What’s in it for me? is a question influencers realize needs to be addressed.  

Climate Deniers can’t see what’s in it for them. Their focus is on what they have to lose in the moment and not on the future. The percentage of Climate Deniers has gone down; however, there is still not the mass of people needed to see significant changes happen. According to a May 2019 article in the Guardian, 

“…a significant number of Americans do not believe human-driven climate change is occurring…

But wider denial of climate science is down to a concerted campaign of misinformation by fossil fuel interests and aspects of American character, according to Margaret Klein Salamon, a clinical psychologist who founded the advocacy group Climate Mobilization.

“The Koch brothers and the fossil fuel industry have put billions of dollars into lying to the American public, even sending literature to science teachers in schools,” Salamon said. “They are so well organised and have managed to turn climate change into a controversial subject that gets shut down. It’s clearly working.

“There is also the issue of American individualism, remnants of manifest destiny, that don’t set us up well for understanding that we are part of the web of life. The American dream is quite self-involved. We need a new American dream.”

What will shift people to seeing what’s in it for them to make changes? For people old enough to be grandparents the answer lies in their babies. The thought of leaving their grandchildren to face catastrophe after catastrophe will move grandparents to action. You don’t have to be David Suzuki to want to fight to leave a good world for your grandchildren. 

As a grandparent you are well positioned to make some noise. If you are retired you have the time and hopefully the energy to show up and take a stand. Many of the meetings I have attended are a sea of grey haired folk. In the Comox Valley the kids are following Greta Thunberg’s lead and the adults are in the background supporting them.

Be a disruptor, Grandpa – it is the perfect time.