"I Don't Believe in Climate Change" - Moving Beyond Political Polarization to Agreement on Actionable Science
Abstract
Climate is changing: it's real, it's us, and the window of time to prevent dangerous impacts is closing fast. Yet for many, the most significant predictor of whether they agree with this statement isn't how informed they are on the science: it is where they lie on the political spectrum, and the extent to which they have built their identity on their politics.
In an increasingly polarized world, how can we move beyond partisanship to meaningful action informed by solid science? I argue that we can do so by addressing two of the most pernicious myths people believe. The first myth is the idea that climate change is a distant issue, affecting people or places far away in space or time. Drawing on examples from the Fourth U.S. National Climate Assessment, I show how we can address this by connecting the dots between global climate change and impacts that people experience, in the places where they live. The second myth is the idea that climate solutions are punitive, austere, and exclusively liberal in nature. Although more challenging for us scientists, it is one that we need to tackle if we are interested to reaching out to those who reject the science of climate change partially or primarily because they perceive the solutions to be unacceptable. By informing ourselves of a broad spectrum of pragmatic and attractive solutions that build resilience, grow local jobs, increase energy security, and invest in a vision for a better future, it is often possible to build agreement on values that we share, regardless of political ideology.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFMPA14A..05M
- Keywords:
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- 1699 General or miscellaneous;
- GLOBAL CHANGE