Why Believers Like us are in the 89% who Don’t Take Big Action on Global Warming

Why are you one of the 89 percent of Apathetic Petroholic Americans who haven’t demanded that your senator take immediate action on climate change?

Even though a majority of Americans believe anthropogenic climate change is occurring, only 11 percent of us have actually contacted our Congressional reps and told them to take action now, according to new data from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC). There is no shortage of theories about why humans fail to take immediate and drastic action to halt the increasingly troubling scenario of climate change predicted by NASA, NOAA, and the IPCC. This apathy is concerning because according to the YPCCC more than 40 percent of us are either “concerned” or “alarmed” about climate change.

Photo by Glenn Fay

The reasons very few of us take action vary. Sure, some of us are hornswoggled and confused, or permanently dismissive. But let’s talk about the believers who are pretty sure something really bad is happening and it is going to get irreversibly worse without serious intervention. How many of us are actively advocating for a seismic shift in climate policy? What holds us back from swerving away from a destructive climate change scenario? Writing blog posts and driving the Prius in eco mode are a start, but let’s face it, immediate, significant, large-scale change can only come if we pressure the people who subsidize carbon dumping in the atmosphere while maintaining a level playing field.

One psychologist, Per Espen Stoknes, says that there are five psychological barriers to climate action. These include the perceived distance to the problem of climate change (it’s far off in the future in another location), the pervasive doom scenarios (there’s no hope), the dissonance we feel about living the lie (petroholics who know it’s happening), the denial we are engaged in (when we feel guilt), and the (conservative) cultural identity that filters reality out of the problem.

Let’s focus on dissonance since it includes many of those who believe it is happening. Stoknes says the inaction is similar to the conundrum we face if we are smokers. Smokers encounter cognitive dissonance. They are often presented with evidence that smoking causes an elevated risk of cancer and other diseases, yet they are addicted and continue to do it. This is not unlike the position we all face with global warming. We are addicted to a way of life that fuels the problem and loads the dice for devastating present and future consequences.

Stoknes points to research that shows smokers have a pattern of dealing with cognitive dissonance in four different ways.

• First, they modify reality by saying something like, “I don’t smoke that much so it’s not that big a problem.”
• Second, they weaken the importance of concern and might say, “My Aunt Mary smokes and she doesn’t have cancer, and my uncle Bobby never smoked and he died of cancer.”
• Third, they add extra cognitions to the scenario, such as “if I do something healthy like run a couple of miles, I can afford to have a smoke.”
• Fourth, they deny any relationship between smoking and cancer, such as saying, “There are studies that show smoking doesn’t cause cancer. I am going to go with that.”

In the case of global warming, the cognitive dissonance might be: Carbon pollution leads to devastating climate change and I have a significant carbon footprint.

How do we deal with the dissonance?

As a conservative, adhering to your group’s cultural identity is really paramount. As Stoknes says, “Identity easily eats reality for breakfast.” We might not expect conservatives to risk ostracism by proclaiming what the problem is. But what about those of us who know the facts about climate change?

Here are some examples of how many Americans deal with the dissonance, and fail to become motivated to take large-scale action.

1. “My carbon footprint is pretty small. I live in a green state and the real problem is the Chinese with all of their coal-burning power plants that are really polluting the most. It’s a far away problem that may happen in the future.”
2. “The evidence for global warming is weak. It’s really just a solar cycle. The Earth is actually in a cooling phase. The weather has been freezing here lately. The earth was warming until 1998 and since then the warming has paused.”
3. “I always buy carbon offsets when I fly and I cut down on eating meat. I installed LED bulbs in my home and I have done more than my part to be green.”
4. “There are plenty of scientists who are showing that climate change is a conspiracy. The climate-crazy scientists are just profiting from making up a doomsday scenario. It’s a complete hoax.”

Do any of these sound familiar?

What about you? Are you one of the 11 percent of Americans who have taken five minutes to call and email your local, state and federal politicians and tell them to swerve on climate change?

If not, what would it take to nudge you to make that call to the Capitol?

Excuse me, I have a call to make and I am going to follow that up with an email.

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