Scare them straight

Unfortunately, I agree with Michael Maniates. The lack of urgency surrounding climate change creates an environment in which most people can glide over the subject, while very few feel the need to make real change. In my experience, many people feel like recycling their Coke bottle (if there even is a place to recycle it) is enough. Or that buying organic carrots a few times a year will make them "green." Or, perhaps replacing the lightbulb in the lamp on their bedside table will make them "energy efficient." Most people don't even realize the impacts of their actions, and creating a sense of leisure about becoming more environmentally friendly certainly does not help. Similarly, in a world where walking to the store instead of driving once a week is enough to prevent climate change, those who don't believe can feel even more confident in the fact that the climate can absolutely not be changing due to human actions. This is because, if the climate were changing because of us, completing a three-step system (reduce, reuse, recycle... when you have the time) in a book for almost-environmentalists would not be sufficient.

And it's not. But if people knew that, they might actually be scared into doing something. In a culture where being lazy is the goal, no one wants to think that they have to be proactive or put in effort. However, maybe we should all be scared. Anyone who has read Bill McKibben's "Eaath," or seen "An Inconvenient Truth" would be scared, if even momentarily. And rightly so. The future doesn't look so good... so maybe we should scare people. And instead of publishing books like "The Lazy Environmentalist," we should be publishing books that say "Do Something Now: Before The Sea Level Rises and Florida is Underwater." Or "Make Big Changes, Save Yourself and Your Children." It doesn't sound quite as pleasant, but being lazy won't be an option when stronger storms are knocking over our martinis and it will be too hot for even the most seasoned of Californians to lounge by the pool.