Hope is so important. There’s a fantastic book by Michael Mann from 2021 called “The new climate wars”. In it he describes how the “climate inactivists” I.e. fossil fuel interests, the Koch brothers, the petrochemical states like Saudi Arabia and Russia, Murdoch and the others at Fox etc, would like us to continue burning fossil fuels as usual. They have realised that their old techniques of discrediting the science of climate change no longer work (mostly) but have not given up, just changed tactics. One new tactic is trying to get people to think of climate change issues as a personal responsibility issue- BP introduced the personal carbon footprint. This is instead of systematic collective action to decarbonise our economy through levers like regulation and taxation. Another tactic is to try to split the opposition- get climate change activists to fight- the vegans against the no flyers against the no children type activists. They promote these fights with bots on social media. Another tactic is to attack the messenger- e.g. calling Al Gore a hypocrite for flying, when he has done more than almost anyone to bring the world’s attention to the climate change issue. His message is still correct no matter how much he flies. This is what we should be concentrating on. But another thing that the climate inactivists do is try to encourage doomism - the view that it’s too late and there’s nothing we can do. This is false, as Mann describes in his book. But if people give up in defeat, we continue life as normal, burning fossil fuels, and the climate inactivists win. (At least until the world becomes unliveable in a few decades). I really recommend reading this book, so you can see the techniques of the enemy, be aware of them, and fight them so that we have a liveable planet in the future.
Another technique that I forgot is to focus on adaptation over mitigation. Both are now necessary. But they promote the line that it’s too late to do anything to stop it, we now have to adapt instead. It’s a form of doomism, and means society continues emitting climate change causing gases as usual.
Sorry for the delay in replying. You're so right about the role of doomism and those other tactics, all of them divert us and more importantly governments from doing what needs to be done. I'll check out the book.
Hope is so important. There’s a fantastic book by Michael Mann from 2021 called “The new climate wars”. In it he describes how the “climate inactivists” I.e. fossil fuel interests, the Koch brothers, the petrochemical states like Saudi Arabia and Russia, Murdoch and the others at Fox etc, would like us to continue burning fossil fuels as usual. They have realised that their old techniques of discrediting the science of climate change no longer work (mostly) but have not given up, just changed tactics. One new tactic is trying to get people to think of climate change issues as a personal responsibility issue- BP introduced the personal carbon footprint. This is instead of systematic collective action to decarbonise our economy through levers like regulation and taxation. Another tactic is to try to split the opposition- get climate change activists to fight- the vegans against the no flyers against the no children type activists. They promote these fights with bots on social media. Another tactic is to attack the messenger- e.g. calling Al Gore a hypocrite for flying, when he has done more than almost anyone to bring the world’s attention to the climate change issue. His message is still correct no matter how much he flies. This is what we should be concentrating on. But another thing that the climate inactivists do is try to encourage doomism - the view that it’s too late and there’s nothing we can do. This is false, as Mann describes in his book. But if people give up in defeat, we continue life as normal, burning fossil fuels, and the climate inactivists win. (At least until the world becomes unliveable in a few decades). I really recommend reading this book, so you can see the techniques of the enemy, be aware of them, and fight them so that we have a liveable planet in the future.
Another technique that I forgot is to focus on adaptation over mitigation. Both are now necessary. But they promote the line that it’s too late to do anything to stop it, we now have to adapt instead. It’s a form of doomism, and means society continues emitting climate change causing gases as usual.
Sorry for the delay in replying. You're so right about the role of doomism and those other tactics, all of them divert us and more importantly governments from doing what needs to be done. I'll check out the book.