I RECENTLY attended a workshop run by George Marshall, author of Don't Even Think About It: Why our brains are wired to ignore climate change, where he showed us a video of one of Maggie Thatcher's speeches and how she communicated her message on climate change.
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Her audience was the Conservative Party room. She appealed to the values of the group with words like balance, stability, fairness, reality, leadership, duty, respect, health, faith, freedom. It was seen to be an issue we care about us, not them.
It was not a science-based argument. The ownership of it was a strong part of the attraction, and it drove the emotional connection behind the Conservatives then determining to take action.
Now, not believing in climate change is a stronger identifier of those who consider themselves conservatives than gun control and the "right to life". With such entrenched party positions, perhaps Dunlop is right and the only hope we have is to take a different tack look at it with a gender lens. We must shift this "right/left" way of seeing the greatest threat to all our lives.