http://rs.resalliance.org/2007/11/15/climate-change-escapism/ coping with ecological surprise in a human dominated world Mon, 26 Jul 2010 19:54:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 http://rs.resalliance.org/2007/11/15/climate-change-escapism/comment-page-1/#comment-220998 Lisa Derry Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:46:42 +0000 http://rs.resalliance.org/2007/11/15/climate-change-escapism/#comment-220998 Human nature is to leave things to the last minute, Until an individual sees climate as a danger to them or there surroundings they may ignore the warning signs. Human nature is to leave things to the last minute, Until an individual sees climate as a danger to them or there surroundings they may ignore the warning signs.

]]> http://rs.resalliance.org/2007/11/15/climate-change-escapism/comment-page-1/#comment-220110 Zareen. Mon, 16 Mar 2009 22:27:52 +0000 http://rs.resalliance.org/2007/11/15/climate-change-escapism/#comment-220110 I agree wholeheartedly about the possibility that the pictures might incite the adventurer in us all, so that post-climate catastrophe scenarios start to seem like an adventure holiday. But there's another facet to the idea: Shocking people, visually or not, is unlikely to provoke long term change in their behavior. Fear doesn't permanently alter destructive habits, it simply drives them underground where they can first be denied and then rationalised. Anyone who's smoked for a while knows this dynamic. First you stop, then you start again despite all the horrific pictures on the pack. You simply stop looking at the pictures. I worry if we start to project to people that they should be terrified of every single aspect of life as they know it (embodied in their choices and actions), we're setting the stage for them to simply switch off as a defense mechanism. The irony is that this mechanism is perfectly 'rational' psychological response from the point of view of short term individual self-preservation, but totally irrational at the scale of the species. I agree wholeheartedly about the possibility that the pictures might incite the adventurer in us all, so that post-climate catastrophe scenarios start to seem like an adventure holiday.
But there’s another facet to the idea:
Shocking people, visually or not, is unlikely to provoke long term change in their behavior. Fear doesn’t permanently alter destructive habits, it simply drives them underground where they can first be denied and then rationalised. Anyone who’s smoked for a while knows this dynamic. First you stop, then you start again despite all the horrific pictures on the pack. You simply stop looking at the pictures.
I worry if we start to project to people that they should be terrified of every single aspect of life as they know it (embodied in their choices and actions), we’re setting the stage for them to simply switch off as a defense mechanism. The irony is that this mechanism is perfectly ‘rational’ psychological response from the point of view of short term individual self-preservation, but totally irrational at the scale of the species.

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