There is a concerted effort by climate-change deniers to make us feel that the climate crisis is a hopeless situation, that there is nothing for us to do. And for God’s sake, don’t create more climate legislation, which will eat into big-business profits.
This passive acceptance of a bad climate outcome has leaked into our popular culture. I have noticed more humor in the media with the theme of unavoidable climate disaster. For example, a comic strip depicting a car driving down a desert road, with the GPS announcing, “Apocalypse ahead, no alternative route.” Or a comic with the heading “Parenting in the future,” depicting a living room door open to a world in flaming disaster while the parent insists that the children wear their radiation suits to go outside.
I’m a huge fan of dark humor, and I understand that maintaining a sense of humor in difficult times is an important coping strategy. But these comics represent a cultural zeitgeist that is creating a norm of climate-disaster acceptance.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate has found that climate-denial content has shifted away from false claims that global warming is not happening or is not related to the burning of fossil fuels. Instead, recent claims are that climate solutions are unworkable or unneeded. A report by the center found that 70 percent of climate denial content last year attacked climate solutions as unworkable, or portrayed global warming as harmless or even beneficial, or claimed that climate science and the environmental movement are unreliable. According to the report, YouTube is making up to $13.4 million a year from ads on channels promoting such messages.
This has to do with nihilism—the philosophical or moral position that there is no meaning in life, no moral order. As a result, it doesn’t matter what you do. It is okay to do nothing, since nothing matters. Nihilism creates a void that can be filled by fascism. Vacating the engagement space leaves room for those who want to control the narrative for their own ideological ends. Have you noticed this trend in politics? If you lose faith in democracy, it’s so much easier for the bad guys to run the show.
If you’ve been feeling hopeless about the climate crisis, you have my sympathy and understanding. Taking actions to combat the climate crisis can feel like throwing snowballs at an avalanche. The disconnect between effort and outcome drains us of our resolve. Yes, the news is grim, and we living beings are probably not going to escape without significant consequences.
When a bad situation continues without much change, it’s easy to disengage and create mental narratives about how it won’t change in order to justify our disengagement. It is hard to hold seemingly opposite points of view, having both hope and acceptance—something known as radical hope. Holding hope and positive action in the face of despair requires us to be heroic in our capacity to tolerate the discomfort of not knowing.
Giving up is a natural response to powerlessness. Trauma research shows that when an animal is attacked by a predator, it initially has a flight or fight response. When it seems like the predator has prevailed, the animal goes into a state of dissociation, a freeze. Then it is eaten, at times while still alive. Let’s not let the climate-denier machinery cause us to give up and be eaten.
Even as the bad news continues, we keep hearing the same refrain: “With action now, we can minimize some of the worst effects.” We’re becoming inured to that message.
Yet our efforts to address the climate crisis do have benefits. Every little or large bit we do now will reduce the severity of the outcomes for future generations. The most important benefit of healthy climate action is that we start establishing a way of living that’s in better balance with life systems and ecosystem resources, starting new habits for our long-term planetary health.
Another recent comic showed an older couple walking past a boy at a lemonade stand. Beside small patches of snow on the ground, the sign on the stand reads, “The snowman formerly known as Frosty—50 cents.” The couple comments, “When climate change hands you lemons…”
The big businesses that are aligned with climate deniers are hoping to make as much lemonade as possible before climate change shuts them down. But with the effects of the climate crisis becoming more obvious every day, it is also becoming easier to feel inspired to dedicating ourselves to doing the right thing for life on earth. Go look in the mirror and ask yourself if you are developing a passive acceptance of our climate-disaster fate. If you are, wake up, and please stay on the course of actively loving our world in the best ways you can, during the hardest times, for better or for worse.
Greg Smith is a climate activist and a San Geronimo resident.