Why do some people just not care?
A study from 2023 based on seeing people’s votes for renewable energy predicted that only 56% of Americans believe in climate change – that is a dangerous fifty/fifty split.
Rising temperatures that are a result of constant carbon emissions by greedy companies that value money over the future of humanity. Unfortunately, there are those who still cannot see what is blatantly in front of them. Over the past couple of years across Montgomery County, the warm temperatures from summer have persisted into the fall for longer and longer now reaching high seventies and low eighties near the end of October. Even September has almost completely been enveloped by the rising heat extending the summer by another month. But still, people ignore the signs and continue with their lives not understanding or caring about what is happening to their homes.
Remember when it snowed on Halloween? It was thirteen years ago and all across the county was laid over with a short blanket of snow that grew overnight; that’s not how things should normally be, pushing the point that the climate has been unstable and changing for years, even before 2011. Now we are past fall, and the highs from that season reached upwards of 75 – 80, instead of snow, this year’s Halloween was warm and humid, staying at an unsettling 78 degrees all night long. it doesn’t take much brainpower to understand that something is wrong. Anyone should be able to look at those changes and be worried.
Maybe it’s not about that. Anyone can be worried and lay awake in their bed at night thinking about the end of the world, but who wants to live like that? Everybody has jobs and things they have to do and not a lot of people have the time, money, or will to go out and work to help slow down these effects most of the time without pay. In 2023 it was estimated that in the US only 25,792 people were working in climate change/conservation-related jobs, out of everyone in the entire country. Even if someone has one of those jobs in conservation, if they’re not a well-known climatologist they are most likely not going to be recognized for any work Can anyone name a climate change activist besides Al Gore? It’s not a glamorous field, not to mention that out of the people in America let alone the world, only a small percentage’s dream is to help save the earth. If it is someone’s dream then they are undoubtedly a commendable person, even though they probably won’t see their dream take any effect in their lifetime. No matter how hard anyone works the chances of someone seeing their own impact are slim at best.
Which leads us back to that 50/50 split on believing in climate change. Those people could easily be seen as heartless or out of touch, but maybe they just want to live. They want to work towards their dream, own a house, raise a family, or whatever one’s dream may be. People are faced with three choices, spend their lives fighting with a very small army against the power of greed most of the time to no avail. Go to bed every night with a wound on your conscience as you follow your dream but know in the back of your mind the world is ending. Or just forget about it completely, and go on with your life not worrying about climate or consequences or things that are “out of your control.” See now it’s not hard to understand why so many choose to ignore the blatantly obvious.
Now our generation, Gen Z. Those who will soon be going off to college and will start living in the real world have to deal with the mistakes of the people from our past. Over the years those past generations always said, “At least we won’t have to deal with it,” over and over again until now when we are the ones dealing with it. So as a result of us being faced with this challenge which we had no part in causing, now we are being tasked with that choice. With the naturally uncaring attitude shown by most of them, it’s not hard to understand why only 59% of the generation thinks climate change is real, and that their opinions may not change.
The takeaway from this should not be to not care. It should just be a perspective on why some do not care, why many feel so hopeless about this issue, and why this generation may choose the unsavory choice. As hopeless as it seems people are working around the clock to try and find a way to reverse or halt the effects that pollutants are having on the climate, and even if it may be a slim margin, there will still be those in Gen Z who step up to take on that role.
If there is nothing else someone can do, then just spread the word and try to make people aware. We are slowly approaching the point where it may all not matter anymore, so even if there is the slightest chance of making people care it becomes automatically worth it.