Does the way we talk about the climate crisis numb people with fear, rather than energising them? | Phrases such as ‘green economy’ turn voters [UK] off, it seems

Does the way we talk about the climate crisis numb people with fear, rather than energising them? | Roger Harrabin

5 comments

I think it's exactly the opposite. I don't think people are nearly as fearful enough or there would actually be action. We keep thinking we can capitalism our way out of this, but it's never going to work.
I want to start telling people that this is a problem now when we need to do something right now as if our hair is on fire.
Because it is.
It's not the people you have to convince ... you have to convince the billionaires to change their behaviour. They are the defacto ones that have all the power and control to influence society and government to do anything.
But they don't want to change because they might lose 2 percent of their wealth and they don't like that.
Change is scary. Terms like "Green economy" sound like a huge pile of scary change to a lot of people.
- Probably would go down a lot better if it was always coupled with "Green economy will bring lots of new jobs as well as provide job and financial security for many others."
rather than energising them
Why does the author think that energising people is good?