Why Americans don't care about climate change

The controversial topic of climate change has had its rounds of debate for decades but unfortunately for the deniers, climate change is very real, pollution is very real, and the Earth needs some serious decisions to be made by its occupants ASAP. Alas, this desperate action needed is unlikely to happen among Americans and dare to say the general population of the earth, as past evidence can prove, because of people's continual lack of urgency in the subject.

In American history specifically, changes in regulations for water and air quality have been implemented but to no perceptible triumph for there is still a high amount of toxic waste and chemicals being exposed to our air and water since the 60s and 70s when these regulations were first implemented. Although the fault to this can be equally distributed between corporations and individuals, we now have a better understanding of the underlying basis to American's lack of care in such issues.

After much consideration, it is clear that Americans don't care more about climate change because of a lack of envisioned connection between the individual's present and possible future, people's reliance on behavioral social norms, and the history of the influence our political and economic system has had on how we conduct ourselves in our planet.

            I think it's safe to say that the general population cares in some way about our natural world. The constantly crowded beaches at the coasts and floods of Instagram pictures of people's pets can prove to that. So, when we learn in school or in the media about the effects our past and present actions have on the environment people are generally moved and concerned.

How is it then that people seem to generally care about the environment, but we are still seeing the degradation of our planet increasing? What is the missing link between people caring and people choosing to do something about it?

Jeffrey Kluger, the author of the article for Time magazine "why we keep ignoring even the direst climate change warnings", thinks that it's the distant future aspect of the effects of something like climate change that takes away the urgency to change the comfortable and very fond habits that are destroying our planet. People are more concerned with their everyday present problems than the problems that may arise in the future or as Kluger put it "immediate concerns will always trump eventual concerns".

Our society's tight grip on comfort, the ever difficult to detach laziness, the sense of futility and the optimism bias most feel for impending doom is stronger than the need to act. Paul Slovic a psychologist from the University of Oregon who was interviewed by Kluger in his article phrased it as, "People just aren't going to inconvenience themselves unless they're forced to".

Unless the effects are knocking on our door in situations like being out of edible animals to eat because we destroyed the ecosystems to the point of no return, people are not likely going to correct their behaviors and actions. It is easy to picture how climate change will affect the earth in the future but it's harder to imagine how it's going to affect you personally. Slovic said "if it's hard to picture, it's easy to ignore" and if we don't feel vulnerable, we won't change our behavior.

Because we can't picture these environmental effects affecting us personally, we get lazy, we prefer to stay comfortable, we justify our actions with thinking we will figure out how to fix them in the future, or we suffice in passing blame and not taking accountability.

            It would only make sense that one of the big factors as to why American's react to climate change the way they do has to do with social norms. The way we conduct ourselves, how we think, how we behave, what we want, all have and always will somehow be connected to the people around us.

A study published to the Global Environmental Change Journal said that "social displays of one's opinion can increase related opinion in others and the failure to publicly express one's opinion can give room to undesired opinions or actions" (118). What we believe and the opinions we hold are all greatly influenced by the people we put value to. When we think about the controversy in climate change its easy to see how the sides gain their support by shared opinions.