THE INGENIOUS WAYS WE AVOID BELIEVING IN CLIMATE CHANGE- A VIDEO PRESENTATION
I post a video presentation that provides accessible (and hopefully entertaining) summary of current research into the psychology of climate change- in particular the key question explored by this blog: why it is so hard to accept ? It covers a lot of ground in just 20 minutes and I hope that you enjoy it.
It comes from a keynote presentation I made at the University of the West of England back in 2009 and it was never intended to be shared (I didn’t even know they were taping it). One day I would love do something on this topic that is much tighter and really well designed – maybe something as zappy and engaging as The Story of Stuff (by the wonderful Annie Leonard) but in the mean time this will just have to do.
It comes in three parts- they don’t need to be viewed sequentially…in fact I think Part Two is the most interesting section to start with:
Part One: Risk, Belief and Attention.
I argue that we do not feel threatened by climate change because it is almost perfectly constructed to bypass our innate capacity to evaluate risk. For this reason I suggest that the raw information and evidence is unlikely to persuade us and actual belief will need to be socially constructed. I argue that the way that we are socially negotiating climate change has some unsettling similarities to the way that we have historically denied human rights abuses- in particular the ways that we define climate change as being outside the area of legitimate social concern.
Part Two: Stories
I argue that we mediate information about climate change in a social context and make sense of it through constructed narratives or storylines.
These storylines have been under a constant state of change since the 1980s (and earlier). I argue that a historical and ideological convenience led to climate change being defined as an ‘environmental problem’ and that many of the metaphors and images we associate with it follow this definition which arbitrarily restricts the resonance of the issue. As evidence I discuss why the websites of human rights organisations give more attention to ice cream than to climate change.
Part Three- Evasion Strategies
In part three, drawing on the social attitudes research, I look in detail at a range of the specific strategies that people adopt to avoid dealing with climate change. These include:
Distancing – defining climate change as far away, in the future or someone else’s problem.
Compartmentalising – finding ways to resolve the dissonance between highly polluting personal behaviour and knowledge of its impacts.
Positive Framing – how we seek to turn climate change into a personal advantage.
Ethical Offsets – how we adopt the easiest behaviours as proof of our virtue.
Cynicism- the commercial appropriation of climate change images.
What happens next? - surprisingly – what happens next
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Thank you for this deconstruction of what is happening in people’s minds re climate. I can see myself being buffeted by the social norms that are solidifying around the different ways to deny it. I have learned that I have accepted that it is not to be discussed in certain circles, and reminds me of how being gay is the same; it’s ok so long as you don’t mention it, in some circles at least. I get so exasperated when friends tell me the “facts” about climate change that they seem to have sourced from the latest or strongest round of social myths, which contradict what I have read in the science. It is true that they believe more strongly in what they have heard most often from most people, than what comes from the more reliable sources such as peer reviewed science. I am recently in love with someone who lives interstate and am flying as often as I need to to be with her. I justify this by offsetting my seat and believing our love justifies the air travel. I have solar panels on my roof and am trying to get my petrol car converted to electric. I have tried at work to raise awareness, but the denial tricks are so ingrained. Thank you for this explanation of the ways in which we construct belief and for opening my mind to my own weaknesses in the face of fact. …thank you for listening too x x for the Earth
Excellent, excellent exposition. The biggest obstacle I have to acting fully in my own life is the consequent, permanent sacrifices that are required. It is impossible to be a human being and not contradict oneself, so hypocrisy is no surprise in each of us, especially with this issue. I have no hope for the future, since humans have so stubbornly resisted facing up to this crisis. Thus, “what happens next” is the most compelling question for me, and for all of us now.
Triffic – thanks for posting this – nice to actually see you rather than just read your words.
So, did you reply to that local woman who seemed surprisingly keen to talk about Chinese energy policy? This is something that I wonder about for myself – whether and how to engage in this sort of conversation. I suppose my personal offset is that as I don’t fly, don’t drive and am basically a boring stay-at-home, then I’m let off the socially embarrassing requirement to preach!
In this youtube video featuring Noam Chomsky, he states a case for an entire classification of scientists being kept out of the public debate, and I think this is the most important point and left out here. I appreciate the stance of educating the public to the facts of bad juxtaposition in magazines and everywhere else, a noble cause, but see this video and know that James Lovelock is at the forefront of this classification system that is different in the first place. Look at some of the videos of him and tell me why his contribution is not put in, or put in context in general public discourse. Now, THERE is a juxtaposition out of place!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O3cNc2JoMA
Dear George, thanks so much for your thoughts, research and passion into this issue. I’ve been searching for some answers as to how the obvious can be so easily ignored. You’ve certainly provided a wonderful platform from which I can explore this further. I will be sharing this with anyone who is not afraid to confront/grow their own perspectives and self awareness. Kind Regards, Kristin
This is a great blog and video. Thank you! Have you done any work into the related question as to why it is that there is an uneven distribution of climate change denial/skepticism across the political spectrum – a lot of them are huddled in the right-wing camp esp. the Tea Party kind of right wing? I have guessed that is something about the ability to empathise across time and space, but if you know of some serious work on it, I would be interested to hear of it.
Brilliant presentation. I’ve been mentioning it to friends and colleagues for the last week.
Do you have a copy of your slides (as pdf?) to download anywhere?
I appreciate your posting on a critical topic about which most people seem unaware. The stakes have just gone up dramatically as the climate destabilization debate has been hijacked by corporate funded artificial personas. Corporate-funded online astroturfing has become a direct threat to public discourse. See http://www.alternet.org/media/150049/corporate-funded_online_%27astroturfing%27_is_more_advanced_and_more_automated_than_you_might_think/?page=entire
This automated powerwash of false voices washes away actual human speech, shifting the Overton Window by brute force.
What about the branding of climate change as a ‘new religion’ in some quarters? Nigel Lawson tends to do this, suggesting that rational debate is being stifled. The main thrust is to suggest the climate change campaign is either puritan or similar (at least psychologically) to apocalyptic mythology, and imposes an orthodoxy which we are not allowed to challenge. This seems to me the most difficult form of denial of all to deal with.
You have just provided an exhaustive analysis based on a premise of allegations about what other people think. I found it much more instructive to find that out firsthand.
Point : Climate Change Denial exists only in the minds of those who wish to shift the Overton Window from what is real to what is not.