Our minds handle risk strangely, which is partly why we delayed climate action for so long.

Climate change is a wicked problem that has been difficult to motivate people to act on. Many factors combine to make it harder for us to act, such as the policies and behavior changes being viewed as too hard or costly, the consequences of doing nothing being seen as a distant problem, and the complexity of climate modeling. Additionally, climate change presents a collective-action problem.

We often frame climate change as an ever more urgent and significant threat to our way of life, but this isn’t always effective in motivating people to take action. In fact, some people may be motivated to seek out evidence to undercut the reality of the threat and use this uncertainty to justify staying on the same path.

One antidote is to explain the simple and well-understood way that emissions of specific gases trap the Sun’s heat and warm the planet. As climate change has moved out of the computer models and become very much a part of our present, we are seeing stronger efforts to cut emissions. Additionally, technological advancement and economies of scale in production have meant clean energy and clean transport have fallen significantly in price. At government and individual levels, there are now measures we can take that aren’t too costly and come with immediate gains such as cutting power bills or avoiding petrol price increases. Greater political consensus in many countries is also helping challenge the inertia of the status quo.

As climate damage gets worse, we’re likely to see ever-starker warnings. Does fear motivate us? When faced with threats, we are more likely to take action, particularly if we think we can make a difference. Yes, we now have a very narrow window to avert the worst. But we also have an increased certainty about climate change and the damage it causes, as well as greater confidence in our ability to bring about change. For years, our own psychology slowed down efforts to make the sweeping changes necessary to quit fossil fuels. Now, at least, some of these psychological barriers are getting smaller.

Link to the original story: https://phys.org/news/2023-11-minds-strangelyand-delayed-climate-action.html