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

I think Americans don't care about climate change (or try to deny its existence) because (a) we are functionally illiterate when it comes to understanding science; and (b) if we were really to address the issue, we'd have to make hard, substantive changes in our lifestyles (i.e., consume less; drive less; burn fewer fossil fuels). If we're really going to be honest about the issue, 99% of Americans don't want to give up their creature comforts, and so we live in a state of denial. It has nothing to do with "the mission of the Left," and everything to do with the fact that we are fat and comfy and don't want to change a thing or give up any aspect of our lifestyle. Because short of that, the global temps are going to continue to rise. But as a society (and I'm sure the message board comments will bear this out), we really don't want to sacrifice a thing.

Once I was skiing with a guy. We were taking a break, and he pulled out little glass jars with snacks in them and said, "No plastic here!", while wearing thick plastic ski boots, that he was likely to replace every couple years. We are dumb asses, and most activists are all for show. I agree, we love our comforts and are nowhere near willing to give up enough of them to make a dent in climate change.

Americans care about climate change, but we aren't causing it. China has 3x the amount of emissions as USA, and India will soon be surpassing us.

Why should we voluntarily destroy our economy and let China be the strongest nation in the world?

Furthermore, the individual Americans that are most responsible for climate change are the rich elites and their private jets.

Why should your average American have to sacrifice their air conditioning when they cause .0000000001% the emissions as Bill Gates or Taylor Swift?

Nothing we do will 'make a dent in climate change'. It's out of our hands.

I don't care about climate change precisely because of my strong scientific background. Computer models aren't science. They're games.

If someone can xray the planet and estimate very accurately how much oil is left, we could then enact enough activism and corporate/ government regulation, as voted in by citizens, to change things. If you get enough sexy people to start creating culture out of wearing old clothes, crafting, and tremendously limiting purchases and travel, everyone will start following suite.

For example - we have 200 trillion cubic liters of oil that are accessible within the next 200 years, or something... that would scare people, because that's like 100 years of oil

Shouldn't we be more concerned about consumerism per se? The disposability of everything we buy? The planned obsolescence?

Americans don't need to worry about 2+ billion climate migrants because you have those big nice oceans on either side and some sticks to poke with too.

Europe however...

Some Americans are so uneducated they think computer models are just games, not realizing computer models are relied upon in dozens of activities we interact with daily.

so you're saying that millions of people flying around in passenger planes all day every day have less environmental impact than a few billionaires in private jets?

Americans also believe that geniuses and technology will save us in the nick of time. They also hold on to this belief while gutting education, marginalizing science, and being fearful of intelligent people whom they see as enemies of "Real Americans".

To which I reply, bullxxxt. The science is nowhere to be settled & manmade CO2 represents just 6% of the CO2 (the remainder is nature, volcanoes) & not to mention there are other factors that the Left ignore that effects climate (earth's rotation on its axis for one). Then when the Left is pressed on how much it will cost & how much it will reduce the temp. they either have no idea or know the cost is billions & billions of $$. On, please tell me what the average temp. of the earth should be? Just plant more trees.

You are a moron though.

Can't understand why Obama bought a mansion which sits at sea level, when he said that global warming was a huge issue.

Can anyone help in explaining it?

Thanks In Advance!

"We arent causing it..." and subsequent argumentation...just weaves and dodges defensively and ignores any responsibility to deal with this world wide crisis. Shouldnt we be trying to cooperate and encourage dialog toward dealing with the problem? It will never be solved or even approached unless we find civil and positive approaches to get started on a plan to avoid global catastrophe. No unwaranted alarm sounded here!

Wall-e

smh - coachbbbb is right about you americans are functionally illiterate - the amuont of upvotes this bs has is nuts

china produce those emissions because they're the factory of the world making all the useless sh*t that us westerners buy.

so our overconsumption is linked and their emissions are our upstream emissions

also cumulative emissions are an important consideration - we have burned a load and so now have some responsibility

I think he might have been concerned about micro plastic ingestion. That stuff will turn you transgender

We are burning over 20 MILLION barrels of oil into the atmosphere per day in America alone*. Climate change is real. But you are right, people don't really care.

But like most things in life, it is due to a huge mix of factors, not just one thing:

1) It doesn't impact us right this second so we can literally ignore it. I am still running my normal running routes and so are you. The temps are hotter than last year, but I am still running.

2) People are skeptical of experts in a nation where we are proud to be "free thinkers" (even if we have minimal knowledge of an issue)

3) Scientists have been wrong before so people don't want to "fall for it" again and again. Though if we are fair, scientists are pretty awesome and all out technology works because they are usually right

4) truly changing our lifestyle would destroy the American culture of single-family homes, big cars and trucks, lots of travel, and lots of consumption

5) Despite the fact that it is real, a lot of people assume our attempts to "solve" the problem will never work, so why bother

6) Other culture-war issues like DEI, race relations, immigration, abortion, feminism, gay rights, trans rights, wokeness, M@GA, "gays for Hamas," gun rights, "the war on Christmas," and so on are more likely to inflame voters, so politicians tend to hype up those issues instead

7) Other countries are also part of the problem and we have no hope of getting those countries to make substantive changes to their economies

8) Pretending it is fake triggers the "Libs" so some people just do it to make their political rivals suffer (even if it hurts all of us in the end)

9) The kinds of changes you can make at home are pretty minimal, so many people have given up

10) Scientists named it "global warming" and then realized that all this additional heat in the system would also cause evaporation and thus put moisture into the air. That, in turn, would lead to massive snow storms at higher latitudes, hurricanes, rain storms, etc. Due to all this energy in the atmosphere, it sometimes snows huge amounts. How can it be "warming" if I have snow at my house? This means that they had to change the name to "climate change" which just isn't scary

11) People just don't think 2° Celsius is a lot and they don't care because on a day-to-day scale, it isn't. Even though it is a big deal when applied to the whole surface of the Earth

12) Scientists have solved a lot of our problems before, so we expect scientists to do so again on this issue as well

13) The people who are most brutally impacted by this are not the same people who can solve this. That is a bad way to get a issue onto the front burner...

14) The poor who will have to leave their homes along the equator will probably not be able to make it to America, so most Americans don't care. The global poor will have to move, but not here

15) Global population is starting to drop, so perhaps this will solve the problem in a natural way. Fewer people means fewer emissions.

And this list could go on and on. I am just cranking out "reasons" off the top of my head. There are probably many I forgot.

*

pbs.org

U.S. and Global Oil Consumption | American Experience | PBS

When oil was doscivered in Prudhoe Bay on the North Slope of Alaska, it was the single largest field ever found in North America.

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