Our Political Divide and Tribal Mentality Prevents us from Solving the Climate Crisis

 



by Michael Coppola
and Nancy Williams

We are stuck in a world of two battling tribes. One believes in man-made climate change and one that denies it. Even when storms repeatedly destroy a person's home, often that person, if he is a climate denier, will come up with some reason to continue denying the existence of the crisis. They will say such things as, we have always had storms; it's God's will; man is being so arrogant to think he could effect a change in the climate. Are they reacting this way because they have to support their tribe?

The other tribe believes that these events are happening because the climate is changing. Human activity has been putting greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere at a rate that far exceeds anything the planet has seen in the lifetime of humans. They cannot understand why people would deny the evidence and conclusions of climate experts. 

The tribe believing in climate change may fail to see that some of the climate deniers have a legitimate fear of how things that fight climate change would affect their lives. They are struggling with basic human fears; the fear of losing the means of keeping a roof over your head, food on the table, and shelter from the cold and heat.

There are many challenges that go along with mitigating climate change, but the outcomes of not addressing climate change are just as bad or worse. Sadly, there are solutions to solve the climate crisis but they can’t be effective if we don’t ALL agree they are needed.  

The clock is running down. We know that in recent decades the world temperature average has already increased by 1.3 degrees C. An average that is just below what science has said will lead to catastrophic results for the planet. Both tribes will have to make sacrifices to reduce the amount of energy we consume until the green energy sources replace the fossil fuel sources. Unless we can agree to do the things that are available to solve the problems on both sides of this issue, we all will be losers.



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