “ordinary life” more difficult and expensive. Poorer countries see richer countries say “no more fossil fuels” and could easily think “gee it’s convenient that you built the whole world economy around fossil fuels then try to stop their use just as we’re catching up.” In the same way, in the US a lot of folks react to climate policy things with: “so rich folks will still be able to fly cross-country for 10x the price in an ‘eco plane’ but regular people will be cut off from that freedom.” At the end of the day people are pretty much not willing to accept a quality of life cut voluntarily, especially not a significant one. Thus you see people say: okay so the oceans will rise, but I don’t live within an hour of the ocean so I’m fine. Yep, not willing to sacrifice my personal luxuries and freedoms for that. Folks should just move as the waters rise. I think the far scarier issue is the second Order effects we can’t predict. But because we can’t predict it, the people who aren’t inclined to want to give up their quality of life (almost everyone), are even less likely to want to make preventative changes.