6 Myths About the Climate Debate
Reframing the unconscious assumptions that hold us back.
We need to radically reframe the climate debate. Market solutions are not enough. We should start talking about the human capacity to do big things and how we can transform the world as we know it, something that can only be done with collective action through cooperative government.
OOPS: At some point I consolidated from 7 myths to 6 and forgot to change the title! I fixed it. Thanks for being nice about it!
What do I mean by “reframe” the debate? Human beings can only process information by unconsciously attaching it to a frame of reference that already exists in their brains. That frame then dictates to our conscious minds how to reason about the situation: what seems logical, who is right or wrong, what to think about and sometimes, even more critically, what not to think about. To take back this debate, we have to become aware of the bad frames we’re currently using and start using the right frames. The following is only the start!
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Flipping the Script on Climate
Friends in the green movement ask me questions like, “What can we say to motivate people to make sacrifices, like perhaps taking one less flight each year?” or “How do we get people to support a carbon tax?” We now know that the whole idea of a “carbon footprint” was created by the oil industry to deflect blame and focus us on individual behavior over collective action. If you take a close look at the messaging of the environmental movement as a whole, it shows that much of our thinking has become limited by unconscious assumptions:
The solutions are many, small and complicated.
Fear is the best motivator.
People will need to sacrifice.
Our role is that of an individual consumer in an economy.
We have to act within the limits of our current political situation.
The best way to drive change is to motivate the private sector.
What if we flip these assumptions on their heads? What could our strategy and message be?
1. The solution is simple.
It is easier to communicate and promote one big clear thing. When it comes to the climate, we first have to ask what must be done. To achieve what we need to achieve, there is only one viable answer: a swift and total conversion from fossil fuels to electricity generated by solar and wind. The power is available. The costs are competitive. What we need is a big drive by governments to build the infrastructure and remove logistical and financial obstacles to mass conversion. It is the only solution that would actually work. It is ambitious, but so was going to the moon and creating Obamacare.
2. Hope is the most effective strategy to motivate action.
But to give people hope, proposed solutions must be credible, and that means BIG.
We don’t need to scare people. They already know the situation is dire. Without hope, people don’t act, they shut down. This problem is huge. For any proposed solution to sound credible, it must also be huge. People talk about the things we can do as individuals. Even thought they know this isn’t enough, they say, “but it gives people a sense of agency.” If the world was going to end unless we emptied Lake Tahoe, it wouldn’t give me a sense of agency if you handed me a spoon and said “here’s what you can do.” Going for big solutions that could actually work gives people more hope than offering small solutions that won’t.
3. The solution will make our lives better.
Why do we assume this will require sacrifice? Naomi Klein and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have the right approach in this wonderful video, which is one of the best pieces of political communication I have ever seen! They want us to imagine the world that we will create. No more air pollution. Fast electric cars. Rooftop solar and lower bills. Good union jobs. You can’t outsource infrastructure construction or rooftop solar installation. People’s lives will be better in the electric future and in the transition.
4. Our relevant role is that of member of a larger society.
As individuals, we have limited power. People will not be able to envision themselves capable of doing big things unless we remind them to think of themselves as members of a larger community. The thing we can do is cooperate, using the tools of democratic government, to do what we can’t do one person at a time. That’s what we have government for.
5. Political situations can be changed.
Conservatives talk emotionally about their vision and then generate the political will to make it happen. We talk about what we can do given the confines of our political “reality”. This projects the message that we don’t expect to have power any time soon, a self-fulfilling prophecy, and mighty uninspiring. We have to talk like the majority that we actually are. We need to put all our efforts toward motivating people to take political action and put people in office who will do the right thing.
6. The best way to drive change is through government action.
We have reached the point where drastic and large-scale action is required precisely because, even though solar and wind are becoming economically competitive faster than we had predicted, the so-called “free market” still cannot solve the solve the problem without cooperation from governments and major infrastructure investment. Our current government is actively blocking advancement on behalf of the oil and gas industry. The flipside is that, in places like Spain where solar is plentiful enough to bring prices down for consumers, investors are backing out because their profit margins aren’t high enough! We need pro-transition government that serves the needs of people over profits.
The problem is now massive. The only possible solution is also massive, and the only way we will be able to do it is through collective action carried out through cooperative government. We need scale, speed and universal adoption. Only government can do that. Conservatives won’t like it, but this may be the ultimate winning argument for big government action.
Conservatives believe in a competition-based society, that if everyone seeks their own self-interest, the result will be what’s best for everyone, and that relying on others is immoral. This theory has proven not just wrong, but disastrously wrong.
We progressives recognize the undeniable fact that people are interdependent, and that cooperation is both necessary and morally good. We believe that the role of government is to manage that cooperation for the benefit of all, to do things together that we cannot do on our own, like taking bold and necessary action to change the course of our future.
These new frames will help us turn the tide on the climate debate. By giving us opportunities to talk openly about our core values and beliefs, they will also help the Left gain back lost ground in the public debate as a whole.
Thank you so much for reading this. I hope it is of use to you in your work and activism!
In solidarity, always,
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Contact me at antonia@antoniascatton.com or (202) 922-6647
NOTES:
My previous posts on framing climate stabilization and the energy transition.
Seven?
Absolutely. We can't just be against something, we need a vision. MKL Jr. didn't say, "I have a problem." He said, "I have a dream." (Though we can name those standing in the way of progress and why they are. i.e Fossil fuel companies are panicking because they are seeing their markets disappear.)
Second, our media today is full of climate disaster porn. Fear captures attention, but too much leads to fatigue, apathy and disengagement. We believe hope is the answer, but action is the antidote. Every time we bring another solar farm or wind farm on line we should celebrate those that built it. every time we create a new financial mechanism or policy that helps, we should celebrate. This creates identity. And today, identity is belief.
Finally, as we have a vision, the question is how do we proceed? We do have all the solutions we need, as you say, and many of the old barriers, as well as costs, have fallen. Bill McKibben does a great job of explaining this clean energy vision in his new book, Here Comes the Sun. ie Why does Australia have free electricity for 3 hours every day. Why is China building more renewable infrastructure that the rest of the world combined, including the US? They are doin ghuge projects.
To bring the future into the present, can you imagine your children and grandchildren saying, how did you turn around the biggest crisis that the world has ever seen? How did you have the creativity and courage to do this in the face of overwhelming odds?
Thanks for a great post.