Climate emergency placard

‘The paradox of the situation lies in the fact that most people (including those who take climate change seriously) simultaneously acknowledge these facts as scientific truth while at the same time continue to act as if they do not know. This suggests that a cognitive dissonance,[…] whereby subjects fully recognize the truth of the situation […] yet continue doing what they have always been doing,’ (Swyngedouw 2022)

Recently I sat down to a plate of chickpea stew and a pint of Rude Giant best bitter at the Queen’s Head, Broad Chalke in South Wiltshire, not so far from Salisbury and Stonehenge. I rarely fly, taking my holiday time in the English countryside instead. The chickpea stew perhaps sounds unpromising but was exceptionally good. I don’t eat meat, although eating fish, I was once accused of being a ‘fish and chip-ocrite’. Conscious of climate change, I try to avoid flying and I try to eat more vegan food. More significantly, if I am serious about climate change, was the fact that I enjoyed both the beer and the stew. Enjoyment matters. Enjoyment is fundamental. If we want to tackle climate change we must focus on enjoyment.

Why is this?

Enjoyment, or to be specific, the fear that acknowledging climate change and doing something about it will reduce enjoyment, is a powerful factor driving climate change denial.

In a provocative article in the journal Environmental Politics, Manchester based academic Eric Swyngedouw, suggests that this fear that dealing with climate change will spoil our fun, is the key force driving the apparently ever-upward popularity of Donald Trump and similar climate change accelerationist politicians.

Political ideas and values, as serious scholars have long acknowledged, are a product of emotional identification. What we believe is often shaped by what we feel. Climate change action might mean giving up things we enjoy. Enjoyment might seem trivial but it is more real to most of us than newspaper articles or scientific reports. Gratification can be difficult to get past.

Climate change action can appear to hinge on telling people to give up the things they love most. My wife loves playing the piano, what environmental harm might there be in the piano? What sinister destruction of our beautiful planet might playing the ebony and ivory keys involve?

My wife organised an event entitled ‘How Can Music Save the Planet’, on 29 April 2014 at the Sage Gateshead (now the Glasshouse). One invitee responded with a detailed discussion of the negative environmental consequences of piano playing.

Noting along with deforestation and aural pollution from loud performances, the globalised and thus presumably high energy impact of instrument production:

‘The last British piano manufacturer closed in early 2014. So part of the environmental cost of instrument manufacture is transportation, shipping being far from the environmentally friendlier option once thought. Clearly all impacts increase the more ‘throughput’ there is. The Pearl River group, the world’s biggest piano manufacturer may have signed various environmental standards but its output of a possible 100,000 pianos a year must use more resources and cause more pollution than if it were making only 10,000″.

An underlying theme, often explicit, is that to tackle climate change we need to consume less and presumably suffer more. The vast academic literature on climate change communication tends to agree on the way that negative messaging can lead to disregard for climate action. Climate change is going to make us very unhappy with extreme weather, but climate action may also make us extremely unhappy. So ‘why bother?’ might argue not only the jaded and the cynical, but most of us, whether we enjoy a steak, a cheap flight to the sun or even a new piano.

How can we make doing the right thing also the enjoyable thing? Well, for me it is yet another visit to a Wiltshire pub. For you it might be something else entirely. However, linking climate action to enjoyment or at least making sure we have clean renewable energy is important to reducing now denial and boosting support for climate change action.

The dirty truth is, many people love cycling and get enjoyment from the acceleration of their new electric cars; and indeed vegan food, if one searches long enough, can bring pleasure.

Linking climate change action to culture including music can increase commitment too.

Some people enjoy television, I suspect most of my lifelong commitment to ecological politics comes from watching science fiction when I was eight in 1973. Happily now when I turn the television on to watch a nostalgic repeat, I can at least be assured that most of the electricity supply powering it is from non-fossil fuel sources, with the last coal power station closing in September 2024.

If I am frank, I am less concerned about people giving up things and more concerned about maintaining Britain’s frankly heroic roll out of decarbonised electricity. This is under severe threat, the tide is turning and there is a powerful anti net zero movement waiting to reverse this progress. In 2025 Donald Trump is working tirelessly to get more fossil fuels out of the ground. Just today I note he has instructed that 8000 EV chargers are to be torn out of federal US car parks.

This is the future. It is not about any one politician or political party, it is of course cheered on by Big Oil but to an extent demands to reverse policies for cleaner energy are fuelled by anxieties that acknowledging climate change may mean giving up the things that we enjoy most.

There is no easy answer to this. Even with pianos. When I watch the clip of Ludovico Einaudi’s Elegy for the Artic, I am stirred by it, it is extremely moving, but I also wonder how much C02 was used transporting Mr Einaudi and his heavy piano to the Artic. However if we want to reduce emissions, fundamentally this involves policy change, and to get policy change we need to inspire. Thus climate change action that threatens enjoyment risks shutting down the progress we have already seen.

I enjoy reading, not everybody does. Perhaps my favourite book on climate change is Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ministry for the Future. Perhaps we need a Ministry for Enjoyment, for effective local climate change action. Enjoyment can come from promoting walking and cycling, from music, from food sampling, from many things. How can we enjoy leaving a better environment for future generations?

Image credit: John Eglart – Creative Commons