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

S
164 farther horizons
how the opportunities would work out for those now in the
crosshairs of rising seas, larger fl oods, bigger storms, prolonged
droughts, and searing heat waves. These are smart students, but
they refl ect both the optimism of youth and the deep tendency
to deny unpleasant things now amplifi ed by a culture moving
at warp speed. We, particularly in the West, are inclined to
interpret all diffi culties and impediments as merely problems
that are by defi nition solvable with enough money, research,
and technology.
For another thing, we know that people often hold two contrary
beliefs at the same time and remain happily oblivious to
the contradictions. Psychologists call this “cognitive dissonance”
(Festinger, 1957). The trait manifests itself among those whose
professed creed requires loving one’s enemies while at the same
time zealously bombing the hell out of them, without the slightest
twitch of confusion. Having invested in an opinion or worldview
or having made a particular decision, we go to considerable
lengths to maintain the investment. “Confronted with dissonant
information,” as Tavris and Aronson put it, “the reasoning areas of
the brain virtually shut down” (Tavris and Aronson, 2007, p. 19).
Confronted with evidence of climate change, deniers exhibit
classic symptoms of cognitive dissonance. But others, who admit
the reality of climate change, often do the same by denying the
severity of the crisis. Humans, perhaps, are not so much rational
creatures as very profi cient rationalizers.
Psychologists know, too, that we are prone to conform to peer
pressure and group opinions even when those defy the evidence
of our own senses (Asch, 1955). It is the same trait described in the
story about the child who noted the emperor’s nakedness while
the adults denied the naked truth of the matter. The pressures to
conform can work to preserve our nastier traits, such as racism
or dubious opinions about climatic change, as long as they fi t the
group opinion. But they can also help to preserve our better traits,
once they are integrated into the larger culture.