Why is there is a huge gap between what most Americans believe should be done about climate change and our government’s actions? The retreat and disarray on climate protection in Washington since the 2010 elections don't reflect a major shift in public opinion. Rather they continue a long tradition of inaction in the face of public support for government action.
In June of last year a Woods Institute survey of 1000 Americans found that
-- 76% believe the U.S. should limit greenhouse gas emissions by U.S. businesses
-- 68% believe the U.S. should take action even if other industrialized nations don’t.
Separate surveys in three states, Florida, Maine, and Massachusetts, (600 residents in each) were in line with the national findings. More recently, according to a new state survey four out of five Massachusetts residents believe that we have a moral obligation to do what we can to reduce global warming and three in five believe the federal government should be doing “a lot” to deal with global warming.
Despite longstanding and strong public support for federal action, Washington has failed for decades to act.
Why?
Much of the gap between the concerns of the public and public policy can be blamed on the influence of oil and fossil fuel interests and their political allies. This influence has been used to veto action in Congress.
But there are deeper and less comforting reasons for the disconnect between opinion and policy.
Climate is deeply rooted in human consciousness and values.
Climate stability, climate security, is one of humanity’s most ancient concerns. It figures prominently in the biblical account of creation. In Genesis (8: 21-22) God said to Noah after the flood, “I will not curse the ground any more for man’s sake…. While earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”
Now, as anyone who has paid attention for any length of time knows, seedtime and harvest are changing, flowers are blooming much earlier in the spring than only a couple of decades ago, unmistakable evidence that the seasons themselves are shifting.
It has now perversely become a source of hope that man, not the God of Creation or natural forces, is the cause. For if we have caused the changes, then we have a chance to slow them down. If we don’t it seems certain that we and our children are going to be in serious trouble.
But climate change is a daunting problem, fraught with complexity, uncertainty, and risk. It is worse than inconvenient. It is a hellishly difficult problem. Its causes are embedded in our culture, technology, economy, and our way of life.
Some people take small baby steps to respond, buying hybrid cars, new lightbulbs, and green products. Others take none. (According to the recent Massachusetts poll: "...there does not appear to be a link...between an understanding of global warming and conservation behavior.") Small wonder even our boldest elected officials propose their own baby-step measures.
Everyone is waiting for someone, someone else, to lead the way to a solution while the time for effective response rapidly dwindles. Will it be President Obama? China? Climate scientists? A new Einstein who discovers an endless supply of clean energy? A biologist who finds a miracle crop?
Despite the self-censorship of the media on climate change, most people understand this troubling situation. According to the 2010 poll, almost 80% of Americans think that global warming will be a somewhat or very serious problem for the world and for the U.S. if nothing is done.
Many people wishfully close their eyes to the state of affairs or downplay its urgency. Some, including climate scientists and relief workers, watch, eyes wide open, haunted by memories of what they have witnessed and visions of ever more likely future calamities.
Others watch as if with hands over their eyes, peeking through their fingers, like a boy watching his favorite baseball team that is down to its last few outs and trailing in a decisive playoff game, fearing what he can’t close his eyes to, praying for a green miracle.
In vain.
We all crave climate security, and the color of climate security is red. The color of the stop sign. The color of alarm. The color of passion. Above all the color of courage.
Climate change is a threat, and it will take courage to confront it with the responses it requires -- as individuals, as a society, and as the team that kids are rooting for.
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Activists in Cambridge are getting into action later this month when they hold Climate Change Week 2011. Everyone in the Greater Boston Area is welcome, and all events are free. Featured events include:
Friday, May 13. Climate Change: Is Green Consumption a Solution? A Cambridge Forum talk and q&a with Heather Rogers, author of Green Gone Wrong: How Our Economy is Undermining the Environmental Revolution. 7:30 pm. First Parish Church, 1446 Mass. Ave., Harvard Square.
Tuesday, May 17. Witnesses of Climate Change. Testimony from around the world on the impacts changing climate is already having on people and agriculture. 7-9 pm. Harvard University Northwest Science Building, 52 Oxford St., room B103 (Large Lecture Hall).
Saturday, May 21. Climate Change ActionFest. Fair with practical information on action and advocacy to help stop climate change. Noon-3 pm, Cambridge College, 1000 Massachusetts Ave.
Red Stop Climate Change lapel pins designed by a Cambridge residents are proving popular with climate activists who want to show their colors. Pins will be on sale at these events.
Information on other events is at cceag.org.