Moving to a sustainable and carbon-neutral society is, ultimately, not about science but behaviour. Understanding the reasons why people choose to act (or not act) in a certain way, and how these choices can be positively influenced, is emerging as the key to tackling climate change and many of the myriad social and environmental issues currently confronting us. This article is a good summary (albeit a little dated now) of why people choose not to act.

The psychology of climate change: why we do nothing – The Ecologist

Well-publicised simple steps like using energy-saving light bulbs may be making it more difficult to prepare people for the bigger changes needed to tackle climate change, argue psychologists Upwards of 75 per cent of the general public, going by recent polls in the US and UK, say climate change is an important issue. But few of us are doing much to actually tackle the problem and reduce our own emissions. It is a conundrum that we are, perhaps belatedly, realising should be seen as a psychological one - (Tom Levitt 12th August, 2009).

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise – with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country”.

-Abraham Lincoln 1862

Lincoln made this statement during his country’s civil war, at a time when he was advocating compensated emancipation for the South’s slaves.

Abraham Lincoln - "As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew."

What he was hinting at is of supreme relevance to us now – that we are currently in the midst of a situation that we have never encountered before. And because that is where we find ourselves, our thinking may not be up to the task. Why not you might ask? Because many of us have developed our beliefs, habitual thinking patterns and view of ourselves in the world at a time when the (environmental / climate) issues were different to what they are now (even if that was only 20 or 30 years ago).

So what is our new situation? For the first time in recorded human history, we are approaching or already beyond the absolute carrying capacity of our planet. The climate system’s decreasing ability to buffer changes in atmospheric gas concentrations is paralleled by the decreasing availability of arable land, fresh water and food production.

For many people that is a new concept, and one that is difficult to comprehend if one has always believed that this planet’s bounty was infinite. Why might we think that way? When there were fewer of us, and living standards were generally lower, it did seem like we lived on an infinite planet. There was more than enough to go around. But unfortunately not any more. Anthropogenic climate change is just one of the symptoms. But one that most of us are poorly equipped intellectually to deal with.

Image credit: Wikimedia.