After reading the article on the BP spill, one of the author's comments struck me: "a much bigger misstep has been to talk about climate change as an 'environmental' problem." As someone interested in environmental policy, I first worried the only hope was to frame all environmental issues as some other type of issue in order to gain public support. I realized that environmentalism is a relavitely new topic and has not been established as a political institution.
Many scientists and organizations have been feeding us scientific evidence to appeal to our rational sides, but because environmentalism is still seen as a special interest and not a political mainstay, we don't have the institutional framework in which to put all of that scientific information, no matter how persuasive it may be. Once enviroinmental policies no longer seem like such a fringe issue, politicians will not be so afraid to tackle them head on. Until then, we may have to refram environmental issues, but it is also important to aim for long term progress. That is to say solidifying environmental issues as important political issues so that people will automatically consider them important and a necessary part of politics.
Amy Kochanowsky
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