Climate Change Dialogues: Denialists and the Disadvantaged

[Megan Bonetti]

CLIMATE CHANGE DIALOGUES: DENIALISTS AND THE DISADVANTAGED

Megan Bonetti | Australia: Brisbane

 

Recently I had a conversation with a close friend on climate change. The discussion captivated me with the multilayered tensions of the global north and capitalist ideologies that doggedly influence the very present concern of global warming and relating social policy. 

 

Amongst a general catch-up I queried my friend’s thoughts on climate change issues. His stark and unexpected response, “we evolve, we move on.”

…Excuse me? 

I admired the honesty. His was a real-world response of neo-liberal thought. It was brutal and it was heartless. At least he had the guts to say what many are thinking (Cook, 2014).

 

The social worker in me petitioned him with the human impacts: African farmers encumbered by draught (Dube et al., 2013; Kurukulasuriya et al., 2006; Mayer, 2013), Pacific Islanders inundated by sea water (IPCC, 2014; PIANGO, 2014, Duvat, 2013), people leaving their homelands due to ever-increasing health and environmental dangers (National Geographic, 2015; UNHCR, 2011). 

 

Again, he fires back with “survival of the fittest” rhetoric.

 

Unfortunately the climate movement has failed to gain the widespread appeal needed to pass significant climate policy and practical reform (Bullard & Müller, 2012). Industrial giants continue to produce and pollute and people like my friend; devalue the real catastrophe that is climate change (Amnesty International, 2014, 2015; Cook, 2015). While global aid organisations declare humanitarian catastrophe as a result of manmade pollution, industrial conservatives spin myths of global evolution and adaption (IPCC, 2014; Cook, 2014; UNFCCC, 2015). 

 

Local, national and global repetition of climate change catastrophe does not seem to be creating a civilizational wake up call. Moreover messages delivered in the language of fires, floods, droughts and extinction must not be blatant enough to be convincing (Klein, 2014; McKinnon, 2014). So if individuals, like my friend, and carbon emitters like, AGL energy aren’t listening, what can we do (CER, 2015, Garnaut, 2011)?

 

Upon hearing my friend’s response to climate change I felt the need to blame him and many like him for their self-righteous ideologies that have significantly impacted the global poor (Böhm, 2012). However, history shows that the human race is really good at pointing blame. Years earlier I too was reluctant to participate in the climate conversation. The debate seemed wonky with excessive jargon. Yet I was unwittingly converted from the influences of a conservative upbringing to that of a less traditional “tree-hugger.” So, how did this happen? 

 

There was no halogen light-bulb moment nor was I convinced by the volatile debate and environmental doom. For me, it was the slow unpacking of climate change in a tangible context. This was influenced through a community of people who impacted my values on sustainable living and more importantly did not guilt trip me if I put glad-wrap in the recycling bin.

 

Studies have shown that many individuals and communities feel disempowered or ignorant when discussing climate change, so in response there is silence (Szarka, 2013). Researchers suggest that protecting the rights of those disadvantaged by climate change will only occur when a non-judgemental culture of education and awareness is fostered in the discussion (Sasser, 2014; Smith, 2011). Only when climate change becomes an accessible conversation rather than a heated debate will key stakeholder’s sit-up and listen (Head et al., 2014; Luers, 2013). A movement for positive change in the environment will spread only when people, like my friend, can drop their defences and feel empowered to enter the conversation (Abney-Korn et al., 2013).

 

 

REFERENCES

 

Abney-Korn, K., Cassiman, S., & Fleetham, D. (2013). While we were sleeping: From dystopia to global awakening. Perspectives on Global Development and Technology, 12(1-2), 80-97. doi:10.1163/15691497-12341244

 

Böhm, S., Misoczky, M. C., & Moog, S. (2012). Greening capitalism?: A marxist critique of carbon markets. Organization Studies, 33(11), 1617-1638. doi:10.1177/0170840612463326

 

Bullard, N., & Müller, T. (2012). Beyond the green economy: System change, not climate change. Development, 55(1), 54-62. doi:10.1057/dev.2011.100

Dube, S., Scholes, R. J., Nelson, G. C., Mason-D'Croz, D., & Palazzo, A. (2013). 

 

South african food security and climate change: Agriculture futures. Economics, 7(35), 0_1.

 

Duvat, V. (2013). Coastal protection structures in Tarawa Atoll, Republic of Kiribati.  Sustainability Science, 8(3), 363-369. Retrieved, April 29, from  http://link.springer.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/article/10.1007%2Fs11625-013-0205-9

 

Head, L., Adams, M., McGregor, H. V., & Toole, S. (2014). Climate change and Australia. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 5(2), 175-197. doi:10.1002/wcc.255

 

National Geographic. (2015). Education: Climate Refugee. Retrieved from http://education.nationalgeographic.com.au/education/encyclopedia/climate-refugee/?ar_a=1

 

Australian Government. (2015). Clean Energy Regulator: National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting. Retrieved from 

http://www.cleanenergyregulator.gov.au/National-Greenhouse-and-Energy-Reporting/Pages/default.aspx

 

Klein, N. (2014). This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. Climate Change. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

 

Garnaut, R. (2011). Garnaut Climate Change Review – update 2011: Australia in the Global Response to Climate Change. Retrieved from http://www.garnautreview.org.au/update-2011/update-papers/up6-carbon-pricing-and-reducing-australias-emissions.pdf

 

Cook, J. (2015). Explaining Climate Change Science & Rebutting Global Misinformation. Retrieved from http://www.skepticalscience.com/climate-change-little-ice-age-medieval-warm-period.htm

 

Amnesty International. (2015). Nigeria: Hundreds of Oil Spills continue to Blight Niger Delta. Retrieved from https://www.amnesty.org/en/articles/news/2015/03/hundreds-of-oil-spills-continue-to-blight-niger-delta/

 

Amnesty International. (2014). Five Countries Vulnerable to Climate Change. Retrieved from http://www.amnesty.org.au/features/comments/35603/

 

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2014). Summary for Policy makers- Climate Change 2014: Impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Retrieved, March 1, from http://ipcc-wg2.gov/AR5/images/uploads/IPCC_WG2AR5_SPM_Approved.pdf

 

Kurukulasuriya, P., Mendelsohn, R., Hassan, R., Benhin, J., Deressa, T., Diop, M.,  Dinar, A. (2006). Will african agriculture survive climate change? The World Bank Economic Review, 20(3), 367-388. doi:10.1093/wber/lhl004

 

Luers, A. (2013). Rethinking US climate advocacy. Climatic Change, 120(1), 13-19. doi:10.1007/s10584-013-0797-1

 

Mayer, A. (2013). Climate change already challenging agriculture. Bioscience, 63(10), 781-787. doi:10.1525/bio.2013.63.10.2

 

McKinnon, C. (2014). Climate change: Against despair. Ethics & the Environment, 19(1), 31-48. doi:10.2979/ethicsenviro.19.1.31

 

Pacific Islander Association of Non-governmental Organisations. (2014). The Pacific Score on the Millennium Development Goals. Retrieved, April 29, from http://www.piango.org/Publications/publications.html

 

Sasser, J. S. (2014). The wave of the future? youth advocacy at the nexus of population and climate change. The Geographical Journal, 180(2), 102-110. doi:10.1111/geoj.12023

 

Seabright, M. (2010). The role of the affect heuristic in moral reactions to climate change. Journal of Global Ethics, 6(1), 5-15. doi:10.1080/17449621003701410

 

Smith, B. (2011). Doom, gloom and empty tombs: Climate change and fear. Studies in Christian Ethics, 24(1), 77-91. doi:10.1177/0953946810389120

 

 

Szarka, J. (2013). From climate advocacy to public engagement: An exploration of the roles of environmental non-governmental organisations. Climate, 1(1), 12-27. doi:10.3390/cli1010012

[thomas pendrake]

I comment on a lot of forums, stuff on AOL, Google+, Opera, etc., and am shocked at the anger and ignorance that so many people on the denier side seem to display.  I would expect the side that admits that anthropogenic global warming is real would be the angry ones.  Not enough people seem to read my blog for me to get a lot of comments there (Pendrake's Passions)