There is a line of reasoning that is often discussed in relation to pressing the case for climate action.
That is: People are not swayed by facts, they need an emotional connection.
The argument that people are not swayed by facts is backed by the current situation, where overwhelming scientific evidence points to a serious shift in climate which the human civilisation will struggle to adapt to. And yet there is little or no meaningful changes in lifestyle or policy.
What about the emotional connection? What are the odds of climate action once people are addressed on an emotional level?
For anyone who thinks that once this emotional case is presented, the cogs will spin into life and the problem will be solved, there is a sobering parallel in the case for gun control.
There are many similarities with the climate and gun situations.
The US administration accepts huge donations from both the gun lobby and the fossil fuel industries.
And in both cases fact is not enough for people to change their views. For example it has been shown that having a gun in your home increases the chances of your own death. Yet a man in a shop buying a gun ignores this. That statisitic is made up of all those “other people” who are not as clever as he is. (He keeps it loaded behind the ‘fridge – noone will ever think to look there)
However, the disturbing difference between the debates on gun control and climate action is that the emotional case for gun control has already been routinely made with the bodies of children left bleeding out on the school floor after massacre after massacre.
Faced with this threat to their children, Americans still cannot bring themselves to stop assualt rifles being handed out over the counter. And a bullet to the head is much more vivid threat to a child than a rising sea level or a depletion of glacial ice coverage.
So when making an emotional plea for climate action, it will clearly take more than a handful of poems.
If Americans will not give up their guns in the face of the daily slaughter of the population, what will it take to get them to give up their cars?