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

Americans don't care for many reasons:

#1- none of the politicians or celebrities that shout about this stuff really seem to care too much about it in reality. They live in massive palaces and go from place to place on private jets. They aint downsizing. They aint cutting back "for the planet".

#2- People have enough sense to know that the planet changes, but we dont have anything to do with it. We had an ice age, but it wasn't because the cavemen killed too many wooly mammoths.

#3 this thing reeks of being just a big ol secular religion. It has all the trappings, just no spiritual aspect.

We do things (subject)

Things happen to us (object)

So, in your sentence, the Westerners are doing something. That means they are the subject of the sentence.

Here is an example: "We westerners buy too many things and then throw them away. Future generations will look back through history at us and shake their heads."

The footprint of those important meetings is 0.0000000000001% of the energy we spend driving F350s to buy coffee at a Starbucks we could walk or bike to.

What about what I said is wrong?

Cognitive dissonance is very uncomfortable. Conservative Christians and really all people, want to feel in control. Climate change is not individually controllable. Believing it's an act of God or it's fake alleviates the cognitive dissonance. Even believing it's impossible to address works ok.

Liberals are generally more open minded and can handle more ambiguity. They generally don't have God to fall back on, and if they do He's not a God who would remove such responsibilities. The awareness combined with a (wrong) sense of powerlessness is what leads to the apathy and depression that makes them seem stupid and weak.

conservative americans are taught climate change either doesn't exist or is natural and nothing they can do a thing about. they might do "dirty" stuff to literally mess with libs, because they are overpoliticized. they are either bought and paid for in jobs that hurt the climate, or bs'd by think tanks paid for by fossil fuels. moderates here are on autopilot that they have to change their existence in any way. they aren't trolling, but they aren't doing anything unless they are handed a prepackaged tech solution.

also, we offer little social safety net so we are responsible for paying for everything. everything has become about money which to me is our version of survival instinct. other values are dying off or tertiary. since no one, including government, is there to save you, making a buck matters way too much, and people are in debt to exist and have to be working and making money at present values. so the need to keep the money machine rolling in a state with little welfare derails public health (covid) or environmental protection/climate correction. until the aforementioned prepackaged inexpensive tech solution that doesn't require us to lift a finger arrives, you are messing with payday and my pattern of existence. go away.

arguing i get to drive my F150 because they get to fly planes to their climate conference is repackaging, we get to pollute because china does. "whatabout." meanwhile the sucker heats up while you play your childish, lawyerly fingerpointing game to which you contribute.

also, while some folks go to such conferences in counter productive ways, many don't, and even those who do, i have to factor in that they are actually wrestling with the problem, while someone driving a gas F150 when EVs exist is just not caring at all. if we play the longer game of climate over time, their emission now is trying to ward off such future behavior. while i assume the dude with a gas F150 is encouraging their kid to get one, and to work for exxon, and so forth. which when aggregated as a choice dwarfs people going to a conference.

which is my response. you pretend like it's you in your F150, it's not, it's the effect of collective choice. it's all the F150s. ditto people working for oil companies, or fending off any rivals to fossil fuel choices. i assume that dwarfs the little conference you whine about.

Can you tell me why the conference can't be done over the Internet?

Thanks In Advance!

Obvious starting point- many Americans do care deeply about climate change. Particularly people who are educated, and either still have many decades left to live or care about their children.

So the question then is, why don't the 80 year old multi-millionaires in congress act against climate change and why don't people who don't understand statistics, graphs or science care.

For the rich old selfish people - because it doesn't matter to them. Sure maybe their beach house gets destroyed by a hurricane or their summer cabin burns down, but insurance will probably pay for it and they'll just buy another. And they don't care if a million people in Bangladesh or India die, because they themselves will be fine.

For the people who are uneducated/misinformed/stupid - because they genuinely don't understand the graphs and charts proving climate change or have the capacity to understand the current and future harms. They have to just trust someone to tell them what to think, and it's a lot easier to trust the person telling you want you want to hear- "Everything is fine! Do whatever you want and don't worry about negative things that'll happen as a consequence" as opposed to someone telling you there's a problem and it's going to take work to fix.

You mean the rich old selfish people and multi-millionaires like Obama, Bill Gates, and Al Gore?

How can that be? I thought they cared deeply about Man Made Global Warming!

Can you explain?

Actually they did cause it by angering the gods because they didn't offer enough human sacrifices.