It’s not that western countries didn’t think they’d be hurt by it, it’s that for a variety of reasons many actively refuse to believe in it (mostly related to oil and coal). A lot of people in the west have been screaming for at least a decade now about how bad things are going to get and that changes need to be made, but an equal number of people have also been shouting them down saying it’s all propaganda and climate change isn’t real. I remember being told with a straight face a decade ago that climate change was all Chinese propaganda designed to ruin the US economy.
Sure, there are still a lot of people who flat out deny that anything is happening, but a lot of people who accept that climate change is real don’t appreciate how severe the problem is. It’s honestly incredibly depressing to watch this all unfold. At this point I have no idea what it’s going to take for people to start treating this as a serious threat to humanity as a whole.
It’s not that western countries didn’t think they’d be hurt by it, it’s that for a variety of reasons many actively refuse to believe in it (mostly related to oil and coal). A lot of people in the west have been screaming for at least a decade now about how bad things are going to get and that changes need to be made, but an equal number of people have also been shouting them down saying it’s all propaganda and climate change isn’t real. I remember being told with a straight face a decade ago that climate change was all Chinese propaganda designed to ruin the US economy.
Sure, there are still a lot of people who flat out deny that anything is happening, but a lot of people who accept that climate change is real don’t appreciate how severe the problem is. It’s honestly incredibly depressing to watch this all unfold. At this point I have no idea what it’s going to take for people to start treating this as a serious threat to humanity as a whole.