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https://medium.com/alternative-perspectives/the-real-reasons-people-dont-want-to-talk-about-climate-collapse-2aed200a1007>
"Is it “Doomsdaying” to take a hard look at the facts, the scenarios predicted
by experts who are paid to look into these things, and to make sober life
decisions on this basis? In my mind, taking factors such as temperature and sea
level rise into account when making long-term decisions is not only sensible,
it’s imperative.
To simply brush off such concerns with “oh, you’re being paranoid” and to hope
for the best struck me as — well — deluded.
But then I realised that this attitude was everywhere. It isn’t just everyday
people who seem unconcerned about the IPCC reports on climate change; when our
governments and businesses seem relatively convinced that the status quo is
going to remain unchanged, then it takes something quite… rebellious?… to look
at the actual statistics we’re being presented with and to start to act as if
our house is on fire.
So why don’t people like to talk or think about what’s happening, even when the
hard facts are staring us in the face? Is it because people don’t believe the
veracity of those facts? Do they watch FOX news? Is it because they think
worrying about what we can’t change is pointless? Or is it because the term
“fake news” has infiltrated our lexicon so much that we are ready to brush off
any news that doesn’t make us feel good?
If you have studied even a little Psychology, you probably know by now that
humans are nowhere near as rational as we like to think we are. We make
decisions based on emotions, not on logic. And this is the reality that we have
to accept if we really want to understand why our friends and families don’t
take our concerns seriously.
We often hear the argument that humans are incapable of really worrying about
climate change because we have evolved to respond only to immediate, short-term
threats, and that our primitive brains are incapable of truly comprehending the
idea of a slow-burner like climate change. I personally find this theory a
little condescending, mostly because there are a lot of people who ARE deeply
concerned about climate change and have been trying to sound the alarm for
years. Just look at the last year in terms of Extinction Rebellion, Greta
Thunberg, Fridays for Future.
While the evolutionary psychology explanation may give us some of the picture,
a universal statement such as “our brains have evolved to …” does not explain
the growing number of people who are concerned. I suspect that there are
several others factors at play."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
