CLIMATE CHANGE
Why is Climate Change Such A Hard Problem?
Climate change is an incredibly difficult problem because humans are not designed to solve it. Why’s that?
I often wonder why people don’t care about climate change. Why is it not top of mind for politicians and people in business? Why we choose to remain blissfully in denial of our biggest crisis to date? After all, if a random person like me can spend so much time educating herself on the subject, changing lifestyle to whatever extent possible and writing about it online hoping someone would read, why are more people, specifically people with huge followers and power to make decisions, not talking about it?
I found some answers in a book by George Marshall — Don’t Even Think About It. So let’s breakdown this problem we are facing.
What Makes A Problem A Problem?
Imagine you are watching a movie where an animal is slowly killing all the people in a village. A small boy lives there with his family and knows this anxiety too well as he has seen his family always living in the fear of the animal and knows that it is not too long before they will also meet the unfortunate fate. He has heard many stories of how this animal is killing people. As he grows up he is thinking of ways of how he can kill this deadly animal and save his people.
Now this is a problem and the man must do something to save his family. But why is this a problem?
- It disrupts the status quo — the village was living happily before this animal arrived. The constant atmosphere of fear is not the usual way of living.
- There are clearly identified events and actors that are considered problematic — an “evil” animal is killing the “innocent” villagers.
- There is a clearly defined time frame — the man must do something before the animal gets to his family, and since there are a finite number of houses in this small village he clearly knows there is very limited time.
Why Do We Ignore Climate Change?
Because it has none of these characteristics of the problem discussed above. For most it doesn’t impact the everyday life, the events are sometimes hazy and not clearly attributable, debatable even, and this is a problem in the future for ‘them’ and not us.
At a psychological level, two things happen when we acknowledge climate change— we realise that we are the villains, and, we realise that we need to change our current lifestyle. Both these things make us very uncomfortable and we find that denial brings us back to our happy world. A world where we can have whatever we want and keep looking through our rose-tinted glasses.
And when we live in denial, we don’t think about it and talk about this to anyone. Which makes everyone think that nobody thinks about it. And a strong bystander effect kicks in where nobody wants to be the first one to act.
Another reason we don’t act is because of our optimism bias. It’s gonna be okay, we will adapt, science will save us, yada yada technology will solve the problem, etc. We keep justifying our inaction by giving ourselves feel-good reasons. Deep down we know that we have our doubts, but it is too disturbing to face the truth so we just choose action-less optimism.
Finally, there is the problem of framing. Climate change has long been handled by “environmentalists”. It is thought to be in the same boat as plastic, pollution, biodiversity loss, deforestation, etc. If you don’t care much for these issues, it becomes easy to sideline climate change as well.
Climate change is not a problem we cannot solve. It just needs an iron will to do what is needed by everybody. Or, maybe, a powerful lobby group.
Is There Any Hope?
There is. Actually, hope is what we need to learn from. You know, the kind of hope that religion (any major one) creates. Where protecting what is taught becomes sacred and there’s no other way around it. You believe in it, your peers believe in it, and those who don’t or are on the fence are encouraged to believe in it as well and act in a certain manner.
It has taken religion many centuries to create the kind of following it today has. Can we do something similar in a very short amount of time to act on climate change? Here are three ways:
- Talk about it. In person. A church never sends people to a website to learn more. There’s always a local entity to help people find their faith. What climate believers or organisations are missing is this connection. Help people looking to understand climate change by talking to them. So, just start discussing it more in your groups.
- Stop shaming non eco-friendly ways of people. A person can go to a church, confess, and come out feeling good about themselves with a zeal to become a better person. What we do with climate change is the opposite and that only makes people want to live in more denial. Encourage people to do whatever they can.
- Promote empathy, not data. When many climate scientists would themselves not have the perfect life needed to keep greenhouse gases in check, can you blame the common man? In almost every religion, God has an exemplary life. There are stories of them overcoming challenges. What is stopping us from sharing stories of real people impacted and dealing with climate change and instead harping about what 1.5°C would do to temperature, rainfall and sea level?
Religion is the most powerful binding force of today that connects people of different countries, ages, statuses and gender. Can these religious organisations themselves take up the task of communicating with their followers so that we don’t end up annihilating our own species and one of God’s most powerful creation?
