See the thing is, we “liberals” have done a really pi$$ poor job of communicating about global anthropogenic climate change (GACC! What a hashtag!).
Now that there seems to be at least 95% agreement among reputable scientists that:
(a) it exists and
(b) yes, it’s our fault and
(c) we’ve got to DO SOMETHING – pronto –
I believe it’s time to do everything in our power to begin a serious conversation with - the goal being to join forces with - those who profess to be on the “other side of the aisle." Only that way can we begin to work for change together. And to do that, we need to change our messaging so that it's effective with those we've come to see as the "opposition."
Let's start by admitting that if we have the weight of science behind our argument, and haven't convinced conservatives that they need to pay attention to climate change, we've been doing it wrong.
Can you think of a more “conservative” value than preserving the weather, temperatures, ecosystems and coastline that we humans evolved in and enjoy? Can you think of a more conservative message than “save this, our traditional way of life?”
I can’t.
It’s essentially the message of the Tea Party, in fact, although what they posit as the “traditional way of life” is a weird, convenient fiction in which the founders of the USA were Christian fundamentalists in the Michele Bachmann mold, no one was gay or lesbian or transgendered, women and people of color knew their places, and White Guys ruled the Earth.
Still, the Tea Party and the conservative movement in general is fighting HARD to save that way of life – they’ve got energy and gusto and verve – and if any of them are at all open to reason on climate change, we liberals need to find the messages that resonate with them. Instead we seem to spend a great deal of energy talking to each other in the liberal echo chamber about how stupid climate change deniers are rather than reaching across the aisle to make our case and harness some of that incredible conservative energy!
I'm convinced there are levers to push - messages to send - that could convince at least some conservatives that climate change is a clear and present danger - and, most importantly, that it affects THEM.
It's certainly possible to imagine a populist "that darned government won't help us regular people!" argument that might resonate. It's also possible to imagine that appeals to the pocketbook would be effective in refocusing from "poor sad polar bears!" to "your insurance premiums are going WAAAAY up" or "do you have the money to spend $17.99 a pound on fruit?"
Messaging that focuses on the global security consequences of climate change, and threats to American troops on foreign soil are sure to move some on the right. And it may be loathsome to even suggest this, but does it occur to anyone else that messages about climate change refugees might help to move the dial with anti-immigration conservatives?
But first things first. I believe it's time to call an immediate halt to mud slinging and denigration of Republican/conservative deniers, no matter how incredibly irksome their disinformation and disingenuous professions of "not being scientists," have been thus far.
That level of discourse has gotten us NOWHERE so far, right? It's only making the conversation increasingly toxic - which in turn hardens entrenched positions that might NOT have calcified so badly if the climate change left hadn't insisted on insulting and belittling deniers.
Do you like being told you're stupid? Do you like being insulted and called out as a mouth breather in public? Nope - me neither. And when I am challenged that way, I tend to reflexively snarl and dig in my heels. Most people do! So.... that way lies stalemate, acrimony, and deadlock. That way lies our failure to make a change to policy and practice soon enough to save the climate and ecosystems on this Planet A we cherish.
And since there is no Planet B, we have to stop and ask ourselves if the pleasure of that snappy barb or zingy insult is worth the price of making denier intransigence worse. Because the consequences of not pulling together to get ourselves out of this planet-wide climate debacle are... global.