common sense for the common good

One Voice: Convincing the Convincers

April 28th, 2008 by Vihar Sheth
Posted in Activism, Climate Change, Corporations, Education, Environment, Responsibility

Al Meyerhoff, an environmental lawyer for 30 years and former director of the Natural Resource Defense Council Public Health Project, has written a great, and slightly irreverent, piece for the Sacramento Bee entitled, “It’s getting hot”. The gist - environmentalists need to band together and create onecommon message to deliver to the people regarding climate change.  Meyerhoff believes,

People ultimately act from self- interest. Americans need to be convinced that by declaring war on the weather, they could become its victims, because warming brings with it floods and hurricanes, drought and famine, massive human migrations and the rampant spread of disease. The body politic must be persuaded that a warming climate threatens its homes and its families, its children and its children’s children.

Take for instance the war in Iraq. The government delivered to the people a thoroughly consistent, however grossly erroneous message to the people prior to sending in our troops. Through blatant lies and misinformation, a few people convinced nearly the whole of the American public that support was needed for a war against our “attackers”. Given we were all lied to about weapons of mass destruction, who actually attacked us, and the government’s motives in pursuing warfare in the Middle East, imagine what could be done with the truth about climate change if it were presented in one neat package. Seriously.

Perhaps there have been too many cooks in the kitchen. Not anymore; one well-known cook is now launching a massive campaign to educate the American public. To date, Meyerhoff jokes, people’s general attitude could be summarized in one sentence: ”When there is a polar bear on my front lawn, call.” Hopefully that attitude is not long for this world. Why? Al Gore plans on spending $300 million to change the minds of the American public.  While that sum of money would get us through about 12 hours in Iraq, it will hopefully be enough to raise awareness of climate change in American minds past a threshold. Meyerhoff’s thinks,

But that this campaign is necessary at all speaks volumes about the failure of environmentalists to persuade our citizenry that the climate threat is both real and immediate, overcoming not just skepticism but national torpor and attention deficit disorder as well.

Disagreeing with that statement is difficult, and disagreeing with Meyerhoff’s conclusion is even harder. He finishes by saying,

“True change only happens when activists join together and directly impact those who control the means producing the threat. We can switch from plastic to paper, drive hybrids and use better light bulbs – but the polluting industries need to be compelled to reduce carbon emissions. And the American public must be convinced to compel them.”



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