Why people don't act on climate change
Why is it that we hear about climate change then forget about it?
Now please read the following lines calmly: The average global temperature on Earth has already risen by more than 1 degrees Celsius from after 1880. We are soon passing the tipping point on the melting Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, when we will be unable to stop the entirety of those ice sheets from melting. We are close to conducting irreversible impact on the Earth, and may have already done so.
Do you ever wonder why, then, after waves of environmental news pulling off the alarm on the intensifying climate change, we still return to our normal lives 2 days after reading the news, without making any substantial changes? This article is not to blame the cause of this phenomenon on any person, but to academically assess and investigate why the topic of environmental protection is constantly neglected and forgotten. Then, the organizations or influencers spreading awareness of climate change may change their strategies of bringing awareness to the topic of climate change, and achieve better effects.
So, why do we tend to not care about climate change?
Firstly, people may feel distanced to the impact of climate change. When we introduce climate change or deforestation, it’s common for us influencers to start talking about the destroyed habitats of the polar bears in the Arctic and the abundant variety of organisms in the Amazon forest. However, most audiences we have do not live at the Amazon forest or the Arctic. Due to this distance, people may feel helpless to the situation, thus cease to put any effort into solving the issue, as they think they themselves are too far or too weak to provide effective help. However, the climate change doesn’t only at the Arctic and the Amazon forest. The effects of climate change are also visible in populated cities.
It would help if influencers can introduce to their audiences the impacts of climate change visible in their daily life—such as increased frequency of extreme weathers and the warmer summers—to reduce the distance between the audiences and climate change. Then, it would be even better if the influencers also introduced simple social practices the audiences could follow to contribute to climate change. This means to provide the solution along with the problem, thus reducing the feeling of helplessness in the audiences.
Secondly, people may feel uncomfortable when discussing the impact of humans on the Earth. Realizing that one’s own actions has harmed the environment could be a deeply distressing thing. When one feels uncomfortable about discussing something, it is a natural response to get detached with the issue in defense. This results in the phenomenon that while many may be caring about the environmental crisis deep down, they suppress their feelings and not talk about the topic.
It would be great if products that can make people conduct actions that benefit the environment obliviously are created. For example, tissues in a smaller size or plates that has a smaller area can be created to silently reduce people’s consumption of food and paper. Silently changing people’s life habits can be better than telling them how they are damaging the environment, hoping that they would make changes, yet only making people discomfortable.
The other way to reduce the uncomfortableness people have when discussing environment related topics is to find ways to provide people with immediate, positive feedback after they have conducted actions which benefitted the environment. Apps that record one’s carbon footprint, and gives badges or prizes when one has reduced their carbon footprint to an extent can be introduced to more people. These applications can be used to encourage people to change their life habits, which making them proud instead of uncomfortable.
On a side note, people should not be ashamed for being consumers of products with a high carbon footprint. There might be many factors that made people buy fossil-fuel-generated electricity—they are cheap and widespread—but not solar panels—they require the user to live in an individual housing and has a high initial cost. It should be the government’s or the business’ responsibility to make renewable sources cheaper and more favorable to the customers. Customers should not be ashamed. People should not fall into the trap of believing that they generated all the trouble, causing them discomfort. Instead, people should do what they can—which is a lot!—as a consumer. We can search up news stories and courses about climate change, and educate ourselves of the most urgent issues. We can also give genuine suggestions to greater authorities about environmental policies. There’s many things we can do, and we will definitely make a change.
In conclusion, people may be discouraged form actively updating information on the climate change due to how they feel distanced from the issue, unconfident in their own impact, and discomfortable when discussing the issue. Influencers, including Earth Academy, will work hard in the future to change our style of introducing climate change. At the same time, we need all audiences to believe in their own impact, and not feel ashamed about anything! Together, we will be able to solve the climate crisis!
Citations:
NASA, Earth Observatory. “World of Change: Global Temperatures.” NASA, NASA, https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/world-of-change/decadaltemp.php#:~:text=According%20to%20an%20ongoing%20temperature%20analysis%20conducted%20by,at%20a%20rate%20of%20roughly%200.15-0.20%C2%B0C%20per%20decade.
Daniela. “Why Do People Not Care about the Environment?” Leg Up Understanding, 18 Feb. 2022, https://usandourworld.com/809/why-do-people-not-care-about-the-environment/.