This is very important. Thank you for that.
"If we are right this time, why worry about it? If we are wrong this time -- as we have been for the past 70 years -- why worry about it?"
If I understand you correctly, your response to your own question is that you do indeed do something (eg, lack of car), but you don't worry, or more specifically, you don't worry to the point of losing sleep about it.
Is that a correct interpretation of what you wrote?
If so, I think we are working on different meanings of 'worry', which the OP used. I was thinking more along the lines of "to annoy, bother, vex", not "to cause mental distress or trouble" (using the definitions from https://www.etymonline.com/word/worry ).
That is, more along the lines of "concerned", and "alarmed", and not along the lines of the excessive worry that could be part of a generalized anxiety disorder causing a lack of sleep.
I believe it is possible to be both "worried" and "calm, cool and collected." For example, quoting from an interview with a paramedic at https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/01/03/6760393... :
> When people are acutely sick or injured, pain medication is important," Dahlke says. "But it's not the first thing we're going to worry about. We're going to worry about life threats. You're not necessarily going to die from pain, and we're going to do what satisfies the need in the moment to get you into the ambulance and to the hospital and to a higher level of care."
I assumed that OP meant that sort of worry - the kind which implies paying close attention to a real problem and trying to resolve it - and not some 'histrionic' concern.
No, I didn't.
I'm well aware there can be other reasons people aren't particularly/obviously invested in the topic. My reply wasn't intended to explain all such cases.
I didn't feel any need to pedantically enumerate all such points of view, some of which can be quite ugly. For example, if you believe global warming is human created and that this article is correct about billions of lives being at risk, you may cynically feel it is a problem that will resolve itself once that mass die off occurs.
People can be trying to solve it in earnest without signaling to anyone that they believe we are heading towards a doomsday scenario and that their life's work is intended to "save" us from it. In fact, those trying in earnest to find real solutions probably want to activaly eschew that framing. It won't help their work get taken seriously to identify themselves to the world as having some kind of saviour complex.
Renewable energy is a growing industry. How do you know who in that industry is just looking to make a buck and who is on a mission to save the world from global warming?
You can't actually rely on what they say to know what is in their heart of hearts. The person looking to get rich may claim to be trying to save the world because it's a good marketing ploy and improves their bottom line.
I gave up my car more than a decade ago, in part because I'm an environmental studies major. I'm also quite poor and have been for a long time. My lack of a car is consistently viewed through the lens of poverty. No one ever sees my lifestyle choice as an environmental choice.
I mostly don't harp on it. I also don't see well and have other reasons why I'm content to make my life work without a car in a country that actively makes life without a car difficult.
I don't see an upside to trying to position myself in the minds of most people as a fanatic devoting my life to leading by example. In fact, I see a lot of downside to such positioning.
I'm actively involved locally with two non profits. I'm generally the poorest person in the room. Making the rich people around me feel morally judged for things like having a car would close doors in my face, not open them.
Anyway, you and I seem to inherently frame things in a manner that isn't compatible. I feel I am pointlessly beating a dead horse here. It's not a good feeling and it's not a thing I care to continue with.
You replied: "We've been hearing since WW2 ... If we are right this time, why worry about it? If we are wrong this time -- as we have been for the past 70 years -- why worry about it?"
This "we" is a general "we", not a personal comment as it's unlikely that you are that old.
If your answer doesn't reflect something about 'the minds of most people' then who is the "we" who you are saying "are right"?
The fact that I don't lose sleep over worrying about doomsday scenarios doesn't mean I'm doing nothing about it, a point I've repeatedly addressed in this same thread.
If you have an emergency and dial 911, the person who answers remains calm, cool and collected. If they send police or ambulance to your location due to your emergency, those folks also remain calm, cool and collected.
I'm not in denial here. I just think that not only is it not helpful to run screaming across the stage of life in a panic while flailing my arms like Kermit the frog, it's actively counterproductive.
I wish very much I could get more traction for certain things. Perhaps someday I will.
But I am quite confident that histrionics will play little to no part in any success I manage to achieve.