I’m very pleased to welcome Margaret Klein, The Climate Psychologist, to the BoomerWarrior team of contributors. Margaret has a very positive and uplifting approach to Climate Change:
Making the switch from climate change despair and depression to climate change activism is probably the best thing I have ever done. I wake up in the morning thinking about climate change, but I am not thinking about destruction; I am thinking about action and intervention and coalition building. I am thinking about new ideas and blogging and e-mails and allies and fighting back! It doesn’t feel overwhelming and terrifying anymore. It feels energizing and meaningful. It feels like hope.
How You Know You’re in Climate Change Denial
It is easy to scoff at climate change “deniers” – people who refuse to believe the scientific consensus that fossil fuel emissions are causing global warming and a host of disastrous impacts, including intensified drought, flooding and severe weather. We can even feel smug that we believe in the science, unlike those ridiculous deniers.
Not so fast. Is it possible to acknowledge that climate change is real and man-made, while still being in denial about the gravity of the situation? Check out this list. You may recognize yourself.
1) You think climate change is bad, but not that bad
Do you think that climate change is mostly damaging “the environment” and Arctic wildlife? Do you view climate change as a problem for “our grandchildren?” Do you feel badly for people in far away countries who will be hurt by climate change, but unconcerned about yourself and your community? Do you consider climate change just one among many equally difficult problems in the world today?
If so, you could be vastly underestimating the scope and urgency of the threat. Climatologist and NASA scientist James Hansen describes the climate crisis in the starkest terms:
Planet Earth, creation, the world in which civilization developed, the world with climate patterns that we know and stable shorelines, is in imminent peril. The urgency of the situation crystallized only in the past few years…The startling conclusion is that continued exploitation of all fossil fuels on Earth threatens not only the other millions of species on the planet, but also the survival of humanity itself — and the timetable is shorter than we thought.
Climate change threatens the lives of billions of people, as well as the collapse of civilization, democracy, and the rule of law. Climate change is already causing severe weather, droughts, floods, food shortages, the spread of tropical diseases and invasive species, and mass migrations of people. These conditions are contributing to political instability and civil war across the planet, and they are getting worse every day. Climate change is not one problem among many — it is the defining problem of our time, and our reaction to it will affect the lives of all humanity for centuries to come, since the climatic changes we are setting in motion are not reversible, even after we stop emitting fossil fuels.
2) You don’t have an emotional reaction to climate change
Perhaps you know all this. Maybe you are well aware of the planetary emergency we are facing. But does this knowledge stay in your head, not your heart?
Keeping your knowledge of climate change purely intellectual is a type of denial. The truth is recognized, but the feelings that should accompany this knowledge – namely, terror, grief, anger and regret – are not in awareness.
When I am trying to help people get in touch with their emotions about climate change, I remind them that “Climate change is unfolding in your life.” Climate change is happening to you, to me, and everyone we know. You are intimately involved in it. You should know it in your gut and in your heart – not just in your head.
3) You aren’t getting political
You recycle. You drive a hybrid. You turn off your lights when you leave a room. Haven’t you done your part?
Unfortunately, you haven’t. Individual actions to reduce emissions cannot possibly solve this immense, global problem. We need a social movement to wake Americans up to the imminent threat we are facing. Organizations such as 350.org and Citizens Climate Lobby and the nascent group The Climate Mobilization are attempting to build that movement.
There is a Chinese proverb: To know and not act is not to know. The greatest catastrophe in history is happening on our watch. We can either be bystanders and passive victims, letting climate change happen to us or we can actively fight for what we hold dear. We must employ our individual skills, talents, relationships, and resources to fight climate change. We must abandon denial and rise to the challenge of our time, together.
Brava!
Just read this; a little late admittedly, but better late than never (a perfect antidote to ignoring the facts of climate change in earlier times)!
All ye who hide your heads with statements like “I’ll leave it to the politicians to sort it out!” are in denial of the facts. They don’t sort it out unless people like you and me put our voices out there….we all need to yell from the rooftops “our trees are dying, our air is bad, our waters are polluted!” If we don’t, and our governments just continue on putting out the fires of “is there enough oil to feed our transport and heating needs for the next 50 years?” then we will pay dire consequences.
Margaret’s prophetic statement “Climate change is not one problem among many — it is the defining problem of our time, and our reaction to it will affect the lives of all humanity for centuries to come,” is really true! If we while away the hours trying to find solutions to Syria, Ukraine/Russia, Iraq and the other serious problems that the world is presenting, we will have missed the most serious of our dilemma’s for planetary survival.
Curing our out-of-control climate will not come in the form of a weapon pointed at other people. We must stop this insanity in the world and start looking at our biosphere in earnest… we are not lemmings… we can and should do something.
Colette – isn’t it weird how people will focus their attention on the mundane events of the day and yet look the other way on the existential issues of our times – climate change, nuclear disarmament, the control of politics by money interests, world hunger, and the list goes on. It seems that the weekend football results are more important.
What will it take to get the “wake-up” call?