大象传媒

Hello! Are you depressed and scared about the impending U.S. election, and worried about a further craven descent into autocracy? It鈥檚 hard to stay positive about the future when the current President can say and do the worst things in the world, while still maintaining the support of millions and millions of people. But here鈥檚 a bit of hope that came , by way of former Obama ace, David Axelrod. The idea is this: Joe Biden is…The Great Normalizer.

And a normalizer is what we need when it comes to climate.

I鈥檇 been dancing around this idea for some time, and then Yang put it into just the right words for me last week. Joe Biden鈥檚 climate plan is  we鈥檝e ever seen (drawing ideas and policy, as it does, from a dream team of advisers who pushed it to be better than it had any right to be), yet no one much batted an eye when he put it out there. If Bernie Sanders had proposed exactly the same plan, people would have screamed that it was radical, socialist, eco-marxist, anarchist piffle with an organically grown cherry on top. Because normal guy Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. put it forth, it seems, well, normal. As Yang said on the podcast: As soon as Joe Biden, a reasonable guy, says something, that thing becomes mainstream and reasonable itself. If you鈥檙e hoping for transformative change, a powerful normalizer might be the best tool for making seemingly fringe ideas palatable. If climate action is Cyrano de Bergerac, Biden is Christian de Neuvillette. He will make the $2 trillion plan go down smooth. And for that, regardless of what else one might want in a presidential candidate (deep conviction, the strength to break ties with lobbyists, that he be Jay Inslee, that he be she), I鈥檓 optimistic.

There鈥檚 a tendency in climate circles to scream loudly about how much change we need and how quickly and how big. But perhaps the best course is to present all this massive and rapidly needed change as normal, and not shockingly grand or sweeping at all. Numbers with more than a few zeroes after them make no sense to most humans anyway. The key is to normalize these ambitious plans on the quick. If the most likable, normcore girl in your high school thinks a few trillion is legit, then it becomes legit as fast as you can say, 鈥淲anna join our lunch table?鈥�

The key is to use a normalizer to push forth the boldest ideas. And to  when they try to revert to status quo delay on your watch.

In a , Annie Lowrey discusses our need for more ambitious norms.

The country could use far more potent and urgent norms when it comes to emissions-heavy behaviors, Brett Jenks (president of Rare, a global conservation nonprofit) told me. And the time is ripe for creating them. 鈥淔rom our own research, more than 50% of Americans would like to do something personally about climate change,鈥� he told me. 鈥淏ut they don鈥檛 know that anybody else expects them to do anything. We call that in social sciences an 鈥榚xpectations gap.鈥� People expect they should be doing something, but they don鈥檛 yet know that others expect them to do something.鈥�

If the ambitious (and deeply necessary) becomes normative, expectations will indeed rise. Lowrey鈥檚 overarching argument is essentially that individual actions matter because social norms matter, and right now our norms do not reflect what is necessary to stave off the existential threats of climate change. Which is why we need The Great Normalizer.

In previous columns I鈥檝e written, again optimistically, about how little it takes to flip a norm.  about how formerly normative behaviors like not wearing a seatbelt or smoking changed reasonably quickly because of behavioral contagion. The sociologist Erica Chenowith writes fairly convincingly about how just . And Malcolm Gladwell perhaps normalized norms most normatively in . But what scale is more grand for normalizing an idea than that of the office of the president? Just as we鈥檝e seen the current occupant act as a great normalizer of hate, corruption, and , one wonders whether he hasn鈥檛 found a formidable foe in someone who makes green jobs, massive investments in climate infrastructure, and basic human decency seem normal as well. It鈥檚 counterintuitive to think that our last, best hope is our best normal person, but I鈥檒l take it.

THIS WEEK

How do you ? As always, lmk!

LAST WEEK

? Reader Leslie wrote to say the term forever might be letting people off the hook. 鈥�When people see things with an 鈥渙h well, I鈥檒l just have to live with it鈥� attitude, they do nothing and give up.鈥� If that鈥檚 how the piece came across(!!!) I did a disservice to Tom Rand, who merely uses Forever Emergency to make the point that other emergencies, however mammoth, will come and go, but climate will be with us forever, and is big and huge and we have to both wrap our heads around its breadth AS WELL AS act now.   

Writes Rose:

You asked, does the Forever Emergency resonate? 大象传媒 I didn’t have this helpful framing to describe my actions until I read your piece, but whenever I make decisions that have any relationship to climate (so, almost every decision I make), I think about what choice will help me inflict the least harm and/or mitigate the extent to which climate-induced harm is inflicted on me. I’m using Forever Emergency mental calculations, I now know.

I also completely agree that it’s a healthy and, in a way, a positive view of climate change. I’m angry and I’m scared about climate change, but I’ve also accepted the fact that it’s inflicting damage and will continue to do so, and this energizes me to act. It helps me understand the club sandwich of emergencies, as you pointed out, in a way that leaves me with some emotional and cognitive resources to do my part in alleviating them.

That last sentence!!! Yes!!

LAST LAST WEEK

I鈥檒l keep collecting # forever. Here鈥檚 another lovely one from the wonderful climate activist , that I heard by way of Dr. Robert Frank.

PEOPLE DANCING

Toronto FTW!

Long Toronto

— Shubham Datta (@Shubham)

SHOPTALK

My friend Ariel has a new newsletter. It鈥檚 called 鈥淯ncultured鈥� because there are fewer cultural events happening. And yet so many! I .

Hope you are happy and healthy,
Sarah

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P.P.P.P.S. This is my newsletter for the week of September 10, 2020, published in partnership with 大象传媒 Media. You can sign up to get Minimum Viable Planet newsletter emailed directly to you at .