The climate fact no one will admit: 2 °C warming is inevitable

[Boomer]

31. Sadly, it's not enough for most people

Most people don't hold a conceptual model of global climate mechanics in their head. It's an entirely different mindset that many of us here on DU take for granted (especially in the E&E group), but that really does set us apart.

The vast majority of people I know through the normal course of daily life all navigate a much smaller world that does not include what may be happening in the Arctic. It's far less a physical world than it is a social world. They see their lives through their connections to people -- family, friends, co-workers, neighbors. They react emotionally to actual events that affect the people they know. They react to events they see. Everything else is dim and only fleetingly acknowledged. A truly catastrophic natural disaster in another country -- if it involves sufficient mortality -- will catch their attention, but again, because people are affected.

If we don't acknowledge the different paradigms in which people live, social versus physical, we'll never understand why so many people can be so oblivious to the events that alarm others. And why they will continue to ignore climate change warnings until the day Florida is submerged and they worry about their sister's family. Again, it's their SISTER they care about; the larger context of why she drowned, not so much.