Why Americans Fail to Take Action Against Climate Change

Seeing climate change as an emergency doesn't always make people make actions because of many psychological barriers that limit the mitigation of climate change. Frantz and Mayer in their article" The Emergency of Climate Change: Why are We Failing to Take action? "Published in Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy (2009) and Gifford in " The Dragons of Inaction. Psychological Barriers That Limit Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation" published in American Psychology (2011), discussed the reasons why the American public are failing to take action to Climate Change even though they know that it is a grave issue. They also offered some suggestions that help in getting over those barriers.

Having a connection to the environment could help a lot in seeing the subtle changes; therefore, it could really help in seeing any emergency that might occur. According to Frantz and Mayer, people who spend more time in the environment are more likely to notice the effects of climate change, and they are more likely to notice changes that occur in the environment in general. They also indicated that they won't only notice the changes in the environment, they will easily seek out information about potential environmental changes which is very promising to notice climate change as an emergency. They also mentioned that because of modern life people do not depend on nature directly for their livelihood and that's because of their jobs that require moving from a place to another, they won't have deep connection to a specific environment, which make noticing climate change really hard. Gifford, agreed with Frantz and Mayer in their belif that a weaker place attachment could be an obstacle to climate-positive behavior. He also wrote that if...

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...rriers at the behavioral level, define, observe and record, intervene, test the intervention, and then evaluate the program, create new ways to feed the information back to consumers and citizens, improve understanding of the bases for public support, design and conduct more intervention studies that improve carbon-related behavior choices, and work closely with other disciplines. As Gifford, Frantz and Mayer listed some strategies to overcome barriers they mentioned that because people forget to take appropriate action they suggested reminders as a solution. They also suggested that policies should lay the groundwork for behavior because when policies become normative, they will become less relevant.

Works Cited

the emergency of climate change why are failing to take action the dangerous of inaction psychology barriers that limit the mitigation of climate change