Life, Death & Climate Change

Learning to live with the unimaginable

We live in a world that is anthropocentric; humans first. Our belief in our own superiority and value above all other life has encouraged us to plunder the natural world for our own benefit, creating advancements beyond the wildest dreams of my grandparents, and even my parents. In doing so, we’ve left behind a legacy of collapsing biodiversity, poisoned waterways, plastic oceans, infertile soil, disappearing forests on which we rely for oxygen, and unstable weather patterns. But we cannot imagine it will really threaten our existence.

We live in a world that is threatened by a climate emergency. A climate emergency largely brought about by our anthropocentricity and our failure to notice that our own existence depends upon a stable biosphere in which all life thrives — from humans to forests to insects. Despite a waterfall of books such as There Is No Planet B and The Uninhabitable Earth, and growth of movements like Extinction Rebellion and Greta Thunberg’s SchoolStrike4Climate, we cannot really believe our way of life is truly threatened.

We live in a world where civilisation may be collapsing. Erudite business leaders and thinkers like Margaret Wheatley and Sir John Glubb — author of The Fate of Empires — have likened us to Rome under Caligula, already in the final stages of civilisation collapse in the Age of Decadence. Google collapse of civilisation and you will find many global discussions on the subject from religious communities togovernmental institutions. Many of us have similar responses to the idea of social collapse as we do to climate change. We cannot imagine the enormity of it.

Three unimaginable ideas, which are now more closely intertwined than they at first appear to be because — at some level — they all involve death. We humans struggle with infinity. We want certainty in our lives but we shy away from the one absolute certainty that follows our footsteps through every minute of our lives. As Death whispered to us in The Book Thief: “Here is a Small Fact: You are going to die”. We will all die.

We live in a culture that denies death. Many of us cannot contemplate our own death. We cannot imagine not being here. It depresses us. It makes us anxious. We turn ourselves inside out to avoid thinking about it. Journalists will happily witter on about new inventions that will ‘save lives’ when in reality they will only prolong them.

I have come to believe that confronting mortality, coming to terms with death is an essential pillar to being able to deal with what is coming at us in the period of climate emergency. It has the potential to be one of many important transformational gateways to not only acceptance but much needed action. In learning to imagine the unimaginable, could we activate a better sense of what we might truly do — each one of us — to preserve the world we have, and to create the future we want rather than the future we’re currently creating? Here’s a little more.

What do we know about the psychology of death?

The conventional wisdom about death is that if we contemplate our own mortality it will make us anxious, it will cause us to become depressed. Terror Management Theory (TMT) is a social and evolutionary psychology theory originally proposed by Jeff Greenberg, Sheldon Solomon, and Tom Pyszczynski and codified in their book The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life (2015). It proposes that a basic psychological conflict results from having a strong survival instinct, while realizing that death is inevitable and to some extent, unpredictable when it will arrive. This conflict produces terror, and the terror is then managed by embracing cultural beliefs, or symbolic systems that act to counter biological reality with more durable forms of meaning and value.

There are many studies which show that people who have been confronted with death become more nationalistic for example. Or that they become more attached to other symbols of status, such as material things like their house, car, possessions in an effort to seek security and defence against a painful reality.

Human survival instincts, and the need to reinforce cultural significance in the face of death, often result in displays of prejudice, or the belief that the group with which one identifies is superior to other groups. In this way, people confirm their self-importance and insulate themselves from their deep fear of merely living an insignificant life permanently eradicated by death. TMT proposes that individuals are motivated to develop close relationships within their own cultural group in order to feel immortal, to convince themselves that they will somehow live on — if only symbolically — after their inevitable death.

When I consider this theory I can’t help but see that response showing up all over the world at the moment — in politics. Is the retrenchment into populist politics somehow prompted by an unconscious awareness of the oncoming effects of climate change or is it simply a manifestation of the gradual collapse of civilisation as we know it?

But there are plenty of opposite examples. When I was interviewing CEOs of leading purpose-led businesses for my book, many of them spoke about a ‘moment’ where they were confronted by death. Some had experienced a near miss with death through a serious accident; others through a life-threatening illness. Yet more had unexpectedly lost a loved one at a young age. A few had even had a psychic experience. All of them had been prompted by the experience to ‘make something of their lives’. To go out and take action for people and planet that had not previously been in their view. Facing death, they found a new purpose in the present, a focus on the now that transcended the past or the future.

That focus prompted a new sense of altruism which overcame previous ego-centric behaviours and personal concerns. It seems to have activated a shift in consciousness beyond the materialistic to a sense of purpose and service which they had taken into new social enterprises, purpose-led businesses or incorporated, where possible, into their existing organisations.

What’s the path between fear and inspiration?

If a close interaction with death has the possibility to activate a new level of consciousness which could make it more likely that more people engage in taking action around the existential threat of climate change, but we don’t want to wish any of the above experiences on everyone, what could we do instead? How could we design something which replicates the experience without the actual risk? How could we navigate the challenge of inducing depression and its cousin apathy, and instead provoke a renewed sense of purpose and action in people?

It’s important to understand that the positive response to an encounter with the grim reaper is often dependent on it being an active encounter rather than just passive thought. If we are pondering our mortality during a period of normalcy in our lives, it is much more likely to induce anxiety or depression.

As Steven Taylor, author of Out of the Darkness says: “There’s certainly an important difference between being aware of death as a concept (as people were in the research for Terror Management Theory), and being confronted with the reality of it, and being forced to deal with it as an imminent prospect. When we face up to death actively and directly, there’s a chance that we’ll transcend anxiety and insecurity, and experience its transformational potential.”

So what could we do?

• We could have conversations about death. Death Cafe is an initiative launched by Jon Underwood to talk about death over tea and cake. It has no agenda, is not grief or loss counselling, just a forum in which the grim reaper’s presence in all our lives can be discussed openly. Poignantly Jon collapsed and died unexpectedly in June 2017. His family continue his legacy.
• We could have conversations about grief and loss at the coming challenges of climate change.
  At a different scale to Death Cafe, Professor Jem Bendell’s work on Deep Adaptation encourages people to confront their grief and loss due to the effects of climate change. A Professor of Sustainability Leadership and Founder of the Institute for Leadership and Sustainability (IFLAS) at the University of Cumbria (UK), Jem now focuses all his time on support organisations, institutions and individuals confront their fears about climate change. This conversation thread between Jem and Jeremy Lent author of The Patterning Instinct shares two different but equally valid perspectives on grief and loss for the future because of climate change.
  
  What will you say to your grandchildren?Jeremy Lent
  Responding to Green Positivity Critiques of Deep Adaptation, Jem Bendell
  Our Actions Create the Future, Jeremy Lent

In a recent article in The Times Profssor Bendell said:

“ Some people gain a sense of personal self-worth from respecting the norms of life. Thankfully, enough think more freely and can respond. At our demonstrations (Extinction Rebellion in London) I met such people, from all generations and walks of life. They know we need to break the norms, express our fears and come together to make the best of a terrifying situation.” Jem Bendell, The Times, 20 April 2019

• Joanna Macy’s Work That Reconnects has been in existence for many years and is now coming into its own in these turbulent times. These have been offered across the recent Extinction Rebellion events worldwide and continue to be available online after the initial week.
• We could participate in leadership quests or experiences. I’m not a huge fan of Tony Robins, but it is clear that his aim at Unleash The Power Within events is to create an environment where a momentary window to another level of consciousness is achieved. A way in which to achieve this on a more long-lasting basis are Margaret Wheatley’s Warrior For The Human Spirit training or learning at communities like Schumacher College, Findhorn — which only this week held a conference Climate Change & Consciousness which I sadly missed, Hawkwood College and Embercombe where there are a variety of courses serving different levels and needs.

Or we could simply choose to pursue the hard work that is personal development; gradually crafting our individual path through what Socrates called ‘the examined life’ and finding our own way to lead. I have a sense that there are many small pockets of active hope across the world, and that in this time they are like little lights in the darkness, growing ever brighter as they gain energy and momentum.

NB> please don’t take conversations about death or climate change lightly. Do it with support or professional help.
If you would like to hear more about We Activate The Future’s work on designing regenerative business, transformational innovation or connected conversation workshops please contact Jenny jenny@weactivatethefuture.com or jenandersson1@gmail.com.

Further Reading

Jem Bendell’s Deep Adaptation paper

Out of the Darkness, Steve Taylor

The Denial of Death, Ernest Becker

Warrior for the Human Spirit, Margaret Wheatley