CLIMATE CHANGE NO WORRY IN US

Nicholas Goldberg    Los Angeles Times  Sept. 22, 2022

Why is the greatest threat to the planet of so little concern to most Americans? It’s shocking, frankly, that global warming ranks 24th on a list of 29 issues that voters say they’ll think about when deciding whom to vote for in November, according to the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Only thirty per cent of voters say they are “very worried” about it and more than sixty six per cent say they “rarely” or “never” discuss the issue with family or friends.

US Poll on Climate Concern

How can people be so blithely unconcerned when the clear consensus of scientists is that climate disruption is reaching crisis levels and will result not only in more raging storms, droughts, wildfires, major floods and heat waves, but very possibly in famine, mass migration, collapsing economies and war?

Sure, there are some obvious reasons for the apathy: High among them is that fossil fuel companies have spent decades pulling the wool over the eyes of Americans. And Republican politicians have been complicit.

Most Americans are not concerned about global warming. They know the climate is changing say they are just not that worried about it, according to a new poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

That attitude is keeping the American public from getting the changes that are necessary to prevent global warming from reaching a crisis, according to climate and social scientists.

As top-level international negotiations to try to limit greenhouse gas emissions start later this month in Paris, the AP-NORC poll taken in mid-October shows about two out of three Americans accept global warming and the vast majority of those say human activities are at least part of the cause.

To try to understand a little more, I had a conversation recently with David Fenton, a political activist who more than 40 years ago turned his hand to public relations and has now spent most of his life in the communications trenches, creating campaigns on behalf of social change and progressive causes.

Fenton, whom the National Journal once called “the Robin Hood of public relations,” argues that while yes, of course the fossil fuel companies are villains in a scam of historic proportions, the other side — the anti-climate change side — needs to acknowledge some serious strategic mistakes as well.

In his forthcoming book, “The Activist’s Media Handbook,” due out in November, Fenton says that the forces trying to rouse the world to fight climate change — including philanthropic foundations, environmental organizations and activist groups, among others — have by and large ignored the most rudimentary tenets of marketing and advertising, to their detriment and the planet’s.

1 Comment

  1. Talford says:

    They won’t let us use gas which generates 50% less emissions from that of a coal fired power plant. We could then deploy a carbon capture facility of at least 90%, but they won’t let us do that, in fact they won’t approve a permit for gas anywhere.
    By the time you add all the emissions from manufacture, transport, infrastructure replacement of turbines and solar panels, gas is the obvious solution.

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