Why We Ignore Climate Change
And how to change the way we think
We’re constantly being told that we’re living in the end of days, that we have until 2030 to reverse our emissions trajectory before shit really hits the fan. But, we still react with the relaxed ‘we’ll worry about that later’ attitude.
Why do we choose to ignore it?
It’s Too Heavy
We have a problem with talking about negative things. We hate it. It’s why we avoid confrontations in relationships, ignore depressing news headlines and try to remove ourselves from mood-killing conversations, even when they’re important. Instead, we withdraw to thinking about topics that make us feel happier — our comfort zone.
We’re afflicted with probability biases. Our inability to think rationally about the likelihood of negative events happening — such as the consequences of extreme weather — leads us to be grossly underprepared when they do.
We see it all too often. People on the news that lose their homes in flooding or wildfires and can’t rebuild because they don’t have insurance.
“We never thought it would happen to us.” And then it does.
These people aren’t alone in their thinking. A UCLA psychologist — Per Espen Stoknes — found that as the depth and accuracy of…
