I think it is a combination of several factors. One is the triumph of the end of history myth in the imperial core. A lot of history has happened but the lack of an anticapitalist left wing and the onslaught of reactionary propanda for the last few decades has made capitalism feel like an unchangeable law of nature to many people. There is no alternative, and thinking capitalism is good or bad is as pointless as having opinions on gravity.
Another factor is that climate change is too big and horrible to comprehend. There's nothing you can do about it as an individual and the individual nation states that people comprehend politics inside of are also powerless to do anything but mitigating symptoms. All available data suggests that we're not only heading towards a slow-rolling cataclysm of biblical proportions, those in power will also actively prevent any meaningful action from being taken. You can stare into that abyss and go mad or you can protect your sanity and close your eyes.
That tendency to shy away from facts is helped along by climate denial. We both have the hard chuddy version where climate change is a hoax invented by China because they're envious of America being great. And then there is the soft neoliberal climate denial where you claim to "believe the science" but also claim that it can all be solved by giving tax credits for buying Teslas and believing that a wizard will save us in the form of technology. Both types of climate denial helps make the crisis look less alarming and makes it easy to trick yourself into believing everything will be alright.
Looking the other way is still possible in the imperial core as people there, especially the more privileged members of these societies are still mostly protected against the consequences. For people in the global south climate change means starvation and being driven from their homes while people in the imperial core experience climate change as their lawns turning brown for a few weeks in the summer.
Looking the other way is still possible in the imperial core as people there, especially the more privileged members of these societies are still mostly protected against the consequences.
We thought that until huge swaths of the US south approached very dangerous wet bulb temperatures this summer. With Texas' power grid and the US's decaying infrastructure that's a nightmare that could go off any time.
I think it is a combination of several factors. One is the triumph of the end of history myth in the imperial core. A lot of history has happened but the lack of an anticapitalist left wing and the onslaught of reactionary propanda for the last few decades has made capitalism feel like an unchangeable law of nature to many people. There is no alternative, and thinking capitalism is good or bad is as pointless as having opinions on gravity.
Another factor is that climate change is too big and horrible to comprehend. There's nothing you can do about it as an individual and the individual nation states that people comprehend politics inside of are also powerless to do anything but mitigating symptoms. All available data suggests that we're not only heading towards a slow-rolling cataclysm of biblical proportions, those in power will also actively prevent any meaningful action from being taken. You can stare into that abyss and go mad or you can protect your sanity and close your eyes.
That tendency to shy away from facts is helped along by climate denial. We both have the hard chuddy version where climate change is a hoax invented by China because they're envious of America being great. And then there is the soft neoliberal climate denial where you claim to "believe the science" but also claim that it can all be solved by giving tax credits for buying Teslas and believing that a wizard will save us in the form of technology. Both types of climate denial helps make the crisis look less alarming and makes it easy to trick yourself into believing everything will be alright.
Looking the other way is still possible in the imperial core as people there, especially the more privileged members of these societies are still mostly protected against the consequences. For people in the global south climate change means starvation and being driven from their homes while people in the imperial core experience climate change as their lawns turning brown for a few weeks in the summer.
We thought that until huge swaths of the US south approached very dangerous wet bulb temperatures this summer. With Texas' power grid and the US's decaying infrastructure that's a nightmare that could go off any time.