Cross-Cultural Communication, China, and the Climate Crisis.

While there are many obstructions to tackling the climate crisis effectively — the financial clout of the fossil fuel industries, the political power of the religious right, the pervasive distractions of Big Tech — we aren’t going to survive very well without full cooperation from China. (And then from India, Russia, Brazil, etc.)

Gaining China’s cooperation won’t be easy, because our current relations with the Chinese government could hardly be worse. But it would help if we (Europeans, Americans, Westerners) could improve our cross-cultural communication skills.

We need to acknowledge that our ways of thinking and doing are not the only good ways — that different cultures have ideas and understandings of the world that are perfectly valid — and to appreciate the lingering effects of colonialism in this context.

A discussion of these issues can lead to insights concerning cross-cultural communication more generally.