http://i.imgur.com/TZDt6L6.jpg

When you hear 'climate change', what comes to mind, what images do you see? Before you let your knowledge start to bring in information to support your beliefs or attack whatever you expect me to say. What did you see?

I have asked this of a few people in the last days and the results are fairly regular despite people being on different sides of the arguments. Regardless of whether they believe it to be real or hoax, man-made or a natural phenomena, they all saw one thing, pollution.

Some saw  something like the image above of industrial air pollution, some saw things like the mountains of tires and rubbish piled high, some saw animals covered in  oil. 

None saw an image of a climate agreement, or an electric car or a president that blames the Chinese. It was all pollution.

It doesn't really matter what you believe about climate change itself, I don't think there is anyone wanting more pollution in the world . All seem to want clean air, land and sea. Unfortunately, pollution keeps rising while people argue about the legitimacy of climate change.

Cleaning up is not easy, it is expensive. The cost of cleaning up the environment is always brought into the conversation. But why? We are paying to pollute it also. The problem doesn't seem to be the cost, it seems to be who gets the money and as a result, the ones that are currently getting the money are lobbying to slow down the process while they work on ways to continue getting the money in the future too.

They did this by polluting the collective minds by reframing the problem of pollution which all unanimously agree is bad, to climate change where doubt can be introduced. While this is going on, the thing that everyone doesn't want, pollution, keeps happening. 

Now, the strange thing is that no one wants pollution and it 'may' be a cause for the climate change, speeding up of it or have no effect at all. But, if it does actually have an affect, cleaning it up is the way to go, to attempt to slow, stop or reverse the damage. 

However, if pollution doesn't affect the climate, cleaning it up is still the way to go because living in a polluted environment is unpleasant and the cost of treating pollution related illness and disorder is astronomical and rising

The cost is still an issue of course as  entire industries may disappear due to the shift away from polluting products. But, they are likely established industry already. When it comes to creating jobs, established industry hold the most, but hire the least.

Percentage-wise, it is the start-up and emerging industries that have to hire a lot as they do not have an optimised process as their products and services are not yet matured and still developing. And, if given the support, the need for clean tech is massive and would require an enormous undertaking to fill all positions and many more support industries would pop-up to service it.

In time, the efficiency of the products and technology could improve significantly and potentially reach a stage where energy is actually free and clean. But even without that, the cleaning up of the environment will lead to some quite big changes in the way consumption takes place and the spread of wealth.

I find it interesting that the same people that complain about the cost of cleaning up the environment are often the ones that are critical of the controlling 'one percent'. How do they think the majority of the one percent got their money? It likely wasn't by selling organic herbal teas at the local farmer's market on Saturday mornings.

But, the lobbying is very clever and has been able to shift the focus if the people away from the beneficial frame to one that looks like uncertain. Reframing is a very powerful tool when implemented well. 

I don't know where you lay on the climate change spectrum but, I am pretty sure that you do not want to live and breathe in filth. However, all things remaining equal, that is where we are headed. Voted for changing the status quo? What changed?

I am no expert in this area but I do know that I for one would prefer my money going to something that has a chance of cleaning up and improving than something that is proven to pollute. 

It would be nice that when my daughter is my age, when she hears  the terms 'climate change' or 'pollution', images  from history come to mind instead.

Taraz
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