Most discussions on climate change ignore these 10 basic facts about human nature

[damnedifIknow]

1) We are overly optimistic about the future — our future, that is

Neuroscientist Tali Sharot has observed that when newlyweds are asked about their chances of getting divorced, they tend to say zero, despite the widely known fact that the odds are 50–50. We instinctively overestimate the probability of positive events and underestimate the probability of negative events in our own lives she writes in The Optimism Bias, for two reasons: we think we have more control over our lives than we actually do, and we tend to see ourselves as better than average.

Applied to climate change, this means that I might think that you­ — and surely those poor Pacific Islanders — might be negatively affected, but I’ll be okay. The problem, of course, is that this reflects a bias grounded in delusion.

2) We can be blasé about the most important issues in the world because the global perspective is way beyond ordinary human scale

"Trying to convince people of the magnitude of the climate problem through large-scale statistics is essentially useless," says Scott Huettel, chair of the department of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University. The iconic global warming image of the polar bear on the iceberg is evocative precisely because it is one polar bear. Thousands of polar bears on a glacier that is receding would be irrelevant. Our brains cannot process it."

Put another way, climate change seems like an abstraction because it is so much bigger than us. Humans relate to human-sized stories — the kind that speak to a family living in a home like ours, having dreams and struggles like ours, and maybe discovering one day that their home is on a map of places expected to soon be underwater."

More: http://www.vox.com/2015/6/14/8767823/psychology-global-warming

[raouldukelives]

1. K&R I really enjoyed this article.

"considering climate change as a threat to humans may trigger thoughts of death"

Never really considered it that way before but it makes perfect sense. Not only is it difficult to get them to accept it is happening, at all, once they do, getting them to understand what makes it worse and how certain actions could be a detriment to others actions against it, sometimes, seems even harder.

[Pooka Fey]

2. K&R for an important post

[hobbit709]

3. The inhabitants of Rapa Nui didn't pay attention until they ran out of trees.

[Wounded Bear]

4. K & R...

Good read.

[PeterClark]

5. Use Human Nature

Instead of fighting against human nature, let's use it. Instead of presenting information about global warming in a way that humans seem to be uniquely unable to handle, let's instead give people information in a form to which they are well-suited.

For example, stop talking about "global warming" and instead start talking about "the climate crisis."

People like stories. Let's use stories. For example:

Why does global warming exist? Global warming is caused by a secret war against humans by alien reptiles. Reptiles like it hot, see. The Reptilians want to heat up the Earth to make it suitable for themselves, and then they will invade and kill us all. This explains everything. You know those people who devote their energies to denying the reality of climate change? They're really agents of the Reptilians. The hidden influence of the Reptilians explains why the whole fossil fuel era got started. Did you know that the engine invented by Rudolf Diesel was originally intended to run on vegetable oil? It's true. The diesel engine was also quite efficient. It's also true that he died in mysterious circumstances during a crossing of the English Channel. Coincidence? No, it was the work of the aliens to snuff out a line of technological development that did not require fossil fuels. Ferdinand Porsche's first car was a hybrid electric car in 1903. It was crude, but that's what it was. Henry Ford's first cars were intended to run on alcohol derived from agricultural products. Things could have been quite different. Once the aliens have manipulated us into starting a cascade of events that will shortly reach a tipping point, beyond which our efforts are no longer required, they will kill us. How? On April 13, 2036 the asteroid Apophis will smash into the Earth causing widespread devastation. The preferred weapon of the Reptilians is asteroid bombardment because they're not actually alien reptiles, they're the descendants of an intelligent species of dinosaur that achieved spaceflight, and then promptly wiped out their enemies by asteroid bombardment!

You see how much better that is? The actions needed to defeat the Reptilians are exactly the same as what's needed in reality. Reasons are many, but actions are few. Let's not fight against human nature, let's use it.