America's Veil of Ignorance and Dr. Norgaard on Climate Change

At Dr. Kari Norgaard’s Climate Change Symposium talk entitled, “Living in Denial, climate change, emotions, and everyday life, I was really interested in Dr. Norgaard’s sociological approach to climate change. I thought her discussion of America’s denial of climate change was incredibly interesting as it is something I’ve have noticed growing up but never thought to put a finger on the fact that it was actually collective denial and not just “the way it is”.

            Opposing the idea that is often present in the media that climate change is fictitious or not a problem that is actually close to home,
Norgaard argues that this denial of scientific fact by American society in particular actually “poses a threat to present social organization”. She argues that people deny climate change because it is hard see tactile results of their individual impact and want to maintain a brighter state of mind, choosing not to think that they could individually be contributing to something as grave as climate change.

            In her talk, Norgaard also noted that to most people, climate change is an unimaginable variable but it is also a widely held tenant of common knowledge. This reminded me almost instantly of Bamborough’s “Proof” in which he discusses common sense and moral knowledge. I also connected her ideas of the denial of climate change to cultural relativism, where it is American society that has decided by way of the media and popular conception that climate change is not a problem or does not actually exist. I am curious as to what Norgaard’s thoughts would be on how to educate children about the existence and validity of climate change. If we change the way the next generation thinks about climate change could we step out of our veil of ignorance?