So even if climate change isn’t real (which obviously it is.) What’s the down side? We invest in renewable energy, not pollute as much. Oh the horror!
Because the people who made money investing in the old way stop making money. That’s it. That’s the entire problem. The fossil fuels industry wants to keep making money, and the politicians who are bribed by them want to keep getting bribes. So they create a culture war so the facts don’t matter.
It’s not THAT simple. For a period of time, there is a slight reduction in quality of life as people switch to renewables. Example, in many towns there are mandatory solar requirements on new homes, which inflates the cost of construction for homeowners etc. Same with the no gas hookup requirements now in some cities where you can’ get a gas line to your house… which means higher costs to run your heat etc.
It’s one of those short term problems but it impacts people in a real way and people just don’t wanna go for that.
I think the conservatives don’t disagree that climate change is real, they disagree that humans are responsible. To them it’s things like El Niño or solar activity.
It’s actually a spectrum of disavowal of responsibility:
- It’s not happening.
- Even if it is happening, it’s not our fault.
- Even if it is our fault, there is nothing we can do.
- Even if there is something we can do, it’s too late to do anything.
It’s just that the first stage (denialism) is starting to become untenable.
- Even if it isn’t too late to do something it’s the others that should do it
- Even if we are the ones that should do something, it’s down to everyone individually so no job for the politicians
- Even if it is down to the state, sorry it’s too expensive.