[Sosfbay-discuss] "Apocalypse Fatigue: Losing the Public on Climate Change"

[Brian Good]

   We're not getting any sense of urgency from authority figures about the issue.
Al Gore made his movie in 2006 and then moved on to other things.  I never saw
him (or anybody) barnstorming around trying to stir people up.  Is Obama even 
acknowledging the problem?  Has anybody criticized him for shirking it?  There's 
no best-selling book--no Paul Ehrlich or Linus Pauling of climate change.  There's 
no conspicuous activist group or leader--no Code Pink or David Swanson.  It's not 
happening because it's not happening.  Somebody needs to write the book, make 
the movie or the videos, start the group, get some visibility.

  



Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:09:52 -0800
From: wrolley at charter.net
To: sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org
CC: gerrygras at earthlink.net
Subject: Re: [Sosfbay-discuss] "Apocalypse Fatigue: Losing the Public on Climate Change"






  
  


Gerry, 

That is interesting an maybe more true than some of the corporate
pablum that Nordhaus and Schellenberger have put out in the past. 
However, I think that they miss some very well known, accepted facts. 
We only need to recall the hierarchy of needs described by Maslow. 
When people are out of work, when they lose their homes due to rising
medical bills as was depicted on ABC's NightLine last night, they are
dealing with immediate survival threats.  It is not difficult to match
the decline in support of action on climate change to the decline of
the economy. 



So, it is not the apocalyptic vision that is wrong, because it is not,
but rather the lack of immediacy that we have to deal with.  In this
sense, they are correct.  Every time that we present the case for
global warming through the image of a polar bear, we sell the idea that
the threat is far away in both space and time.  We need to bring it
much more close to home and to make people realize that the effects are
not in some future time, but right now, that action now is the only way
to forestall economic devastation later. 



As a political party, Greens have somewhat the same failing.  Recently,
I used a quote from Julia Butterfly Hill to the effect "Many of us have gotten so good at defining what
we are against that
what we are against has started to define us."  That is the argument
against using only negative calls to action on climate change. 
That is why 350.org, for all the organizational skill it demonstrated,
missed the opportunity to make a larger connection when McKibben failed
to call for any policy specifics. 



If we are to be successful, we need to start defining what we are for,
to paint the picture of a better future that they need Greens to show
the way.  If we want to make inroads into the pubic consciousness, then
we have to show what  it would be like to live in a world where Green
values prevail. 



Wes 



Gerry Gras wrote:

  FWIW,
an article trying to explain American attitudes
and thinking about climate change.

"Apocalypse Fatigue: Losing the Public on Climate Change"
     http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/17-4

Gerry

P.S. The discussion about political psychology could be
relevant to why third parties have a hard time.

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-- 
"Anytime you have an opportunity to make things better and you don't, then you are wasting your time on this Earth" Roberto Clemente

Wes Rolley
17211 Quail Court, Morgan Hill, CA 95037
http://www.refpub.com/ -- Tel: 408.778.3024 		 	   		  
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