Yes: climate change deniers are, on average, dumber and morally worse people. But so what? Your carbon footprint doesn’t magically disappear the day you accept the reality of climate change. And once the deniers are gone, it’ll be you who isn’t doing enough.
Framing “environmentalism” as a david-vs-goliath moral conflict worked great for things like pollution, because that’s pushing at an open door. It worked because, ultimately, “people who like trees and non-flammable rivers” vastly outnumber “people who own chemical factories”. Clean air legislation is a win for Goliath.
But that politics won’t work with climate change, because the underlying reality is not everyone-versus-a-few-baddies. Oil companies are bad, but in the end we’re the ones burning those Jurassic forests. We can point fingers to make ourselves feel better, or we can stipulate that it is no one’s fault and actually confront it.
For instance, the focus is nearly all on prevention (reducing emissions), because that lends itself to score-keeping, which helps with the blaming. When we fail to meet targets, that’s good news for liberal politicians, who can use it to beat their opponents. When we set ambitious targets, it’s good news for right-wing politicians, who can use the prospective costs to beat their opponents (and then cause us to fail to meet the targets).
Given that we are definitely not going to prevent significant warming, it seems to me that the conversation should be “shut up about emissions, what will you do to mitigate the damage that is coming?” Over the next hundred years, we’ll probably have to radically overhaul much of the world’s built environment, food infrastructure, etc. We can start now, and treat it as a huge and economically stimulating opportunity; or we can do it in a series of chaotic retreats after it’s too late to do it right.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t also reduce emissions. I’m saying, if we focus on the consequences, that will make the need for reduced emissions a reality for people. People still have the impression that, with enough solar farms, we could avoid major consequences; but the idea that major consequences are avoidable removes the urgency, so we don’t build enough solar farms. But if people see Miami being trucked to Georgia one block at a time, I think the argument for renewable energy will move several points up their list of priorities all on its own.
We must all join forces to fight our common enemy: evil, evil Mother Nature.
