2. Arouse outrage - significant progress made

Substantial progress has also been made on the second bullet point. In mid-2006, when I wrote a Guestbook response on “<a href="http://www.psandman.com/gst2006.htm#gold">Outrage about Global Warming</a>,” I was able to comment that “we’ve come a lot further in two decades than I would have predicted.” But of course we’re a long way from done. There are still plenty of people whose climate change views could best be described as apathetic – that is, not outraged enough. In that <a href="http://www.psandman.com/gst2006.htm#gold">2006 Guestbook response</a>, I offered some suggestions for ways to increase climate change outrage that are still worth thinking about today.

What’s surprising isn’t how little progress the fight against global warming has made. What’s surprising is how much progress it has made. At least in terms of public awareness, public opinion, and public concern in the developed world (even the U.S.), we’ve come a lot further in two decades than I would have predicted.

<li>Who would have thought, even a few years ago, that what is essentially an expanded PowerPoint presentation by a wonky former Vice President and Presidential candidate would be something of a hit in movie theaters?</li>

<li>This week’s <cite>Newsweek</cite> cover story is entitled “The New Greening of America: From Politics to Lifestyle, Why Saving The Environment Is Suddenly Hot.” The introductory anecdote and much of the rest of the article focuses on global climate change.</li>

<li>A Google search this morning for the term “global warming” yielded 104,000,000 hits. “Endangered species” got only 38,900,000; “flu pandemic” – my own obsession – is up to just 3,310,000.</li>

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One of my corporate clients is a Canadian oil company whose CEO is firmly convinced that global warming is nonsense. Carbon dioxide is plant food, he points out to anyone who will listen (and many who won’t). But several months ago the company asked for my advice on how to reconcile the CEO’s personal views with the company’s need to make concessions. Thus its newest <cite>Corporate Responsibility Report</cite> includes a list of accomplishments and pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And it includes this quotation from the CEO: “I remain skeptical of the science related to the impact of CO2 on the climate. Nonetheless, I acknowledge that many stakeholders hold a different opinion on this issue, some very strongly. I also understand that the issue of CO2 emissions and climate change poses particular risks to the energy industry, be it reputation or regulatory risk.” In other words, public concern about global warming, at least in Canada, is so strong that the company is taking and publicizing precautionary steps its CEO considers scientifically silly.

Remarkable though it is, the progress we have made in public concern about global warming may not be sufficient to turn the tide. Global warming itself has progressed faster than most experts (even most activist experts) predicted. So has industrial development in China and India, where catching up to the West is a higher priority than reducing greenhouse gas emissions. And unlike my Canadian oil company client, the Bush administration continues to resist the pressure of public opinion on this issue.