Toronto Star - Matthew Hoffmann*
We have to understand that climate change is not a separate issue from most aspects of everyday life
Consider the seemingly innocuous
juxtaposition of two articles in Saturday’s Star. In the World section,
there was an article on the tragic aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in
Texas. In the Wheels section, the front-page story was on a Kelley Blue
Book ranking of the “Top 10 Back-To-School Cars of 2017.” These articles
seem entirely unrelated.
A reader coming
to the hurricane article could feel a sense of urgency about acting on
climate change — “We have to do something. It is clearly devastating
lives already and it is only going to get worse!” Then, a few sections
later, the same reader comes to the list of best back-to-school cars.
Climate change concern recedes into the background or disappears
altogether. This is a fun read on the new cars out this year that are
good for families — “Maybe I should look at a Kia Soul this fall.”
The
failure to internalize climate change is in this juxtaposition. Not a
single car on the top-10 list is hybrid or electric (though some have
decent fuel efficiency). So either the list makers at Kelley Blue Book
do not factor climate change into their rankings, or hybrids/electrics
are not considered “student-friendly choices” that “are affordable and
will meet with your kid’s approval” as per the article’s description of
what cars make the list. It’s probably both. That’s the problem.
Climate
change and the need for decarbonization is not yet fully penetrating
into this kind of everyday thinking and decision-making at an
individual, corporate or societal level. Many people, corporations and
governments care about climate change and want to deal with it, but
still treat it as a separate issue from everyday life. Everyday life is
not yet about climate change, whether that means considering what car to
buy, what cars to manufacture, or what cars to extol as the best.
This
is obviously not just about cars. We have to understand that climate
change is not a separate issue from most aspects of everyday life.
Climate change is everyday life and decarbonization has to become a part of that.
This
is not a plea for individuals to make consumer choices to save us from
climate change. Consumers have some control over the choices that they
make, though these are constrained by income, marketing, culture, etc.
Consumers have less control over the range of choices that are available
(only indirectly through market demand); that is the province of
corporations and governments. It is a call to internalize the challenge
of climate change and decarbonization and to make both visible and
conscious. Individuals, corporations and governments have to realize
that there are relatively few decisions unrelated to climate, because
climate change is our reality.
We are
making progress. From the rising public concern about climate change, to
increased availability of renewable energy and climate-friendly
technology, to emerging municipal, provincial and federal climate plans,
climate action is more visible and possible than ever before. After
all, page 2 in that same Wheels section had a glowing review of a 2018
Hyundai that comes as both hybrid and electric that looked awfully
family friendly to me.
We still have to do
more. Climate action needs to be front of mind and we have to normalize
it not just in our big political decisions, economic planning, and in
everyday life. Otherwise we face the prospects of normalizing articles
on the tragic aftermath of climate-related disasters.
*Matthew J. Hoffmann
is a professor of political science at the University of Toronto and is
co-director of the Munk School’s Environmental Governance Lab.
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