The Pluralist Approach

Many of us are concerned or even alarmed over climate change. On the surface, mitigating climate change doesn’t seem like it should be that complicated. All we have to do is transition off of fossil fuels, and we could do that with the technology we have right now. But once we start trying to actually do it, it becomes apparent that not everyone is motivated to support these changes. To some, the solutions seem to be worse than the problem. This is what makes climate change a “wicked problem”. Climate scientist Michael Mann doesn’t like to apply the term wicked problem to climate change because it can be interpreted that the problem is unsolvable and create a sense of hopelessness that would inhibit action. Other words like denial , which is the natural human state but is often interpreted as an insult, or uncertain, which is often interpreted as being synonymous with unsure , run into the same problem. It’s like the Ministry of Truth from Orwell’s 1984 is decimating the language we