Climate Solution 1: Engaging the Hearts and Minds of the People
Steps towards an Embodied Vision of Reaching Carbon Neutral
This article is a follow-up to my article, “Climate Crisis: Envisioning a Solution,” and explores step one of a six-step vision of eliminating greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.
“When the people lead, the leaders will follow.” I have seen this quote attributed to Gandhi, to Dwight D. Eisenhower, and to Florence Robinson. But whoever said it first, it is most often true. If the U.S. is to take the radical steps necessary to move towards carbon neutral in a short timeframe, it will probably be because a strong majority of Americans are pushing for it.
Prior to 1994, it was illegal for homosexuals to serve in the U.S. military. In that year, President Clinton introduced the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, allowing closeted gays to serve. In 2011, President Obama approved openly gay people serving in the military. What led to these changes? It was the broad acceptance of homosexuality as normal by the American people. Just four years later, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down all state bans on same-sex marriage, legalized it in all fifty states, and required states to honor out-of-state same-sex marriage licenses.
Recognition of the climate crisis has been growing in the United States. Four short years ago, climate change was not even on the radar in presidential debates, while this year, one Democratic candidate, Washington Governor Jay Inslee, made it his singular focus, and most of the Democratic candidates have put forth comprehensive plans for addressing the climate crisis. This reflects the rising importance this issue holds in the hearts and minds of voters.
However, unique to the United States, there are huge differences in how the climate crisis is viewed between our two major political parties. Between 2013 and 2019, the share of adult Americans who say that climate change is a major threat to the well-being of the United States has grown from 40% to 57%, according to Pew Research polls, but almost all of this growth has happened among liberals and moderates. During this period, the numbers rose from 64% to 94% for liberal Democrats, 54% to 75% among moderate or conservative Democrats, but rose only from 34% to 43% among moderate or liberal Republicans, and just from 14% to 19% among conservative Republicans.
It is apparent from these numbers that unless the Democrats come to totally dominate our government, it will be necessary for many more Republicans to start being deeply concerned about the climate crisis. Since this is what needs to happen, let’s consider how it might come about.
First, of course, we need to ask why this divide. I see two primary reasons. The first, not surprising, is money. As shown in the book Merchants of Doubt, just as big money behind tobacco managed for years to cruelly and intentionally spread doubt about whether smoking caused cancer, the same approach (and in some cases, even the same people!) are casting doubt about the reality, cause, or risks of climate change. The Koch brothers, oil companies, and railroad companies that transport coal have been major funders of this disinformation campaign.
The second reason is that the Republican party has become essentially a tribal organization. Membership in it is heavily tied up with holding certain beliefs, just as some churches demand a certain belief structure from their members. Perhaps starting with the strong connection between Al Gore, who lost the presidency to George Bush only by a Supreme Court ruling, with the topic of climate change through his book and film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” Republicans became increasingly opposed to dealing with climate change, just because they saw it as a Democrat agenda. In particular, a key theme of the Trump presidency has been the attempt to undo all efforts towards dealing with climate change that President Obama initiated.
Given that the Republicans seem to be dug in to resisting dealing with or even acknowledging the reality of the climate crisis, is there any real hope of changing their hearts and minds, so that Republican legislators won’t block effective climate change legislation? I say the answer is yes.
First of all, it should be noted that young Republican are much more likely to support action on the climate crisis than older ones. A recent survey from the Pew Research Center shows that more than half of adult Republicans under the age of 38 say the federal government should be doing more. Even in the next four years, as teenaged Republicans become voters and the oldest Republicans can no longer vote, the balance will begin to shift.
Second, as we continue to experience crises caused by climate change, Republican directly and indirectly affected by them will come to recognize the necessity of taking action. Farmers who experience crop failure have a powerful motivation to negate the old saying, “Everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it.”
Third, we are seeing more and more media showing the importance of dealing with the climate crisis. Newspapers and media no longer feel the need to present a “balanced” view with some climate denier being quoted along with every scientist. As movies and television programs viscerally communicate the importance and reality of this issue, and as more and more people recognize and speak out about it, the increasingly few holdouts will shift their views.
I was recently encouraged in this vein by an article I read. I have a relative who is a Libertarian and who has outspokenly denied that climate change was an issue, even if it was real and human-caused. Each year he gives me a subscription to the Libertarian magazine Reason, which has long argued against the topic. In the January, 2020 issue there is an article titled “Climate Change: How Lucky Do You Feel?” in which the author follows his own change of mind on this topic, from “the threat of global warming is overblown” to “global warming could well be a significant problem” to “climate change is proceeding faster and is worse than I had earlier judged it to be.” If this magazine, supported by the Koch brothers, is going through a change of heart, we can see that the shift is everywhere.
A fourth possibility is that a powerful spokesperson will emerge who is able to speak across our political divide. Greta Thunberg spoke truth to power in a manner that touched many of us, and others may arise who are even more effective in touching the hearts and minds of those who remain unconvinced or who do not feel urgency about taking action.
Finally, as I point out in an earlier article, what might well really turn the tide is a major Republican leader who is convinced of the necessity of dealing with the climate crisis. Remember that in the past, Republicans often were supporters of environmental issues. We remember Richard Nixon for Watergate, but we may forget that he founded the Environmental Protection Agency, proposed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act. Also, George H.W. Bush was known as the “environmental President.” He strengthened the Clean Air Act, implemented cap-and-trade policies to reduce pollution and acid rain, worked to support energy efficiency and renewable energy. He wanted to take action on global climate change, and at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, said, “We must leave this Earth in better condition than we found it, and today this old truth must be applied to new threats facing the resources which sustain us all, the atmosphere and the ocean, the stratosphere and the biosphere. Our village is truly global.”
If the next Republican president takes a similar courageous stand, there is no question that she or he could get the backing both of Republican and Democratic lawmakers and pass the kind of far-reaching legislation that is needed to address the crisis we face.
In summary, then, we can see that momentum is on our side. More and more Americans are already becoming convinced of the reality and urgency of the climate crisis. Young people in particular are being courageous and outspoken in demanding action, and we may already have passed the tipping point. The one barrier at this point in time to beginning effective action is the resistance of mostly old, mostly white, mostly male Republicans. But there is some movement even there, and every reason to believe there will be much more movement soon. Add your voice to the mix, and we will be that much closer toward achieving this first step in the climate solution.
Thank you for reading this article. Follow me to get the remaining articles in this series as they are released.
