Friday, February 23, 2018

Is Public Opinion Change on Climate Change Too Little, Too Late?


Dear Editor:

In response to Livia Albeck-Ripka’s “How Six Americans Changed Their Minds about Global Warming” (Feb. 21), it’s fitting that I find this interesting piece on American perceptions of climate change on a February day in New Jersey that has shockingly reached temperatures of 80 degrees. That said, I’m not reacting to this article in a sardonic way. It profiles six Americans from across different walks of life who have all gradually accepted the reality of climate change and the importance of stopping it. It’s simultaneously worrying and encouraging. Worrying because it not only affirms problems surrounding how people respond to climate change I had been aware of, but also new social issues I myself have never encountered.

Conservatives still fear climate change as an impetus for more government intrusion into their lives. One of the skeptics interviewed, a salesman in Seattle, dismissed having a responsibility to help mitigate climate change when the politicians, businessmen, and celebrities who advocate for sustainability likely contribute to greater greenhouse gas emissions than he will in his lifetime. So that disconnect between Americans of different social classes on climate still exists.

At the same time, new climate activists have only become involved as the impacts of climate change have generated unexpected new social ills. A community leader from a poor neighborhood in Miami has essentially been forced into climate activism because rising sea levels have encouraged wealthy property owners to move into her native Liberty City, which is further inland, and increase housing prices. I first learned about environmental gentrification--when pollution cleanups and greening programs drive up housing prices—last year, and now I have to consider climate gentrification, too. We see again and again that even in a wealthy nation like the United States, those most affected by climate change will be the working class.

But the article is also encouraging because it touches on an important theme I learned at a conference for climate-minded folks in the higher education community: people can change when they are given the right opportunities. Evangelical Protestants make up a large number of politically active Americans. Anyone who has paid attention to an election cycle, especially a presidential one, has noticed their influence. So it feels quite promising to read of a growing movement of evangelical members and priests who are committed to living more sustainably and slowing down climate change. The individual profiled, the Rev. Jim Cizik, mentioned that he was ostracized by the evangelical community for his progressive views on climate change in 2002, but the impression of the article is that those views might slowly be changing. I particularly liked Cizik’s comment on changing his mind about climate change: “If you’ve never changed your mind about something, pinch yourself, you may be dead.”

I’m not sure how I felt as I finished the article. Its message seems to be that more and more Americans are starting to understand the imminent threat posed by climate change. But they have only started considering that as those threats have materialized in their lives. One North Carolina woman started to reconsider her climate skepticism as roads near her seaside home flooded more and more often. A former mayor of Miami became convinced partially because of his son’s diligent prodding, but also after the city was struck by harsh floods after Hurricane Irma. I worry that it might be a case of too little, too late: despite changes in opinion, the federal government seems poised to continue exacerbating the issue. Still, sitting in a 75-degree room on a day where the heat has not been turned on once, I can only hope that these thought-provoking weather patterns will be able to convince people like no politicians or television personalities could.

Andrew Herrara
Mahwah, NJ

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