Climate Change can seem to be one intense, and at times hysterical, machine that doesn’t understand it isn’t supposed to eat everything in its path. There should be a healthy skepticism for such machines, and there is.
Conservatives have long been accused of being non-believers in climate change. They are accused of mock concern for the environment, doubters of science, and disdainful of the welfare of future generations and all living creatures. It could be that the average Conservative is worried about government interference and overreach, as the government is known to take the whole pie while The People are distracted.
People do mostly agree with each other on one thing: half of both Republicans and Democrats are deeply annoyed and feel that there is too much partisan politics at play with the issue, according to recent polls, with each side declaring “only the adoption of its own program can save human civilization from collapse.”
Climate Change activists also fear that other countries that produce massive amounts of waste and greenhouse gases would never do their part: China, India, Mars, and therefore collapse the whole system. Shouldn’t industry and business take the bigger blame for this damage?
No one would dare say humans, heavy industry, and business have not affected our environment and planet. Most of us – including conservatives – are able to grasp that our choices have often, so much of the time really sucked.
In the book Eco-Types by Emily Huddart Kennedy on the polarization of environmental protection, quite funny caricatures emerged from liberals and conservatives about each other. Such follies include conservatives as “Rambos in their hummers” and conservative views that liberals “obsess over their recycling and boast about buying over-priced produce at local farmers’ markets.”
Funny stuff, really, but what stands out in her data is that “liberals believe conservatives to be the single biggest barrier to climate action.”
What exactly is happening and how to fix it are two very separate issues. If Climate Change is truly the most pressing issue the world faces, we certainly need to increase open dialogue, research the research, demand transparency, and limit government gobble. But finding viable solutions must be preceded by the elimination of partisanship from the climate.
