How Agency Is Framed — Differing Perspectives on The Climate Crisis
Writer’s Blog 9
Why do some people just not care about the environment? This has been my overarching question this semester as I have been pondering the ways in which different people interact with their environments. Of course, there is the perspective that not everyone has to care because many people do not live in at-risk communities. However, almost everyone will be or already is affected by the effects of climate change. Even if someone doesn’t live in a community directly affected by a tangible issue like sea level rise, it is highly likely that everyone will at some point be greatly affected by issues like changing weather patterns which change the growing seasons for crops and affect everyone. At this point, being undereducated that climate change exists should not be an issue. For most people, at least in the U.S., not believing in climate change and therefore not taking action is a choice. I argue that many people choose to ignore the climate crisis because accepting that it’s real would demand action that people are unwilling to provide. Ignorant bliss allows people to reject agency.
Sure, I will admit it would be way easier in the short term to just pretend like climate change doesn’t exist and that our actions don’t matter! Yay! We can do anything we want without consequences! Wouldn’t that be fun? It really sucks to have to take responsibility for how our actions affect marginalized communities, the environment, and the world as a whole. At least, that seems to be the perspective of the government and big industry. I discussed the Willow Project in a previous blog, and I think this is a good example of the people in power choosing to make short-term decisions for money without thinking about the important climate and humanitarian side effects.
Interestingly, the rhetoric around these projects has a significant effect on how people perceive them. When infrastructures like oil drilling projects and pipelines are characterized as ‘critical infrastructures,’ it imbues them with some importance that is critical to the greater good. Therefore, people who refute the projects, as exemplified by the NoDAPL movement, are framed as directly opposing the greater good of the public. It is important to consider who (or whose wallets) these infrastructures are critical for, and who and what they actively destroy or harm.
In Digital Writing for Social Action, I will be writing a feature story on how different framings of the environment affect perspectives on climate change. How do certain indigenous communities frame their relationship with nature and how does this affect their personal agency? Could other communities benefit from viewing nature through other lenses? I will be exploring these different viewpoints and their various effects on how agency is constructed to fight against the climate crisis.
