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Emily Atkin's avatar

I used to think activists should avoid certain topics like stoves/straws/meat that were guaranteed to provoke overblown reactions from the right. Then I quickly realized that they’ll overblow literally anything. Can’t let their reactions dictate the conversation.

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Thomas L Mischler's avatar

According to the EPA, "37% of methane emissions from human activity are the direct result of our livestock and agricultural practices." AOC stated this fact, and her words were distorted to create patronizing headlines about cow farts. As soon as someone mentioned the fact that gas stoves contribute to global warming, the crazies came out, and we saw tweets about prying "cold, dead hands" off their cherished gas stoves.

We used to hear similar comments about seat belts and cigarettes and hair spray and - my personal favorite - R22 refrigerant. And yet public perception about each one of these changed virtually overnight, and it did so because responsible people in positions of authority made decisions based on science that improved things for all of us. The "Ozone Debate" is a classic case of science overpowering stupidity: in spite of comments about how ridiculous it was to think that hair spray was going to bring about the end of humankind, science prevailed. International agreements limited the production of ozone-depleting chemicals, and the problem was corrected.

The reason we dodged the ozone bullet was that the R-22 lobby wasn't quite as powerful as today's fossil fuel lobby - plus, there was no Tweeting back then. Or Fox "News." The "How stupid is this?" voices were somewhat subdued. Today, fossil fuel bribery specialists (aka, "lobbyists") are sitting in on every conference about climate change, so the ability of science to overtake the noise is that much more difficult. Let's hope the science eventually wins.

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