Essay3

__Cool Dudes: Experiences and Cultural Forces __ With conservative think tanks like The Heartland Institute, Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, and many more like them, it’s hasty to assume that global warming skeptics exist. Alarmingly, many of these skeptics are conservative white males who are the same people who run many of our countries most powerful businesses. Through faux-scandals, distorted research, and financial discontent, these organizations have exploited their resources to undermine clear scientific evidence indicating climate change is a major problem. Not coincidently, the leaders of these organizations are white conservative males.

According to "Cool Dudes" The Denial of Climate Change Among Conservative White Males in the United States (in Global Environmental Change, 2011), conservative white males in the general public, as a group, would be more likely to embrace and defend claims made by their conservative leaders, “the elite”, if you will. In other words, if one white conservative male has a view point, others will adopt it just because they are in the same “group”. Identity-protective cognition may be the reason why these views remain prevalent among the majority of conservative white males. Identify-protective cognition refers to the inclination of white males to fear certain risks less than women or minorities based on their form of social organization. In the case of the conservative white male, their cultural interests historically lie in position of power in industrial capitalism because these positions have contributed to their success in the United States. Their historical experiences of privilege encourage them to keep their way of thinking. They are are ill equipped to discuss climate change when it comes up because they have never experienced the ramifications of it. Again, consistent messages from the fossil fuel industry, other conservative white males, and even older generations in one’s family, are constantly being inserted fraudulently into youthful conservative white male minds. Their economic interests are entrusted within climate change denial through the fossil fuel industry. This may lead even the most strong-willed to defend their in-group claims.

In the eyes of a conservative leader, the only way to solve global warming is through government regulation and enforcement on a global level. In turn, conservatives alike do not like this method as it doesn’t preserve a free market. By admitting global warming is an issue, a conservative’s stance on fossil fuels among many other environmental comprising issues becomes undermined  While some scientific skepticism is healthy, climate change is becoming considerably worse the longer it goes unaddressed by these influential front-runners. In order to interrupt and reorient the formation of white males in the United States, we need to re-format part of our education system to address this problem. Cultural experiences are shaping the views of many white conservative males. Cross-cultural competence is an important entity to instill into students and correspondingly, parents. More times than not, politics beliefs stem directly from older generations in one’s family. As cultural interests are the primary reason for disparity among viewpoints, exposure to perspectives of varying races, genders, socio-economic statuses, religions, etc. is particularly relevant and important to consider. Creating activities that explore different angles, much like developing a sense of empathy within students. It is important to form a connection between students and how they individually impact the environment around them. By showing students picture of the detrimental effects climate change has caused throughout the world, students may find it outrageous but it may not stick with them because it is so far away. By showing students the effects climate change has had in their own city or town, effects can be seen and related to by all, as it is their home.