During a typical day my attention turns over various aspects of humans and the climate crisis. At least once a day, some days it might be half a day, the thoughts come and go along with a generally persistent climate anxiety. Often times the thoughts are replays of variations of questions about why humans are failing to act to preserve their future. Today as I walked my dog Cosmo I considered the different approaches we could be taking.
Some of us who haven’t given up on climate action often advocate a mix of approaches. I firmly believe that we are in an emergency that requires every kind of action possible. The most commonly discussed: Individual lifestyle changes, protests, calling/writing lawmakers to pressure for systemic change.
It seems to me that in the US at least those most likely to express concern are on the liberal side politically. Let’s just say it’s roughly 50% of the country that will claim to be concerned on some level that climate change is a real problem. I don’t know what the breakdown is in terms of those that consider it an emergency that requires serious effort, right now.
My casual observation based on family members that I interact with is that 80% acknowledge it is a real problem. But for the most part that 80% live lives which in no way express a change reflective of the problem. What I observe on Mastodon is similar but my lens is just posts of a tiny subsection of various communities and it’s just glimpses via posts.
That said, just stepping back and offering an admittedly too-vague, too-limited, too-anecdotal observation of the big picture based on all possible observations that one person might have this is what I see.
- The US political process is largely corrupted by corporate lobbies and has been for decades. It’s also just broken in a variety of ways. The result is that legislation for encouraging good behaviors and regulating bad behaviors has only happened at a minimal level and is still not nearly enough. It’s not even close to what is needed and there are few signs that what is needed will not happen. Far too little, far too late.
- American citizens generally seem aware of the above problem with the political and law making process.
- American citizens generally do not act in large numbers to lobby government for changes. Lobby here might include making phone calls, emailing, visiting law makers in local offices.
- American citizens generally do not protest or otherwise engage in large public demonstrations. The few actions that do happen are usually the efforts of a very small percentage of the population. I’d guess that less than 1% of the US population has ever attended a climate related protest.
- I’d guess that only a small percentage make much of an effort at lifestyle change, no way to measure this. Based on my observations of family members, well, it’s bleak. It’s fair to say that with only one exception my extended family have made zero effort in terms of life style changes.
As I cast around looking for any evidence to be hopeful that my fellow citizens are taking any action or willing to begin taking actions I see no evidence that it will happen. The media has certainly increased it’s coverage of the increasing frequency of intense, climate induced disasters. In fact, the headlines are almost impossible to ignore now. But that increase in coverage has had no measurable impact on the behaviors of those I see around me.
I get the sense that there is this collective delusion, a coping mechanism that is not quite working. A daily denial that allows for people to get up and function in a pretend normal. And yet, sometimes it feels like we are in a collective panic, a kind of slow motion stampede that goes nowhere as there is no obvious exit.
We see the converging crises, we see the fraying edges and the coming apart. We’re in the long emergency that will have no end.