Environmental catastrophe and Skillful Means

The single biggest cause of our current environmental catastrophe is the fact that, no matter what economic system you live under, capitalism,  socialism,  communism, with few exceptions the only way to make money,  which in almost every system is what one needs to stay alive and feed their families, is by destroying nature, turning nature into a product to be sold.

Until that changes, and people have ways to feed their families and themselves without suicidally destroying the ecosystem they live in, it is going to be very hard to convince people to save the environment even though there is no other choice. For most people not paying the rent and the prospect of being homeless is a lot more immediately frightening then some future environmental disaster, even though of course we are experiencing many environmental disasters right now. Still people are doing what people often do when faced with unacceptable ideas, denial.

Until we stop demonizing frightened people who are simply trying to stay alive and communicate in terms that they can understand that their lives are threatened by environmental catastrophe Here and Now  and that this is just as pressing a danger as not having a job, that in fact they will lose their jobs and their homes and their lives if things go on the way they are, well until that happens we're going to get what we've been getting.

I am just as distressed has anyone by the short-sightedness shown by so many right-wing people. However, I also see that the big failure of the left and progressives and environmentalists has been to communicate to these people in terms and Frameworks that are meaningful to them, and I would cite the work of George Lakoff.

 in Buddhism there are two qualities necessary, compassion and skill in means. I have seen very little in the way of skillful means from all those on the left, of whom I am one.  certainly there has been a concerted effort by oil companies and many others who have a vested interest in business as usual to obscure the message that we cannot keep doing things the way we have been doing them. That is certainly true, however simply repeating and shouting the same thing over and over again has clearly not worked for those concerned with the environment. It is if we are talking a different language to people who simply cannot understand us, and that is what is really happening. If we really care about results it is up to us to learn their language and talk to them in terms they can understand, rather than simply cursing at them, belittling them and doing everything possible to make sure they do not listen to us.
Again I mention the work of George Lakoff, as well as the work of Joan C. Williams and others.