Continued commentary on How to talk climate change with a skeptic: 5 critical tips by Sam Parry.
The five tips are:
- First of all: Don’t get angry.
- Leave apocalypse to the movies.
- Seek common ground.
- Tell your own stories.
- Stick to the facts.
This time I’ll focus on Parry’s comments regarding his second tip, “Leave apocalypse to the movies”:
“Avoid drawing a picture of planetary catastrophe. You might suggest that combating climate change could lead to economic opportunities, job growth, greater social justice and improved public health. Climate change doesn’t have to be about how the world ends.”
In the last post I agreed with Parry that catastrophizing is likely to get you nowhere with a climate change skeptic. However, I’m puzzled by his suggestions to focus on the benefits of combating climate change. Why is he jumping to discussing the benefits of combating climate change while the skeptic is still, well, skeptical of the underlying premise of needing to combat climate change in the first place?
Parry must also realize that combating climate change could incur some very real costs – depending on what type of combat we’re talking about. Skeptics often point out these costs, such as lower economic growth and its ripple effects, including increased infant mortality. And not only skeptics. Per environmental economist Robert O. Mendelsohn in Climate Change and Economic Growth:
“The more aggressive the near-term mitigation program, however, the greater the risk that climate change will slow long-term economic growth.” p. 7
If Parry’s not talking about aggressive mitigation measures, what is he talking about? More use of solar and wind? Stricter controls on coal? Increased fuel efficiency standards? Thing is, such mitigation measures are already popular with Americans, including many climate change skeptics. Being a skeptic doesn’t mean you don’t care about the environment, wildlife, air quality, or water quality. The idea of being less dependent on fossil fuels is appealing regardless of how you feel about climate change. You don’t have to be worried about global warming to be in favor of reducing the cost of fuel through greater efficiencies. Skeptics are more likely to be against aggressive measures, but, then, so are a lot of non-skeptics.