John Cook, a researcher at the Melbourne Centre for Behaviour Change in Australia, has documented a similar rise in attacks on climate solutions by conservative think tanks and blogs. “It’s surprising to see misinformation on YouTube shifting so quickly,” Cook said in an email. “The future of climate misinformation will be focused on attacking climate solutions, and we need to better understand those arguments and how to counter them.”
This is good, but I find it odd that the article drives right past the question of why so many people are so determined to undermine an effective response to climate change both before and after they accept the problem as real.
It makes sense to me – they view the entire issue as a challenge to capitalism, consumption, endless growth, and ruggeded individualism – but I feel like this needs to be articulated. The question just looms unanswered in the article.
Also, a lot of YouTube personalities are paid to endorse particular points of view, and these aren’t necessarily disclosed.
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That’s certainly a good point. But I really think it’s more than that.
I’ve been reading recently about how Trump and the like are are basically running on a platform of going to war with the planet. You’d think they’d just want to stop talking about climate change. Former Republican Texas governor and secretary of Energy Rick Perry loves fossil fuels, but he still cultivated a wind energy sector, because there’s lots of money in it. Not true for a lot of modern conservatives. They could make money on conservative climate solutions, or just steering around it, but what I see from the far right looks like they’re determined to engage on the issue, just in the opposite direction from everyone else.
Like, their vision is that we’re gonna beat climate change. Not by negotiating with it, though. We’re going to beat it by developing the ability for the wealthy few to survive without changing anything, and then kill the biosphere to show it who’s boss.
It’s weird, and I think it really matters to them as more than just a defense of a few dying industries. It’s like how they obsess over coal even though it’s largely gone out of business. It’s not about the money. It’s about sending a message.
