The Fatal Flaw — A Climate Change Post-Mortem
Why did the environmental movement fail to stop climate change? These three lessons may yet save us.
Despite the dedicated passion and massive efforts of earnest environmentalists and climate activists, only one thing changed — the climate. It’s time to regroup and review the core reasons we failed. Once we understand the real problem, see what we said wrong, and find alternatives, we can move forward with success.
We Didn’t Understand The Problem
In business, you first state the problem your product will solve. Our problem, climate change. Our product, action. Through methodical study, we proved not only how climate change happens but how to solve it. We invented alternative energy systems, electric cars, vat-grown meat. Our technology knew no bounds. Despite our scientific prowess and know-how, sales fell flat. Why?
The clue was right in front of us all along. We called it anthropogenic climate change, yet we focused on climate change. We should have focused on “anthro”. While working on changing the climate, we failed to change minds.
We didn’t foresee how humans would take the news that the planet was dying, that we are dying. We could have used the Kubler-Ross model to…