Climate Change Is Here; Why Aren’t We Doing Anything About It?
Regarding the impending climate crisis, Yale scientist Anthony Leiserowitz tells Bill Moyers: “You almost couldn't design a problem that is a worse fit with our underlying psychology." The solution? Part of it involves turning the issue into talking points for conservatives.
Regarding the impending climate crisis, Yale scientist Anthony Leiserowitz tells Bill Moyers: “You almost couldn’t design a problem that is a worse fit with our underlying psychology.” The solution? Part of it involves turning the issue into talking points for conservatives.
How about describing global warming as a threat to Americans’ freedoms? “If you’re a rancher or a farmer in the Great Plains today,” Leiserowitz says, “your freedom is enormously constrained by the fact that you’re in the midst of a two-year severe drought, OK. You don’t get to choose what you’re going to plant. You don’t get to choose what cows you’re going to slaughter. In fact, we’ve just seen in Texas in the past year 2 million head of cow, cattle are no longer in Texas; they had to move them out because they couldn’t provide the food and forage and water for them because of that drought. That’s not freedom, OK. You are literally not able to do the thing that you were raised and that you believe in as part of your culture because the climate has changed.”
Another approach Leiserowitz recommends, however difficult it is to imagine gaining traction among the Republican Party’s entrenched corporate backers, is to cast support for climate change legislation as an opportunity to win more votes from the American public.
Read a transcript of their conversation here.
— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.
‘Moyers & Company’:
Dig, Root, GrowThis year, we’re all on shaky ground, and the need for independent journalism has never been greater. A new administration is openly attacking free press — and the stakes couldn’t be higher.
Your support is more than a donation. It helps us dig deeper into hidden truths, root out corruption and misinformation, and grow an informed, resilient community.
Independent journalism like Truthdig doesn't just report the news — it helps cultivate a better future.
Your tax-deductible gift powers fearless reporting and uncompromising analysis. Together, we can protect democracy and expose the stories that must be told.
This spring, stand with our journalists.
Dig. Root. Grow. Cultivate a better future.
Donate today.
Impeachment is an important historical moment — but we must look past it to create the possibility of real change.
Environment
His new novel, "Radio Free Vermont," focuses on climate change and ways to fight the system.
Politics
Social anthropologist Yarimar Bonilla discusses the challenges citizens in the U.S. territory face in the wake of recent storms.
Politics
A discussion on President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The police can take your assets even if you haven't been convicted of a crime.
Watching the failure of another GOP effort to deprive millions of their medical care, I recalled a very different scenario under then-President Lyndon B. Johnson.
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.