Why don’t we care about climate change?

This essay is about a riddle. I’ll start by revealing the answer: It’s a cat that is simultaneously dead and alive.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY BRYAN GEE

Now here is the riddle: Why aren’t we more concerned about climate change?

By “we,” I mean, of course, most Canadians. There are some who are so concerned that they despair and lose sleep over climate change. But most of us? Polls show we accept that climate change is real and threatening. And we tell pollsters we are truly, deeply worried. More than a decade ago, an Ipsos Reid survey found almost two-thirds of Canadians said they were “desperately concerned that if we don’t take drastic action right now the world may not last much longer than another couple of generations.” Desperately concerned is what parents are when a child goes missing.

But those words were crafted by a pollster. And it costs people nothing to say, “Yeah, that one,” when a stranger on the telephone asks how much they care about something they know they are supposed to care about. It even feels good – admit it – to display your social conscience.

Read The Globe and Mail story by Dan Gardner - “Why don’t we care about climate change?”