Why does climate politics play such a big role in our lives? Climate-driven weather disasters effect both conservatives and liberals equally. And global petro-wars drive up the cost of food and transportation for everyone.
In a market-driven economy, the consumer should be able to determine whether fossil fuel or renewable energy is better. Instead, all of the renewable options are being taken off the market by a fossil-fuel owned government. They are forcing conservatives and liberals alike to suffer from increasingly expensive energy and food choices, growing health risks, and the loss of higher paying jobs.
Climate politics may be less about conservative versus liberal than they are about billionaires versus everyone else. Only the mega-rich profit from increased prices. And it’s only the mega-rich the profit from health risks that increase medical spending. For the rest of us, a renewable economy is healthier, cleaner and more profitable for everyone. But the billionaires continue to exploit our social and cultural differences to make us lose sight of this shared value.
This is nothing new. The rich have manipulated social and cultural beliefs throughout history. Perhaps it’s time to recognize that climate politics is just another tool to make the rich richer.
Join host, Bob Grove, and Dr Timmons Roberts to discuss the the Lost Value of Social Culture on Climate Politics.
Guests
Dr Roberts is the Ittleson Professor of Environment & Society at Brown University. He leads the Climate and Development Lab, and is the Executive Director of the global Climate Social-Science Network. He holds a a Ph.D. in Comparative International Development from the Johns Hopkins University. Dr Roberts has served on the Board of the Environmental Change & Society of the National Academy of Sciences, and has received Frederick Buttel Awards for distinguished scholarship from both the American and the International Sociological Associations.
To learn more, visit …
- https://www.climatedevlab.brown.edu
- https://vivo.brown.edu/display/jr17
- https://cssn.org/scholar/timmons-roberts/
- https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C6JPDD24
