Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of

millennial hope S 163
rapid destabilization of climate and the destruction of the web of
life are symptoms, in part, of a prior derangement in our manner
of thinking and in our ability to think clearly about how we
think. So what is known about the mind that would be useful to
enhancing our longer-term prospects?
The human mind is certainly capable of great feats of imagination
and invention, as well as less agreeable behavior. It is both the
crowning distinction of humankind and our greatest perplexity
and liability. Mind refl ecting on itself has long been a source of
amusement, philosophy, and more recently, science. Now it is a
matter of survival and of the terms and conditions by which we
will survive through the long emergency.
For one thing, we know that people go to considerable lengths
to maintain a favorable self-image and deny unpleasant truths,
particularly those that run against deeply ingrained beliefs and
worldviews (Allport, 1954).
We know that perception is biased toward the near term
(Ornstein and Ehrlich, 1989). We tend, accordingly, to see things
that are large and fast but not those that are small and slow. It is
harder for us to see and to properly fear long-term trends, such as
soil erosion over centuries or the nearly invisible disappearance of
species. Similarly, in spite of centuries of modernization, our loyalties
are most strongly attached to those closest to us. We bear the
unmistakable signs of our distant origins as tribal peoples telling
each other stories around ancient campfi res.
We know, too, that we are prone to deny uncomfortable
realities at both the personal level and the societal level. Like
Voltaire’s Dr. Pangloss, we tend to believe that things always
work out for the best. I recently asked a class of U.S. college
students, for example, how they would defi ne climatic change.
After some discussion they reached a typically American consensus
that it should be defi ned as “an opportunity.” They were
not clear exactly how the opportunity would manifest at various
increments of warming for exactly whom, and I did not ask