For my final blog, I chose to interview two of my closest friends to find out what they think of global warming. It amazed me to hear that they both learned more about global warming in just this term than in their whole lives because I’ve been sharing what I’ve been learning in class. Therefore, I thought that their opinions would be biased after hearing mine for the past nine weeks; however, to my surprise, that was not the case.
I started the conversation off with the simple question, “What comes to mind when you hear the words, ‘global warming?’” One of my friends answered, “Polar Bears and flooded islands,” while the other said, “Melting glaciers, holes in the atmosphere, and creating of fuel efficient cars.” Feeling proud of their answers, I moved onto the second question, “Do you believe that global warming is happening?” and I was astonished to hear them both, flat-out, say “no.” When I asked them why, one of them said that they strictly don’t believe in global warming, and the other said that climate change is happening, however, it’s just one of the transitions the Earth goes through and it’s not permanent.
After hearing their first two answers, I decided to ask two more that go hand-in-hand; “Where do you hear about global warming?” and “What influences your opinion to not believe in global warming?” Unsurprisingly, both said that they only really learn/hear about global warming from high school science class and me. In addition, their belief of global warming being nonexistent comes from the “untrustworthy” news that “blows topics out of proportion” and word of mouth. However, one of them said that they’ve just never have taken the time to research the topic on their own, while the other said that they don’t care because it hasn’t personally affected them.
Next, I went for a different approach by asking what they thought 50 years from now would look like. Both were confused and said something along the lines of “How am I supposed to know?” However, once I got them to really think about the question, one said, “I’ll be 70 years old, and I imagine that I’ll be living in a world with new technological advances and less nature.” My other friend said that she thought we’d be more adapted to environmental friendly ways of life, or that it’d be like we’d be living in “The Hunger Games.”
Honestly, I was depressed after hearing their answers. I expected them to believe in global warming; especially after feeding them information about climate change all term. I felt as if I needed to convince them that they’re wrong, or that they need to listen to me, otherwise our future will end up the way our cli-fi books describe it. This just proves that our society has chosen to turn a blind eye to global warming and the consequences it brings with it.
However, my last question left me feeling optimistic. I asked, “Do you think we should be teaching kids in school about global warming?” Both immediately answered “yes” and said, “the earlier, the better.” As long as people can agree that it’s important to educate the younger generation about global warming, there’s something to be hopeful for.
Thanks for sharing these reflections about the conversation about climate change you had with your friends. Such conversations can be incredibly difficult, as I think many people in the class have been discovering (and writing about in their own blog posts), because sometimes it feels like it’s hard to get through to people. We live in a culture in which climate change has become almost a taboo subject, something not to be talked about in polite company (so to speak) because it has become such a contentious subject. I think the most hopeful thing about your conversation is that you were able to get your friends thinking about the future, and it’s really interesting that your one friend mentioned that there would be “less nature.” I wonder how that makes her feel, or what she imagines when she thinks of “less nature” (the phrase makes me think of what’s happening in the Alberta tar sands).
Perhaps there is a middle ground where you can help your friends learn more about it without having to prove them wrong (and risk turning them off of the topic altogether). Maybe by watching a movie together (like Chasing Ice — which someone else posted about on the blog recently), or by lending them your copy of the Intro to Climate Change book?
Again, know that you’re not alone in being depressed by these sorts of conversations. It happens to me all the time, and sometimes I just have to remind myself that there are SO many people who are concerned about climate change and who are doing really good work with it (see, for example: http://www.imatteryouth.org/). You should feel great about the fact that you are trying to have these conversations, and I encourage you to keep having them!
I had a similar feeling, and conversation with my roommate about global warming, and for the most part other people are not as nearly as educated about it as we should be. I agree that it has a lot to do with the fact that it hasn’t personally affected us, therefore we have no “reason” to actually change. But I believe that these stories show us a preview of what we could be dealing with in our distant future, which gives us a purpose and reason to believe climate change is happening, and to find ways to mend the issues we will have to face.