Your Local Lorax

The Climate Posters Got It Wrong

Why Missouri doesn’t need melting glaciers to know something’s wrong

We were Pavlov-trained1 to snip soda rings.
To feel noble for rinsing out yogurt cups.
To believe that turning off a lightbulb would save the world.

Climate messaging taught us to fear melting glaciers and to mourn the polar bears. But it didn’t teach us to look out our windows or into our systems. That plastic bag floating across the parking lot? The media trained you to think you are responsible for chasing it down. But it never told you where it ends up, or how it fits into the vast, unsustainable system that keeps the shelves stocked and the soil dying2.

Yes, we should care about the planet. However, the way we discuss climate is both too global and too individual at the same time.

We are told:

Those are fine. Good, even. But they are starters, not solutions3. They are tools to soothe, not to solve. And in the meantime, nobody is telling you how your town is going to flood more often, or how the heat dome will bake your backyard while you are on month six of trying to keep a garden alive.

We talk about the climate, but we do not talk about how that will affect local weather, and we sure do not talk about policy. So here is a quick blurb to untangle that: Weather is your forecast - rain, sun, and frost. Climate is a region's pattern - what it typically expects over time. (Explained here by NOAA4.)

But when environmental protections get rolled back and regulations are gutted, it’s your weather that slaps you first:

More flooding

Longer droughts

Crops that don’t know when to grow.

And a power grid that wasn’t designed for this5

Just like OSHA rules are written in blood, our climate guidance is written in disaster - built on decades of pollution, denial, and delayed regulation6. Missouri may not have glaciers, but we’ve got levees, monocrops, and ghost rivers. And they’re all stressed.

If your local climate poster still shows a polar bear?

You need a new poster.

Written by Cordy, Your Local Lorax — disabled vet, sustainability nerd, and ecosystem ranter. Find me on Bluesky: @EcoScholar

📚 References

  1. Maniates, M. F. (2001). Individualization: Plant a tree, buy a bike, save the world? Global Environmental Politics, 1(3), 31–52. https://doi.org/10.1162/152638001316881395↩

  2. Moser, S. C., & Dilling, L. (Eds.). (2007). Creating a climate for change: Communicating climate change and facilitating social change. Cambridge University Press. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/creating-a-climate-for-change/B9FA846F3E45EB7C2DAE45ABF0900BB8↩

  3. Nisbet, M. C. (2009). Communicating climate change: Why frames matter for public engagement. Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 51(2), 12–23. https://doi.org/10.3200/ENVT.51.2.12-23↩

  4. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. (n.d.). What’s the difference between weather and climate? https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/weather-vs-climate↩

  5. U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP). (2018). Fourth National Climate Assessment – Chapter 21: Midwest.https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1900/ML19008A414.html↩

  6. Rosner, D., & Markowitz, G. (2002). Deceit and denial: The deadly politics of industrial pollution. University of California Press https://archive.org/details/deceitdenialdead0000mark_b2e9↩