The following lines are inspired by the panel discussion session, mainly on what Dr. Isabelle Uhl-Hädecke shared about human behavior regarding climate change, and a conversation I had with a dearest friend not so long ago, which let me with the following question in mind, why is it hard for us to see the importance of action regarding climate change?
Andrea and I know each other for 10 years already, we are best friends, and we never varnish our opinions regarding any matter, that is why I thought it would be interesting to ask her about what she had to say regarding climate change. Obviously, the answer was that she strongly believed in it, and then I proceed to ask her about what changes has she make in her life in order to go along the climate-friendly path, like for example, becoming vegan, which she certainly is not, in fact, she loves meat very much. Recycle, depending on which country she is, we are from Peru, in other words, we do not segregate trash, there is no system to do that like here in Germany. She does not like riding bicycles, actually, she has a car. She loves fast fashion, basically because is cheap. Of course, these answers made clear that she has not figured out how to be part of the action scheme, yet she does know the importance of it, therefore another question arises, why she is not interested in doing something? Now imagine, the world full of people like my friend, non-skeptical about climate change, showing concern every time someone brings up that subject, but no action is really been taken.
The psychologist said that it might be because climate change is a combination of different factors that make it difficult for people to get motivated to act. The first factor is that the benefits of doing something now will arrive later, as, in a diet, you will only get fit if you are constant, but many people can not maintain one because they want to see results at the moment not in months or years. The second factor is that people react better to obvious threats, like when you have to decide if going through a dark alley full of suspicious people or a lighted one, with climate change the threats cannot be seen so often, which lead us to the third factor, as eventual natural disasters (often seen as proof for climate change) happen in one specific area and not in the entire world at the same time, people tend to treat climate change as a mere abstract concept, the more distance exists between an event and people, the more difficult to believe in the seriousness of the matter. And the last factor is that future is full of uncertainty even more than the present, therefore this leads many non-believers of climate change to refuse to think that diminishing CO2 concentration will have any impact on climate itself. [1]
After getting to know the factors regarding inaction, I got to understand better the perception of people towards climate change. And I believe that this information also means that us, scientist, should not only dedicate ourselves to do research and publish results, but to expand our role, and raise awareness into our social circles, like what I tried to do with my friend after she answered my questions, by sharing my experiences and letting her know that it is possible to be consequent with one’s beliefs and values, of course, I am not trying to say that we should only advocate our life to only talk about actions regarding climate or even trying to be a perfect role model, that is simply not possible, but I think it is good that from time to time we become a reminder of how selfish does it look to only worry for today and not for the future generations. After all, every little action counts.
Reference:
[1]: https://hbr.org/2018/10/why-people-arent-motivated-to-address-climate-change