Why aren’t more Americans alarmed by global warming? ‘Cause we haven’t spooked the herd yet.
In modern society, groups are intangible and amorphous; they aren’t discrete tribes gathering walnuts and spearing bison. Group ties are as often emotional or even ideological as geographic or even familial. You may identify, with varying degrees of self-consciousness, as a Catholic, a Green, a Jew, a small businessman, an African-American, a geek, a recovering alcoholic, a Republican, a liberal, a lesbian, an Italian-American, a Blue Blood, a Texan, an artist or a stamp collector. Most people cross-pollinate.
But these group affiliations are likely to be a strong determinant of your feelings about global warming (feelings you will call a “position”). Do you think global warming is an urgent problem because you are a Democrat or are you a Democrat because you think global warming is an urgent problem? Some variant of the former is most likely, I’m sorry to report.
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Group identification not only orients specific positions but what might be called the distribution of alarm. Elke Weber, also writing in “Climactic Change,” notes that societies have a “finite pool of worry.” Neither a group nor an individual can stay at red alert about terrorism, salmonella, bird flu, identity theft and global warming. We don’t prioritize threats and risks rationally; we do it emotionally and through the genius or dumbness of crowds.
Fear can only motivate people for so long–just ask the President. And that explains the the impulse behind LiveEarth amd Global Cool and every other global warming-related rock extravaganza we’re bound to see in the coming years.
The way we tend to align ourselves in America–geographically, politically, racially–is obsolete given the massive threat we face. Our “group” is a lot bigger than we’re used to thinking. We all need clean water. We all need good health. We all need energy.
But we need a common language first. Music fits the bill. So let’s rock.