From “A Gift for Conversation. Let’s discuss Climate Change: Why it matters. What to do about it.” A Book by Dr Louis Keal
Previous Chapter 2: Troubleshooting
Chapter 3: What’s happened
So where are we with Climate Change, and how did we get here? Scientists have known about Climate Change for more than 50 years. Nobel-prize-winning Swedish physicist Arrhenius even quite accurately predicted the role of carbon dioxide in warming the planet as long ago as 18961. But unfortunately, we’ve not been taking informed action to prevent it since then.
Here’s a quick look at some of the factors that got us where we are.
Haven’t we already made great progress to tackle Climate Change?
Yes and no. The tireless work of climate leaders, communicators and scientists has, over the last five decades, given us some awareness of Climate Change. It’s now something that almost everybody has at least heard of, even if they’re not familiar with the details.
However, in terms of real progress to prevent damaging Climate Change, this has resolutely failed, as carbon-polluting industries have grown enormously faster than public understanding of their deadly effects.
As I write this in July 2021, still almost all that we have seen from governments across the world is promises for future results1,1. Governments are ignoring scientists’ clear evidence that our greatest-ever threat requires the most urgent action our global civilisation has ever undertaken2. Why is this?
5 reasons why Climate Change wasn’t dealt with
Alongside the psychological reasons mentioned previously (‘PAIN’), there were plenty more hurdles where climate action has fallen. Here are five tough ones:
1: Environmentalists were first to grasp the importance of Climate Change. But, they were pretty terrible at getting the message across, especially to non- environmentalists1. For example, the fixation on polar bears as the figurehead of Climate Change couldn’t have been further from people’s day-to-day lives.
2:In Western society, we’re used to failed prophecies of doom. The Cold War, Y2K, even the supposed end of the world in 2012… all of these add up to plenty of scepticism now when scientists sound the alarm.
3:Climate scientists have for decades tried to maintain emotional detachment from their terrifying findings, for the sake of professionalism and “good science”. This may work well when debating with other scientists, but it didn’t help the public believe their warnings.
4:“Show people enough graphs, and we’ll have action on Climate Change”. This was the assumption up to recently – that education and facts were enough. These are certainly vital, but so is the emotional context: how does this temperature graph affect me and my life?
5:The Bystander Effect: When we see our peers not taking action in face of apparent danger, often we’ll do the same, rather than stand out – whether it’s smoke curling under a door2, or a global climate crisis.
But, I’ve left the absolute #1 reason to its own section: Powerful and wealthy people were actively working to suppress climate research and action.
Where did “climate scepticism” come from? Weren’t scientists divided?
In 1946, the public were becoming increasingly concerned about air pollution. Worried about how this might affect profits, Fossil Fuel companies came together to launch what Carroll Muffett, President and CEO of the Centre for International Environmental Law, describes1,1 as a “well-funded, carefully co- ordinated, multi-decade enterprise of funding scientific research, and using that research to promote public scepticism about environmental regulations.”
Later, when public evidence and concern about Climate Change started to mount, these companies were already incredibly knowledgeable about the underlying science, human psychology and the political landscape of the time.
As early as 1968, an internal report commissioned by the Fossil Fuel industry (extracts recreated opposite) made abundantly clear that the climate was already changing, the effects would be terrible, and greenhouse gas emissions From Fossil fuel burning were primarily responsible2,2.
Instead of acting to reduce emissions however, the industry hid the report’s findings3, and spent billions of dollars over the following decades to discredit the idea of man-made Climate Change. They used advertising, government lobbying, and commissioned deliberately misleading research papers to counter the genuine science4, and manufacture doubt. The false “debate” they created has haunted humanity ever since.
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Reproduction of ‘Sources, Abundance and Fate of Gaseous Atmospheric Pollutants’ report, prepared for ‘American Petroleum Institute’, Feb 1968. See the original at:
www.smokeandfumes.org – Document 16
There has never been any significant doubt about Climate Change – not because no scientist dare check, but because in test after test, observation after observation, the evidence overwhelmingly, repeatedly and independently proved the truth of human-caused Climate Change again and again5.
Now that Fossil Fuel companies themselves have had to publicly acknowledge the threat of Climate Change, their efforts are spent on pretending to do as much about it as possible – while in fact protecting their deadly core business of Fossil Fuel extraction6.
But they’re not completely escaping the consequences of their actions. Fossil Fuel giant Shell was recently forced by a Dutch court to commit to drastically cut its carbon emissions7. More court cases are sure to follow.
Discussion Points
- Fossil Fuel industry executives actively decided to cause Climate Change. Should they face criminal charges?
- Outside the criminal justice system, is blaming and shaming for our present position constructive?
Haven’t Fossil Fuels led to the best standard of living in human history?
Without any doubt, there have been incalculable benefits of humanity’s relationship with Fossil Fuels, in the form of oil, petrol, diesel, aviation fuel, and the products derived from them: plastics, synthetic fibres for clothing, and so on. In our modern age, in the Western World, even those enduring poverty enjoy a life of luxury compared to previous centuries. This is due in no small way to Fossil Fuels. We should thank Fossil Fuels for what they gave us and move past them.
In the early 20th century, our Fossil Fuel use was sufficiently small to almost be sustained without harm. Those days are long, long gone, but we needn’t go back to the Dark Ages. Renewable energy might offer a bigger revolution than Fossil Fuels did, especially in developing countries1. So let’s say “thank u, next.”
Discussion Points
1. What are you most grateful that Fossil Fuels allowed you to experience in your life?
How did CASaV’s members come to care so much about Climate Change?
What made Climate Change feel meaningful to us? How did we learn about it? What are our stories?
Read our members’ experiences – here.
Story Two: Taking Shell to court
In May 2021, a historic court case was fought in the Netherlands. In an unusual twist to the ‘David and Goliath’ story, there were 17,379 ‘Davids’ – these are the citizens who took Fossil Fuel giant Shell to court1.
Lawyers for the citizen group argued that Shell had known about its role in Climate Change for decades. Its continued lack of robust targets for reducing emissions amounted to a breach of the citizens’ protected human rights to life, and rights to family life. The court agreed.
Shell must now reduce the emissions from its activities by 45% before 20302 – providing us all with a vital life line, and setting a precedent. Perhaps, in our courts, life can be more important than the profits of a small number of powerful companies after all.
Still have questions?
Interested in the previous mistakes of the climate movement, or in the Fossil Fuel industry’s manufactured doubt? Here are some great resources:
Book: Don’t Even Think About It:Why Our Brains Are Wired To Ignore Climate Change – bit.ly/DETAI By George Marshall. The results of a decade of research into the challenges of facing Climate Change, what went wrong to get us here, and how to act more effectively.
Smoke And Fumes– www.smokeandfumes.org/fumes This website displays the evidence found so far for the well-documented campaign of disinformation on Climate Change by the Fossil Fuel industry – alongside similar efforts from the Tobacco industry on cancer.
YouTube: Revealed: Fossil fuel companies lobby UK government for gas ‘compromise’ ahead of COP26 youtu.be/IBYFEUJRmvY – Channel 4 News. Report showing Fossil Fuel companies are trying to undermine action on climate in the UK and the US. [14m]
Book: Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming – https://bit.ly/3jpl9Ci By Erik Conway and Naomi Oreskes. The brilliantly- reported and written story of how denial was created.
Climate Action Stokesley and Villages 