{"text":[[{"start":7.55,"text":"Baking in the Mediterranean on holiday these past two weeks, I have felt awed by the forces beyond our control. Our ancient ancestors would have been praying to their gods for respite from the heatwaves laying waste to crops, the wildfires sweeping along the coasts. We modern humans are mere specks on a changing planet, but we can’t ask the heavens for help: we have to fix this ourselves."}],[{"start":30.650000000000002,"text":"Yet even now, when weather records are being broken, when climate change is demonstrably here, not in the future, we seem frozen. We still go about our carbon-greedy lives: snapping up the last air-conditioning unit, booking another flight, seeking solace in the pathetic fallacy of recycling things we maybe didn’t need at all."}],[{"start":51.6,"text":"It’s not that we don’t care. Multiple studies across the world find the majority of people now take climate change very seriously. But the scale of the thing can mire us in apathy. Eco-anxiety is on the rise in many countries, according to psychologists, especially those where people are directly witnessing the impact. This is an entirely rational response. But it can also be crippling."}],[{"start":75.25,"text":"How do we shake ourselves into action? Shouting “fire” doesn’t work. I’ve learnt from experience that doom-mongering leads people either to turn away or become overwhelmed by the scale of the problem. "}],[{"start":87.2,"text":"Yale University researchers tested the effect of three different kinds of climate messages in 23 countries. Talking about the impact on the next generation, framing the problem as “the polluter should pay”, or describing climate progress all resonated, at least with some. But the overall message effects were “small”."}],[{"start":106.55000000000001,"text":"Climate change is no longer an information problem; it’s a collective action one. While most of us care, we may also think: why should I make sacrifices — forgo that trip abroad, install that incredibly expensive heat pump, eat tofu — if no one else will? "}],[{"start":123.4,"text":"UK government research found that 72 per cent of Britons agree we can make changes that would help reduce climate change, but 35 per cent feel it is not worth it unless others do the same. These results should shape public policy. "}],[{"start":137.35,"text":"Humans can make collective sacrifices in a crisis. We mobilised against Nazi Germany and Covid-19. The first international environmental treaty, the 1987 Montreal Protocol, phased out the chlorofluorocarbons that were damaging the ozone layer."}],[{"start":153.4,"text":"The climate emergency is obviously of a different order of complexity to the CFC challenge, which involved a small number of producers, with substitute products available. But while the COP conferences on climate change have become unedifying lobby fests, progress has been made by tenacious souls. Business ingenuity has delivered ever more efficient renewables, as well as breakthroughs in battery storage. Even the Trump administration has not derailed all progress. The cost of clean energy is plummeting."}],[{"start":183.6,"text":"Research also suggests we may all be underestimating each other’s willingness to act. A 2022 study, published in Nature, found that more than two-thirds of Americans supported several major climate policies but thought that fewer than half of their fellow citizens would agree. A number of researchers suggest we are being held back by “pluralistic ignorance” about how others feel, because we become less willing to discuss climate change when we think, incorrectly, that we are in a minority. Correcting that misperception makes people more prepared to talk about it and potentially to take action. "}],[{"start":220,"text":"If so, it may be easier than we think to persuade more of us to act on some simple things: whether that’s switching off appliances at times when the grid needs help, insulating the loft, or eating less meat and dairy. We can change the social norm on these things ourselves, without state intervention."}],[{"start":239.45,"text":"Voters can feel sceptical about all the competing claims. Carbon offsets can be fraudulent. Politicians don’t remove heritage rules that block environmental home improvements, but they urge us to buy expensive electric cars. And tribal politics is a real obstacle. "}],[{"start":256.45,"text":"When I was a member of the Green Party 30 years ago, we were a bunch of concerned people who wrote energy-efficiency proposals on recycled paper. Then the greens fell into an anti-nuclear obsession which, in Germany, prolonged a disastrous reliance on coal. Now, it is veering into hard-left populism, with loud “progressive activists” that annoy many voters, according to More in Common and Climate Outreach. What we need from politicians is pragmatism, not ideology, and cross-party collaboration, not point-scoring."}],[{"start":289.84999999999997,"text":"Climate change is the great leveller. Wealth can’t protect us from it. Certainly, the rich can remain more comfortable than the poor, especially those trying to scratch a living from parched soils. But our fates, and those of our children, are all linked. This week, across the west, people stood in parks and on roofs to watch the eclipse together. We all know the sky is changing. We need to stop waiting for someone else to break the spell and start to do the things we know we should."}],[{"start":326.2,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1786723789_7160.mp3"}