Let’s face it, climate denial is out of date.
The talking heads nowadays no longer use the standard dismissing, ill-informed, arguments. It’s no longer “climate always changes” or “the science isn’t settled”, no.
What we hear in 2019 from someone who people who once laughed about a broken hockey stick or to not be scared of a lump of coal is that “climate change is a matter we need to address…”
Okay, that’s redressing news.
“…but kids should be in school, so that they can do something about it.”
Or that Greta is a “spoilt brat” who owes the wonders of her life (the carbon intensive wonders, that is) to the boomers she now addresses.
Or that the Extinction Rebellion is a group of unemployed layabouts – and worse, hypocrites – doing nothing to solve the very serious problems we face.
Climate denial has moved on to the next stage of grief – climate rage.
It’s no less a distraction mind you. They don’t offer any solutions to an issue they seem to accept is real and pressing. All of their arguments come down to one dressed in a million hats;
A climate action advocate is not allowed to advocate unless they have given up on modern technology.
But I like a rebuttal I found to this in the article, The Tragedy of the Tragedy of the Commons By Matto Mildenberger;
Harvard historian Naomi Oreskes reminds us, “[abolitionists] wore clothes made of cotton picked by slaves. But that did not make them hypocrites … it just meant that they were also part of the slave economy, and they knew it. That is why they acted to change the system, not just their clothes.”
The truth is, we’re advocates for the 21st – which recognises that the fossil fuel industry is outdated. It’s time to move on.
That of course is where climate grief is born. It’s difficult to face the mistakes we’ve made or that we need to change our behaviours. It’s hard enough on a person level to eat better, exercise more or drink less – think about the scale of change necessary and on a societal level.
It’s massive.
On my own personal social media, I’m even finding that I’m having argument with people I never used to.
It’s a very different argument, but in truth, it’s born from climate denial and it’s perhaps even uglier when we think of the language it’s willing to use, say, school children or a 16 year old advocate.
newanthropocene.wordpress.com 