No one actually likes to hear ‘I-told-you-so’.
One week before news of the low Danube River levels made headlines I had a strange exchange with a climate denier. Before I shared that I was an environmentalist our chat was pretty chilled but his demeanour towards me changed immediately after. His body language became defensive and he started a defense campaign before understanding anything about my background, beliefs or approach. The tones were low but the cues loud.
I told a friend about this exchange and her first question was ‘why do you think he feels this way?’ which got me wondering if the assumptions of who an environmentalist is simply doesn’t align with how some people identify.
When you Google environmentalist and then click images – what do you see? Thankfully, my search results are more diverse than they used to be but they still don’t necessarily align with who I actually am. My guess is that if some climate deniers were asked to describe an environmentalist, they would be likely to use terms like woke, left wing, liberal, snowflake, etc
There are a few definitions of an environmentalist knocking around but the Cambridge dictionary defines an environmentalist is ‘a person who is interested in or studies the environment and who tries to protect it from being damaged by human activities.’ It makes me wonder how many people’s tune would change if they realised that they didn’t need to identify as ‘woke’ in order to take a little more interest in how they can contribute to the efforts to mitigate climate change.
Also, we don’t like saying I-told-you-so, especially when being right means that people have to suffer. Yet this summer we have seen signs of the very things that climate scientists have been whispering, writing, speaking and shouting about for years.
Europe didn’t just experience a heat wave this summer. Danube River levels fell to a level that has not been seen in years, prompting the Hungarian government to switch the Parliament lights off at night to preserve energy and come up with contingency plans to cool their nuclear power plant. Two trains in the UK derailed within 24 hours of each other and the heatwave may have been the cause. Furthermore, wildfires have been popping up around the UK prompting the government to send an emergency alert to residents warning them about the risk of wildfires.
Environmentalists and climate scientists are now in the place to say I-told-you-so but what good will that really do? When last did you change your ways because someone taunted you with ‘I-told-you-so’?
What if environmentalism was easier to align with than it is to ignore? What if some of us climbed off of our proverbial soapboxes and made our knowledge and insights more accessible and digestible? What if we showed people where they are already behaving environmentally and then showed them how they can build on that?
Environmentalism doesn’t need everyone to label themselves as such in order for there to be an impact, but it does need relatability to convince people that they might be more aligned than they think they are.
To recap – an environmentalist is ‘a person who is interested in or studies the environment and who tries to protect it from being damaged by human activities’. That’s it.
No virtue signalling
No dress code
No paper straws
No political affiliation
Just someone who cares enough about the environment to want to protect it and those who live in it.
