If it wasn’t so sad and tragic, you’d have to laugh at how stupidly humans continue to behave in the face of an obvious calamity. 

Crazy, man. 

Check out these excepts from an excellent article by Paul Abela… 
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If insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, then our approach to sustainability fits the bill.

There is an assumption that all we need to do to create sustainable societies that mitigate the worst impacts of the climate crisis is to make slight changes to society and the economy while essentially continuing to behave how we’ve always done. But when looking at the overwhelming amount of research that consistently shows we’re dangerously close to breaching tipping points, it’s plain to see the approach isn’t working. 

How, as a collective society, are we so accepting of this state of affairs when we know we’re veering towards catastrophe? It turns out that our psychology is working against us .  Here are seven reasons why. 
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Paul then lists and explains each of those seven reasons, with the first being Cognitive Dissonance, and the last Optimism Bias. 

It’s definitely worth reading the whole essay (which is linked below), but here I’ll just provide a bit more from the conclusion…
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Our current emissions trajectory means there is less than a 5% chance of keeping temperatures below 2°C over pre-industrial levels, and less than 1% chance of achieving the 1.5°C Paris Agreement target. 

Optimism, when faced with those odds, is blind delusion. But the slow-moving nature of changes to bio-physical processes means the crisis is set up for optimists to feel optimistic. 

This optimism works to create complacency and a feeling that no matter how bad things get, everything will be okay in the end. Optimism makes calls for social transformation feel rather extreme when companies appear to be doing a fine job of solving environmental problems. Rather than a widespread need to instigate an emergency response, optimism bias means, collectively, we remain safe in some delusional comfort blanket that things aren’t going to be as bad as scientists claim.

Our psychology works to reinforce the problem trying to be solved while convincing us that the actions being taken are effective in overcoming the crisis. But fundamentally, the problem is that we’re dealing with the wrong crisis. 

The crisis is that capitalism, the preeminent global economic system that feeds into every aspect of our lives, is unsustainable by design. The ecological crisis is merely an outcome of the cause. 

It’s logical then that to overcome the problem, we need to focus on fixing the cause of the problem — capitalism. But our psychology is working to prevent humanity from seeing what is staring us all in the face. 
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FULL ARTICLE -- https://www.transformatise.com/2023/09/7-psychological-reasons-why-were-failing-to-solve-the-climate-crisis/

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #Capitalism #Degrowth