For most people who spend time thinking about Climate Change, there is no question of its reality, nor of its seriousness. However, there are interesting differences in how we respond and think about the issue depending on the surrounding culture. In the United States, where there is a significant cultural emphasis placed on individuality, personal freedoms, and relative independence from governmental intervention, we tend to focus a lot of energy on motivating action from individual citizens. This manifests as educational campaigns from local waste management about what to put in the recycling bins and encouragement for people to vote for green products and technology in their consumer habits. This focus on individual action is certainly a necessary tactic for solving the Climate Challenge, but leaves many in the U.S. frustrated with governmental stagnancy on the issue.

I recently had a conversation with someone who had just returned from an extended trip to Europe. While there, she noticed that the general attitude toward climate change was rather different. On the trip, this friend noted that her hosts seemed to not think about environmental concerns at all. While in Germany, she observed that everyone drinks from disposable plastic bottles, a habit that has come to be seen in a very negative light here in the U.S. Her theory was that in European cultures, citizens trust their governments to lead environmental initiatives. And by comparison to the U.S., European governments are taking significant steps in addressing Climate Change. Several countries (Sweden, Germany, and France among others) are implementing ambitious programs to grow their renewable energy sectors and get their countries off fossil fuels. There are experiments with carbon taxes and well-developed alternatives to the car-dependency that characterizes U.S. transportation.

Both attitudes toward solving this problem are necessary and neither is wrong. Perhaps most important is that we work on having more and more of these kinds of open and inquisitive conversations about the Climate Crisis, especially across cultural and ideological boundaries – even within the same country.