Why Americans don't care about climate change. An interesting theory.

Y'all self involved as he'll and the urge to have discussions overrides any sense of if that discussion actually should happen or not

You make good entertainment and are loyal to your buddies like Australia

That's it

Ruxton's list is great, but just to add: people often don't act in their best interests.

For example, a far less contentious social issue: obesity.

Most Americans are overweight. Many grossly so.

To varying degrees, Americans know that with exercise and lifestyle changes their health span (if not life span) would improve, that their lives would be far more enjoyable, that they'd see a boost in attractiveness and social status, that they'd be better off for it, that they'd possibly alleviate pressure on their family / friends (over the long run) etc.

Yet most don't do it.

Thank you for entirely making my point for me.

If you were a Nordic skier in the winter, you'd find that places that used to be open all the time for skiing like 20 years ago are now only open a handful of days a year because of lack of consistent snowfall. And in Holland, a skating race that used to occur on the rivers/canals that was a huge winter tradition has not been held in the last eight or so years because the ice is no longer thick enough to support a race. Runners will feel the effects eventually as well.

The average American only cares about things that impact them directly in the immediate future. As case in point, look at how wildly the polls swing for the US Presidental candidate when you'd think their minds would have been made up months ago. Look at the obesity crisis. People know it's bad for them, but the health problems might not arise for 20 years so why bother? With climate change happening 100 years in the future, it's not even in the top ten issues of concern for most households.

Plus, older Americans (boomers) have seen the alarmist forecasts miss over and over.

North polar ice cap completely gone by 2016... never happened.

Polar bears are going extinct! Nope, polar bear population is actually growing.

Mt Kilamanjaro will be be snow free. Nope.

Pictures of the Statute of Liberty partially underwater... not even a noticeable (to the average person) rise in sea level.

The infamous hockey stick chart showing temperatures skyrocketing... since debunked.

Climategate showing how scientists were playing fast and loose with the global temperature database.

And finally, the hypocrisy of climate alarmists. (Private jets are usually cited, but here in Tennessee, most people who follow climate change know that public records showed that Al Gore's Tennessee home had an annual utility bill of... $30,000! That's a lot of CO2 emissions.

In short, climate alarmists have cried "Wolf!" so long and so often that most people just ignore the latest reports.

Plus, most Americans know that China is the world's leader in CO2 emissions and that their emissions continue to grow.

Ive never heard such nonsense in my life, but whatever.

I have a better theory about why people dont care about climate change. Its personal responsibility.

Its very easy to blame corporations, oil companies farmers etc for pollution, but the reality is its consumers who drive the demand for every single thing they produce.

No one in America is willing to give up a single thing that may in some small way inconvenience them for the sake of saving the planet.

Drive a smaller car, live in a smaller house, bike to work, eat out less, wear old clothes, don't have artificial green lawns etc all require some "sacrifice" that Americans wont make.

Dont blame others, blame your own insane demand for the biggest slice of the pie. Capitalism demands that you never settle for anything less.

I think you're mostly referring to one political party here. I'm an American and certainly don't follow these ideals. It is a scary time though, given the sheer number of folks who do believe these things.

That rationalizing is the problem. The US is contributing plenty, especially in its region. Not only do we provide the marketplace for illegal drugs and the weapons for the dealers of the drugs to destabilize entire societies in Latin America, we also cause the warming of the earth, that is a factor for some people to migrate to the US looking for a new life as the crops are affected and lifestyles are forced to change. It’s like the Maron joke that mocks at the thinking we help by using our reusable bags. And that’s all we do.

"Stop focusing on dumb sh*t" - Gary Vaynerchuk

I can't figure why no one has explained why Obama bought a mansion on oceanfront property.

Does he not understand man made climate change? Or does he fake being concerned about it and laughs all the time while sitting on the beach?

Help me out, man-made climate change believers!

The US has been curbing CO2 emissions since the Bush administration. I wouldn’t say Americans don’t care. Quite the opposite. We are about 20% below where we were less than 20 years ago in spite of our population increasing almost 15% during that time.

Only one thing wrong with your analysis: its wrong. You leave out data and findings, you truncate--reduce sanples to nil value-and you exclude a large body of observations, a though innumerable studies in major scientific journals, and even National Geopraphic dont exist! Your conclusions are therefore only anecdotal. With such hop skip and jump rhetoric you can make any kind of argument seem reasonable.

Because the U.S. has cumulatively pumped far more CO2 into the atmosphere than any other country, and it stays in the atmosphere for hundreds of years.

That makes the U.S. the main culprit in this disaster, regardless of what other countries are doing today.

So the U.S. bears the greatest responsibility for solving the the problem it played the biggest role in creating.

My theory on why Americans don't care enough about climate change... people (including myself) tend to hate and resist change.

The craziest part of all of this is that the American economy is powerful enough on its own to drive global change and cash in on that change. If the US decided to give up on combustion engines and dirty power production and go all in on manufacturing electric vehicles, manufacturing and deploying renewable power generation, leading the "charge" on electric grid revamping... our economy would get a huge injection of revenue from around the world, our people would develop cutting edge job skills, and our health and planet would be way better off for it. The world is going in this direction anyway, why not lead it? I mean China is not manufacturing more than three times the electric vehicles than the US per year because of their undying dedication to the environment. They want to lead and make money, and it is clear where things are going.

Case in point, when I was a kid in 1979 there was a gas shortage in the USA, gas was unavailable and was rationed. Nobody had ever heard of a Japanese car at that time, but my parents went out and bought a Honda Civic because it got 40mpg versus 15mpg that our family Ford was getting. Honda, Nissan, Toyota all of sudden were in spot to lead the world and they have not looked back. They were designing products for the future and the US car companies have been catching up ever since. The US government then mandated incremental increases from car companies in gas mileage and many in the US freaked out. Thank goodness our fleets are not still at 15mpg, as we would be spewing twice as much crap into the air, hundreds of thousands more cases of asthma, and who knows what other health impacts dirty air causes.

We all hate change, but looking at the clear future trends, investing as a country to meet them makes sense from every perspective. I know, I know, you want your Ford F-150 that gets 18mpg and leaks oil forever.

I know that many disagree, but I see government as a way for us to collectively see a vision for our country and rally everyone to the cause. When the US government says that they are pushing to increase gas mileage, increase safety standards, incentivize electric car production... it is change for the collective good. I can't believe that we now have 8 billion people on the planet. We are way beyond a world where every person gets their own slice of the earth and can do what they want with it without regulation. We need a common vision that is healthy and sustainable and need to work together. Love thy neighbor and find common cause to change for the better... or be damned. Peace!

Should we all strive to have a Carbon Footprint equal to that of Al Gore, Leonardo DeCarprio, Barack Obama, et. al.?

Global Warming would immediately cease and go home devastated!

Strive for it Lets Runners!

Left wingers are krapping their pants over one degree of warming over the next 50 years...It's idiocy...

In ten years NYC will be underwater!

The only bad thing about that is all those New Yorkers would move somewhere else and spread the Democrat Disease, or it would have to change its name to New Venice.