Its the Attention economy layer underneath effecting everything. Whether its Trump or Climate Change - elevating threat perception captures attention. And algos are programmed to prop it up. There are no bright answers or theories on what to do about it.
Something that's interesting to me is how climate change has largely fallen off the media radar over the past few years.
Back around 2007 it was a HUGE topic and many of us thought we'd be living in hell by 2025. Yet here we are and climate change rarely even makes the news.
The media never said 2025. They always, always talked about 2100, just so the mind can safely think "I'll be dead by then". Thresholds crossed by 2025? certainly. But "living hell by 2025"? I'll have to call "citations needed".
I didn't say that the media said that. It was the general feeling that many people (myself included) had and that activists perpetuated at that time. Disaster was about 15-20 years away.
What I said about the media is that they talked about climate change a whole lot more back then compared to now. Beside the Iraq War it was one of the big topics that everyone was always talking about. Nowadays it seems more of a background issue.
Where can I search for old news articles or evidence of public sentiment?
In your memory what was the zeitgeist at the time?
For most of my life it has been something like: we recently crossed some threshold, if we don't act now we'll cross this other one, disaster is 15-30 years out. Recent freak natural disaster is going to become a yearly thing.
What did the other countries do and how much measurable progress do they have to show for it.
Personally I think China was and is the most equipped to solve the problem. They have the talent, have the top-down leadership that is supposedly required to implement solutions, and are well aware that the future belongs to them.
Oil industry has lots and lots of money. The right is immediately pro-oil and peddles all their propaganda because they like lots and lots of money. I don't think there's much past that.
