Politics at the Dinner Table

Over Thanksgiving, I spoke to my Mom briefly about climate politics, but got very little useful feedback. Essentially, she acknowledged that "global warming" was a real issue, but she wasn't convinced that it was as severe as scientists make it out to be. She expressed her belief that carbon dioxide from cars and trucks should be reduced, but from my understanding, she didn't seem to understand that her lifestyle choices in consumption contributed to those emissions.

Drawing from more interesting conversations I've held with a friend of mine at AU, I believe that the most important thing to do in these discussions is to listen and remain as emotionally neutral as possible. Once the conversation becomes emotionally hostile, I feel that the stance of the environmentalist is oftentimes compromised beyond recovery.

After many, MANY heated discussions with my friend about how horrible her family's small fleet of Hummers are for the environment, she finally understood my viewpoint when I pointed out the fact that the air in her town was not her's to pollute. Before that point, she firmly believed that if she had the money to buy these cars and the fuel to run them, it was her right to do so. This was the point of contention for the majority of our arguments, and I had a lot of trouble addressing these issues in a successful way.

From those experiences, I learned that emphasis should be placed on the impact your decisions has on your neighbors--the idea that your decisions affect others as well as yourself.

Overall, I think it is important to remain as calm as possible during discussions(though it's extremely difficult at times), and to take the time to understand where the other person is coming from. It is often impossible to convince the other person to change their opinion, but it is NOT useless to listen. By doing this, we can gain a greater understanding of public opinion on controversial issues, and we can use that knowledge to create solutions to environmental problems.