Why do you think climate change has become a political issue? What makes people care about the climate change issue so much (regardless of whether they are staunch believers in it or non-believers)?
I assume people are actually trying to care about how they interact with the environment instead of simply having the environment be there for us to just do as we please.
Personally, I don't really give a shit since I think by the time not having an ozone layer or something like that, we'll have figured out how to build our own. If you're familiar with Star Wars, I expect Earth will look like Coruscant one day.
I like to think it's partly because over the last few years people seem more aware about health-related issues in general (both personal and global). We don't eat like our grandparents used to eat, we ban smoking and trans-fats from restaurants, we give lip-service to the benefits of cardiovascular exercise. Moreso than in the past. Granted, people are still making silly decisions with respect to health. For example, many people feel better buying organic products because they have a vague sense that organic is better for them and for the environment, even if they don't know what "organic" means (or that "organic" doesn't necessarily mean "better"). Similarly, on a global level, many more people are (FINALLY) beginning to sense that something is quite wrong with what we've been doing to the environment. We still make the same types of silly mistakes despite this awareness (I don't see many more people car-pooling or using more efficient lightbulbs, but more people see these climatic changes occurring). It's harder to ignore the issue
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I can't answer your specific question but a lab I am currently affiliated just did a study about people's self and group guilt in relation to their perceived effects on the environment. In one version of the experiment, mortality salience was primed. In the death primed condition, people felt more guilty.
Just an interesting finding I thought I'd let you know a bout, since you work with Tom P. Any suggestions on where to go from there? Is there any interest from your side of the Mississippi in a death-guilt connection?
Why do people now care about the climate change issue?
Because the people who have been talking about it for years finally got the situation in which to bring it up in a favorable light to the world at-large (as an anti-Bush topic, which gets automatic press and a visceral agreement from much of the population), and finally got the funding to put it into entertainment formats (An Inconvenient Truth, anyone?) so that the Joe-on-the-street can more easily find out about it. And once people actually start to care, major corporations have to start with their own publicity to make themselves the most 'green-friendly' to appeal to the public to keep their sales up -- which in turn sparks more "push" getting to the average citizen, and makes them care more.
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Personally, I don't really give a shit since I think by the time not having an ozone layer or something like that, we'll have figured out how to build our own. If you're familiar with Star Wars, I expect Earth will look like Coruscant one day.
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Just an interesting finding I thought I'd let you know a bout, since you work with Tom P. Any suggestions on where to go from there? Is there any interest from your side of the Mississippi in a death-guilt connection?
Reply
Because the people who have been talking about it for years finally got the situation in which to bring it up in a favorable light to the world at-large (as an anti-Bush topic, which gets automatic press and a visceral agreement from much of the population), and finally got the funding to put it into entertainment formats (An Inconvenient Truth, anyone?) so that the Joe-on-the-street can more easily find out about it. And once people actually start to care, major corporations have to start with their own publicity to make themselves the most 'green-friendly' to appeal to the public to keep their sales up -- which in turn sparks more "push" getting to the average citizen, and makes them care more.
Reply
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