The Pernicious Psychology Behind Climate Inaction
By: Ariana Thornton
Joe Biden’s crucial Build Back Better Act, which includes a historic $555 billion investment in clean energy, is still stalled in Congress. With about ten months until midterm elections this November and uncertainties on whether Democrats will keep control of Congress, it is imperative that the act is passed before then.
Numerous climate experts and government officials have stressed the importance of the passing of this act, such as former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta, who believes that without Build Back Better, it will be impossible to meet Biden’s goal of reducing US greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent before 2030. The threat of climate change is terrifying and existential, so what is holding the nation back from enacting long-overdue climate action?
To some unconcerned people, climate change is psychologically distant: just one out of thousands of global and domestic issues vying for attention and funding. And though we have already begun to feel the effects of climate change, with extreme weather events occurring more frequently worldwide, for some, the effects are not dramatic enough to convince them that it will affect them personally and should be taken seriously.
To some constituents who do accept that human-caused climate change is real, the problem might feel so insurmountable that it’s easier to simply disengage than grapple with hopelessness. These are very human reactions, and tackling them involves repeatedly connecting climate change — an abstract concept — to its tangible consequences: deadly floods in China and Germany, wildfires in California and Colorado, and stronger and more frequent storms like Hurricane Ida here in the United States.
While a majority of Democrats are concerned about climate change, Republican voters lag behind. A 2018 poll conducted by Gallup sheds light on this frustrating problem that has been evolving for many years: the politicization of climate change. 91 percent of Democrats say they worry greatly about climate change, compared to only 33 percent of Republicans. While 82 percent of Democrats think climate change has already begun, only 34 percent of Republicans agree.
Climate change has moved from the realm of scientific research to be mired in the political arena. A person’s stance on the highly complex and sensitive issue of climate change has simply become a test of loyalty to their political party. Do you believe that conservatives are ruining the livelihoods of Americans, or liberals? It’s a deadlock that hinders substantial progress on climate action.
While thinking on this topic, I was reminded of the Netflix film “Don’t Look Up,” a satire and dark comedy released in late December. Two scientists discover a “planet killer” comet that will impact the Earth in six months and fourteen days, and immediately set about alerting the world. Yet they are ignored, joked about, and gaslighted by society and top government leaders: a reflection of current times.
As climate scientist Peter Kalmus wrote in a Guardian article, “After fifteen years of working to raise climate urgency, I’ve concluded that the public in general, and world leaders in particular, underestimate how rapid, serious, and permanent climate and ecological breakdown will be if humanity fails to mobilize.”
While researching The Exonian archives recently, I came across a 2006 article titled “Too Late to Fix the Environment?” written by Libbie Cohn ‘08 — a lower at the time, like I am now. “The United States and even Phillips Exeter Academy are not taking an active enough role in preventing the potentially catastrophic events of climate change,” Cohn wrote. “This is not a matter to be lumped in a laundry list of other initiatives during a once-a-year speech to Congress.”
That was fifteen years ago.
When that article was published, I was only a toddler, just starting to learn my ABCs. In the time since then, I finished elementary and middle school, entered high school, left my home city to attend a boarding school — and wrote an article on the very same topic, on the very same campus. Fifteen years from now, will it happen again?
We’ve had much, much longer than six months and fourteen days. The fate of our planet is not something to procrastinate on over a lifetime. Only when our polarized political atmosphere fundamentally changes and established scientific claims are regarded as facts rather than propaganda will we begin to see the climate action we need.
