Climate change is not an issue to be fixed by entire populations; it won’t require an inspiring montage of an entire community pitching in, bicycling instead of driving cars and turning off lights when they aren’t in use (with the help of their animal friends à la Snow White). It cannot require a change in our value systems towards an ecological conscience because people are, for the most part, self-interested.
And rightly so. While it is in humanity’s self-interest to preserve the environment under which it has flourished, it is not in the self-interest of individuals (who will die before they see major ecological changes) and so individuals find ecological morality to be a hard set of values to take up. The question we ask ourselves as Americans are: how does this benefit me? And changing that ingrained value may be impossible.
But luckily we can use this value to combat global warming. As Parker and Blodgett suggest in their CRS Report for Congress, climate change can be countered through technological ingenuity — creating more cost-effective technologies that are also environmentally beneficial. Since it is in the best interest of the consumer to purchase a car with better mileage or an energy efficient washer/dryer (he will pay less to sustain their operation) the consumer not only serves his own interests, but also the interests of the environment.
It should thus be the goal of governments to set emissions standards that companies can meet with technological advances. Such an approach is far-sighted because it is consistently sustainable, and also serves the needs of the people. The technological and economic approaches also mitigates fears that environmental issues come at extreme cost to the economy — the approach may reduce carbon emissions at no net cost to the economy whatsoever, according to Parker and Blodgett.
Climate change is an issue to be fixed by creative governments and individuals. By approaching old technologies in new ways (see the chapter “Curitiba” ) we can keep a value system of self-interest while simultaneously serving ecological ends. We can’t change individuals, but don’t have to — after all, history has always been just the tale of the great men (and women).
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Tags: Brett Shollenberger, climate
