Society has progressed so far in the last few hundred years; we have invented electricity, airplanes, and yet the one thing we have not been able to figure out is stubbornness. That leads us to the continued scientific reality that climate change is real and there is quite a bit of consensus surrounding this reality. Despite increased literature there is an ever-growing movement to deny the reality of climate change. This pushes back on this idea that we need to educate people for them to understand and instead points to the reality that for some no matter the evidence climate change is not about the amount of carbon in our atmosphere. We truly are as stubborn as ever.
Rewind back to 1991, the Bush Sr. administration is meeting in Brazil at an Earth summit with other countries. The Cold War had just finished and the great triumph of Western democratic-capitalism meant that now was a perfect time to move towards a more sustainable future. At this summit, Bush signs the UNFCCC which is a non-binding international agreement to tackle climate change. Just six years later there is another summit in Kyoto, which wanted to find something to help developing countries. Despite signing the UNFCCC in 1991 the US became the only country not to not sign on to this Kyoto protocol. Why? The article lists the main reasons being economic and wanting the developing countries to carry more of the load. They of course would be unable to do this because of their poor economies (something you still see today). There also was an argument pushed forward that called this more foreign aid, which was against the wishes of the American public.
Why the US refuses to sign on to these agreements is because the switch towards an economic-centric policy set and distrust of other political actors in the process. The article talks about how the Bush Sr. administration was hesitant to sign on to Kyoto because they felt it would hurt the economy. You see this with rhetoric nowadays around “unleashing the American economy” which means loosening up regulations and drilling for more oil. This is a lot harder and more expensive with environmental protections which is part of why the US is resistant to these agreements. There also is now a general distrust of international institutions that was not as prevalent before. This applies to both friend and foe with growing distrust of Europe and “paying their fair share” or China and the cold war going on there. Even when China or India signs on to an agreement there is a distrust that they will actually implement it and because of their economic significance there is no enforcement mechanism.
Will Wright 