Why our brains are wired to ignore the climate crisis | All Hail The Planet
Summary
TLDRThis video script delves into the psychological barriers hindering meaningful climate action, highlighting the '5Ds': psychological distance, doom, dissonance, denial, and identity. It discusses how fear, anxiety, and industry manipulation have clouded public understanding, leading to inaction. The script also examines the tactics used by the fossil fuel industry to sow doubt and delay, drawing parallels with past misinformation campaigns by the tobacco industry. The importance of effective science communication and storytelling is emphasized for rallying public support and countering misinformation.
Takeaways
- 🌍 The climate crisis is escalating, leading to devastating effects like millions of animals killed and severe weather events, which are directly impacting people and the planet.
- 🔥 Our dependence on fossil fuels is a major contributor to climate change, and there is a significant exploitation of natural resources that exacerbates the issue.
- 🤔 Public understanding of climate change is often warped by big industries, politicians, and media, leading to a lack of sufficient action to address the crisis.
- 🧠 Psychological factors play a significant role in how individuals process the climate crisis, with feelings of fear, anxiety, and helplessness being common responses.
- 📉 The '5Ds' (psychological distance, doom, dissonance, denial, and identity) are identified as barriers that prevent people from internalizing the urgency of climate change and taking meaningful action.
- 🕊️ Some individuals feel disconnected from the climate crisis due to its perceived distance in time and space, and the abstract nature of global issues.
- 📉 The 'cry wolf' effect reduces the impact of repeated warnings about doomsday scenarios, leading to avoidance behaviors and skepticism.
- 💭 Cognitive dissonance arises when there is a conflict between what people know about climate change and their daily actions, often resulting in justifications and blame-shifting.
- 🚫 Denial is a common psychological response that allows individuals to continue with their lives without confronting the reality of climate change.
- 🆔 Identity plays a crucial role in shaping people's attitudes towards climate change, with conflicts between personal values and scientific facts often leading to rejection of the latter.
- 💬 The script highlights the influence of misinformation campaigns by the fossil fuel industry, which have deliberately created doubt and confusion about climate change to delay action.
Q & A
What is the main theme of the video script discussing?
-The main theme of the video script is the psychological and social barriers that hinder meaningful action on climate change, including the role of misinformation campaigns by the fossil fuel industry.
What are the '5Ds' mentioned in the script, and how do they relate to climate change?
-The '5Ds' are psychological barriers identified by Per Espen Stoknes: psychological distance, doom, dissonance, denial, and identity. These barriers prevent individuals from fully internalizing the urgency of climate change and taking action.
How does the concept of 'psychological distance' affect our response to climate change?
-Psychological distance refers to the perception that climate change is something distant in time or space, making it seem less immediate or personal, thus reducing the sense of urgency to act.
What role does the 'doom' response play in our reaction to climate news?
-The 'doom' response involves a sense of fear and anxiety about catastrophic outcomes, which can lead to avoidance behaviors as people try to escape the discomfort associated with such dire predictions.
Can you explain the 'dissonance' barrier and its impact on climate action?
-Dissonance is the discomfort experienced when one's actions do not align with their beliefs or knowledge. It can lead to justifications and blame-shifting to resolve the internal conflict and avoid making necessary changes.
What is the significance of 'denial' in the context of climate change?
-Denial is a psychological mechanism where individuals choose to ignore or dismiss the reality of climate change to avoid the discomfort associated with acknowledging its severity, thus preventing action.
How does 'identity' act as a barrier to climate action?
-Identity refers to the self-image and values that individuals have built up over time. When climate action conflicts with these identities, such as a belief in free markets or small government, the facts about climate change may be rejected to protect the individual's self-concept.
What historical parallels does the script draw between the tobacco industry and the fossil fuel industry's tactics?
-The script draws parallels between the tobacco industry's efforts to downplay the health risks of smoking in the 1950s and the fossil fuel industry's attempts to create doubt about climate change, using similar public relations strategies and exploiting human psychology.
How have oil companies and PR firms influenced media coverage of climate change?
-Oil companies and PR firms have influenced media coverage by promoting contrarian scientists, pushing narratives of uncertainty, and leveraging the concept of journalistic balance to give equal time to industry positions, even when they contradict scientific consensus.
What was the impact of the 'hockey stick' graph on the climate debate?
-The 'hockey stick' graph, which illustrated the unprecedented rise in global temperatures during the 20th century, became a focal point of controversy and was heavily criticized by the climate denial machine, highlighting the need for effective communication of climate science.
What is the current state of climate change denial, and how has it evolved?
-Climate change denial has evolved from outright denial of global warming to more subtle forms of delayism, using deception, deflection, and distraction to continue delaying meaningful action on reducing emissions.
Outlines
🌍 Climate Crisis and Psychological Impact
The script discusses the overwhelming nature of the climate crisis, highlighting the psychological effects it has on individuals. It emphasizes the disconnect between the urgency of climate action and the public's perception, often shaped by misinformation and the exploitation of psychological tendencies. The role of big industries, politicians, and media in warping public understanding is critiqued. The narrative explores the fear, anxiety, and sense of responsibility felt by people, alongside the difficulty in generating meaningful action due to psychological barriers.
🔍 The 5Ds: Unraveling Psychological Barriers to Climate Action
This paragraph delves into the '5Ds' — psychological distance, doom, dissonance, denial, and identity — as identified by researcher Per Espen Stoknes. These barriers hinder the public's ability to internalize climate news and act upon it. The concept of climate change being distant in time and space, the desensitization to doomsday scenarios, cognitive dissonance between beliefs and actions, and the tendency to deny uncomfortable truths are all explored. The paragraph also touches on how personal and political identities can conflict with climate action, leading to a defense of one's self-image over accepting climate realities.
🚫 Disinformation: The Fossil Fuel Industry's Role in Climate Inaction
The script exposes the fossil fuel industry's deliberate efforts to sow doubt and confusion about climate change since the late 1980s. It draws parallels with the tobacco industry's tactics to undermine the link between smoking and health risks. The narrative discusses the industry's use of PR firms to promote narratives of uncertainty, the exploitation of human psychology to create doubt, and the impact of this disinformation campaign on public perception and policy. It also features insights from Naomi Oreskes, a historian of science, on the organized disinformation campaign aimed at blocking climate action.
📉 The Hockey Stick Controversy and the Assault on Climate Science
This paragraph focuses on the controversy surrounding Michael Mann's 'hockey stick' graph, which illustrated the unprecedented rise in global temperatures due to human activity. It recounts the backlash Mann faced from climate denialists and the fossil fuel industry, including personal attacks and attempts to discredit his research. The script also criticizes the media's role in giving equal time to naysayers under the guise of journalistic balance, which skewed public discourse and understanding of the climate crisis.
🌐 Global Dimensions of Climate Change Disinformation and Delay
The narrative broadens to discuss the global aspects of climate disinformation, noting its prevalence not only in the United States but also in countries like Australia, with links to American think tanks and fossil fuel interests. It highlights the role of petrostates like Russia and Saudi Arabia in perpetuating climate inaction due to their economic reliance on fossil fuels. The paragraph also touches on the shift from overt climate denial to more subtle tactics aimed at delaying meaningful action, such as deflecting attention to individual behavior and promoting unproven technologies.
🕊️ Progress Amidst Skepticism: The Slow Shift in Public Perception
This paragraph reflects on the progress made in shifting public perception towards climate change, despite ongoing disinformation campaigns. It acknowledges the reduction in the number of Americans who completely dismiss climate science and the plateauing of global carbon emissions due to the shift towards renewable energy. However, it also underscores the slow pace of change and the missed opportunities due to decades of misinformation and policy delays.
🗣️ The Need for Effective Communication in Climate Science
The script concludes with a call for climate scientists to adopt more effective communication strategies, recognizing the need for diverse styles and collaboration with social scientists and communication experts. It emphasizes that the climate debate is not solely about the science but is deeply entwined with policy and ideology. The paragraph stresses the importance of storytelling and narratives in countering the psychological manipulation by the fossil fuel industry and the need to engage experts in social movements and political dynamics to drive social change.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Climate Crisis
💡Fossil Fuels
💡Psychological Distance
💡Dissonance
💡Denial
💡Identity
💡Disinformation
💡Doubt
💡Hockey Stick Curve
💡Delayism
💡Misinformation
Highlights
The climate crisis is exacerbated by our dependence on fossil fuels, leading to rampant exploitation of natural resources and political inaction.
Individuals grapple with the enormity of the climate crisis, often feeling fear, anxiety, and a sense of responsibility.
The psychological impact of climate change is profound, affecting how people process ecological breakdown and public understanding.
Per Espen Stoknes' book highlights advances in social sciences as crucial to understanding climate change from a psychological perspective.
Five psychological barriers, known as the 5Ds (psychological distance, doom, dissonance, denial, and identity), hinder meaningful climate action.
Psychological distance makes climate change seem abstract and distant in time and space, reducing personal alarm and action.
The 'doom' barrier leads to avoidance behaviors as people find it uncomfortable to repeatedly face apocalyptic scenarios.
Dissonance arises when there's a conflict between what people know about climate change and their daily actions, leading to justifications and blame-shifting.
Denial is a common psychological mechanism where people learn to live with troubling knowledge without being aware of it, normalizing inaction.
Identity plays a role in climate change skepticism, as people's self-image and values can conflict with scientific facts, leading to defense of personal beliefs.
Disinformation campaigns by big industries and fossil fuel companies exploit psychological tendencies to create doubt and block action.
Naomi Oreskes' research reveals a history of disinformation used by tobacco and fossil fuel industries to sow doubt and delay policy changes.
The 'hockey stick' graph by Michael Mann became a focal point of controversy, illustrating the unprecedented rise in global temperatures.
Media balance in reporting gave equal time to climate deniers, inadvertently promoting misinformation and misunderstanding.
Greenpeace's investigation exposes Exxon's efforts to discredit climate science and push back against environmental regulations.
Fossil fuel interests have shifted from outright denial to delay tactics, using deception, deflection, and distraction to continue business as usual.
There's a need for a multidisciplinary approach, involving social scientists and communication experts, to effectively counter climate denial and promote action.
The importance of narratives and storytelling in science communication is emphasized to create compelling and memorable messages.
Transcripts
supercharged by the climate crisis on
track towards an unlivable world it's
impossible to escape climate news
millions of animals killed and whole
neighborhoods ared people and the planet
are being throttled by our dependence on
fossil fuels there's rampant
exploitation of natural resources and
politics has meant that climate action
has not gone nearly as far as it should
have and then there's us individuals and
how we process the enormity of the
crisis we're in telling the story of
climate change psychology can reveal not
only the ways in which we grapple with
ecological breakdown but also how big
Industries politicians and even the
media at times have warped public
understanding and action on the greatest
crisis Humanity faces
[Music]
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the first thing that comes to my mind
when I hear the word climate change is
disaster waiting disaster you know a lot
of fear a lot of anxiety frightening I
think I am scared of it for
sure climate change for me is quite an
overwhelming concept hopeless
like it really affects me and I feel
like I'm to blame on some of the things
I feel responsible in a
way we already have a baby and we have a
fear of future I do care about it quite
a bit but I also kind of feel defeated
by
it it's no wonder people feel like this
news of climate breakdown is in
escapable and even if you managed to
switch off the TV or took a break from
social media the impact of global
warming is real for many of us
temperatures are soaring floods and
droughts are both getting more frequent
and more severe Wildlife is seriously
struggling never before have we been
more aware of the Dire Straits the
planet is in so why is generating
meaningful action on the climate crisis
so difficult scientists and science is
becoming more and more certain about the
urgency and the problem but we haven't
still caught up with how humans respond
to all that sence so that's where I've
been trying to contribute per Espen
Stokes is the author of what we think
about when we try not to think about
global warming he says some of the most
significant recent advances in our
understanding of climate change haven't
come from the physical sciences they've
come from the social sciences and a
deeper understanding of how our brains
work I'm not in any way denying that
it's oil comp companies driving this and
there are huge campaigns and there is
corruption and there is lobbying and at
the same time we have to ask why does
that propaganda have so much impact when
30,000 scientific studies and six ipcc
report is not enough to counter it and
that is where psychology can come in
this propaganda plays on psychological
structure and if you're able to fish
into that you're able to exploit those
irrational Tendencies uh and you're in a
power game through his research pesen
has found five psychological barriers
that prevent climate news from sinking
in and leading to meaningful response
and action he calls them the 5Ds
psychological distance the overuse of
Doom too much dissonance denial and
finally identity so those five together
are like clusters of mechanisms that uh
explain why it's so hard for people to
really take in the alarm okay pesen
let's start with the first D
psychological distance the climate is in
terms of perception and the way it's
communicated something very distant from
me personally it's far away in space
Arctic polar bears are facing near
Extinction climate change is not an
abstract notion for these islands but
it's also far away in time because
scientists have been formed to speaking
about 4° by 2,100 or the year 2050 and
that time frame is very far away from my
daily life s to say we're on track to go
up by another half a degree by 2030 the
Earth's temperature Will Rise by 3.2 de
by the end of the century this is a
global issue and it's abstract so
whatever I do it doesn't seem to make a
dent and a lot of people have learned to
focus on what you can do something about
and not focus on stuff you can't do
anything about global greenhouse gas
emissions really have to be slashed
nearly in half by 2030 I'm no scientist
but that that sounds pretty hard to
reach and finally the people who are
hurt people who are drowning or St
staring or burning in wildfires that's
many steps between me and them who are
suffering those four dimensions time
space influence and responsibility add
up to a very strong perceived distance
climate doesn't really trigger my alarm
Center so the next defense you have
listed is Doom how does that work so
imagine you say that climate change is
here which now going to change
everything there will be famin there
will be breakdowns of the ocean and the
weather systems the issue is that most
of the days I look out of the window and
things look normal and most of the days
there is food and most of the days
people seem to go about their lives so
there is a sense that there's a cry wolf
a lot of the time and what we know from
psychology is that first time you would
may go into a huge alarm in your brain
and you feel fear maybe a bit guilt then
the second time is about 40% less and
then each time it's repeated the
adrenaline goes down so of comes another
response which is that it was
uncomfortable to listen to this Doom
previous time so my brain will try to
avoid it I'll change the channel or I'll
go to another website and we call that
avoidance behaviors and finally if I can
discredit the messenger saying oh it's a
godam tree hugger or climate hysteric I
can get off that Doom feeling and I
don't feel the threat
anymore I don't know who to trust most
of them seem aggressive they seem to be
funded by some uh you know lobbies uh
which have their own
agenda now at this point it's important
to highlight that there are many of us
who do not feel distan from the climate
crisis and are not put off by a sense of
Doom around climate news but the third
barrier dissonance struck a chord with
me because there's a definite dissonance
in some of the choices we make in our
daily lives dissonance is best described
as an inner discomfort when your actions
don't correspond with what you know and
believe people often experience
dissonance when the facts that they
understand and agree with for example
that burning fossil fuels contributes to
climate change conflicts with what they
actually do such as driving or taking
flights if the brain picks up that
you're not feeling too good about
yourself then it comes up with
justifications like your car isn't that
bad the neighbor's car he's even worse
or my colleague she flies five times I
only fly two times a year or I could say
it's not Australia really it's the US
they're the problem or the us could say
it's not the US is China you can always
blame somebody else it's them not me in
this way uh the dissonance is removed
and if you do that dissonance handling
for some time many can end up in a state
of denial right yes you may be a little
bit alert or geared up by some bad flood
or fire on Thursday in the news but then
by Monday morning you're living onwards
as if you never heard you've just forgot
it we can see these things in the number
of Google searches for instance after
Hurricane Sandy smashed New York there
was a immense increase in the search on
Hurricane and climate and then 3 weeks
to 3 months later uh that Peak was down
to the Baseline again and we call this
mechanism denial you simply learn to
live without thinking much about it
sometimes denial is used as a kind of
pejorative you stupid denier but you can
be intelligent and moral and everything
it's just a very common mechanism of the
brain that we are learning to live with
a deeply troubling knowledge without
being aware of it and longer finally
identity means that I spent a number of
years building up my self image I'm a
dentist I'm a oil worker proud trucker
then the same thing in terms of politics
I vote conservative or I vote left and
each time something comes up I will scan
it to see whether it goes well with my
values or whether it crashes with my
values and if there is a conflict then
usually the facts will lose and I will
defend my values so if for instance
there are climate scientist saying that
what you need is a higher tax on carbon
more government regulations but I've
construed my identity as somebody who
loves a free market and small
governments and small taxes then all
those facts and those recommendations
will crash against my values hence they
must be wrong because now they're
criticizing me so this is where climate
discourse goes really bad when people
feel their identity
threatened knowledge of these
psychological responses is power
but it's just one aspect of the climate
response over time our psychological
reactions have been both intentionally
and unintentionally played upon Big
Industry politicians and even the media
have been able to psychologically Target
us War public understanding and paralyze
action on climate
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change what we've shown in our work is
that we've been the victims of a
deliberate conscious organized dis
information campaign Naomi orcus is a
historian of science at Harvard
University she is known internationally
for her work on the role of
disinformation in blocking climate
action going back as far as the late
1980s the fossil fuel industry has
deliberately attempted to muddy the
waters to Poison the Well of public
debate um and to prevent action by
confusing us about what the problem even
is the creation of Doubt making people
question the facts making them wonder
whether Human Action even is the cause
of the climate crisis has been a
powerful tactic for big corporations
especially the fossil fuel industry I
think doubt is powerful because it does
tap into human psychology right the
world is filled with doubt the world is
confusing life is confusing so figuring
out who to trust what to trust what to
focus on where to put our energies
that's hard and it's become even harder
in recent decades because we're
bombarded all the time now by messaging
247 and so the doubt mongering exploits
that it's based on knowing that if
people aren't sure they'll just give up
or they'll just say well you know I'll
think about that tomorrow or that's
someone else's problem or I really got
to go pick up my kids from football
practice right so it's exploiting that
natural tendency fossil fuel companies
weren't the only ones to play on
people's psychology in their book
merchants of Doubt Naomi and fellow
science historian Eric Conway spent
years sifting through more than 14
million documents that came out of a
series of lawsuits against us tobacco
firms a strikingly familiar story
emerged decades before the fossil fuel
industry tried to undermine the case for
climate change tobacco companies had
used the same techniques even the same
public relations firms to challenge the
links between smoking and lung cancer in
the 1950s as cool and as clean as a
breath of fresh
air that snow fresh fter
cool people were looking for a way out
of that dissonance between knowing that
smoking was dangerous to her health it
is a judgment of the committee that
cigarette smoking contributes
substantially to mortality from certain
specific
diseases and to the overall death rate
the same thing happen with climate when
climate tells you that CO2 kills if we
don't do the right thing now there are
very serious problems that our children
and grandchildren will have to face and
then somebody comes up and says to you
well actually it's not really sure these
studies are counteracted by other
studies trust us so this is how doubt
becomes psychologically beneficial
because it rids yourself out of that
ugly feeling so when you see the same
pattern being used over and over and
over again in completely different
context except what they have in common
is that they're selling a dangerous
product they're selling you something
that actually could hurt you and then
you begin to realize oh well these
people have a strong incentive to lie
and guess what not only do they lie but
they lie in the same way to single out
smoking as a causal agent is on the
evidence to date completely unjustified
there is no basis in the scientific
literature they found no consistent
correlation between carbon dioxide and
Earth's temperature
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the idea is to create confusion because
if we're confused in most cases we won't
act as climate disinformation campaigns
ramped up in the 1990s oil companies and
their PR firms propped up contrarian
scientists to push narratives of
uncertainty and shift how journalists
covered the issue Big Oil became a key
Arbiter of where the coverage of their
industry was journalistically sound they
would ACC those who didn't quote CEOs
and spokespeople of bias their efforts
resulted in a denial machine a sprawling
network of Talking Heads front groups
and false research outfits built to
persuade people that they have nothing
to worry about then in 1998 a newly
qualified PhD scientist Michael man
stole the show in the climate debate
with a graph that would cause
controversy for the next 20 years I
found myself under uh assault by this
massive climate denial machine back in
the late 1990s when my co-authors and I
published the now iconic hockey stick
curve using temperature data dating back
over 1,000 years Michael and's
colleagues plotted a graph called the
hockey stick curve for obvious reasons
and made the case that human activity is
the undeniable cause of global warming
we believe we are seeing the effect of
human beings on the climate of the 20th
century it wasn't the first convincing
line of evidence that we were warming
the planet and changing the climate
there were many independent lines of
evidence but the hockey stick I think
was more visceral because it told a
simple story all you had to do is look
at it to realize the unprecedented
challenge that we face today and so all
of the weight of the fossil fuel
disinformation machine came down on me
uh other German scientists have called
it statistical rubbish uh he's been
called a statistical charlatan he has
had report after report attacking the
foundation the idea that 20th century
temperatures are unprecedented is what
Michael man is pedaling through the UN
efforts to criminalize the science that
I and other climate scientists were
doing Michael's personal emails were
hacked and selected contents were
published on the internet to suggest
that he and other climatologists were
manipulating or hiding data and so this
is what the fossil fuel industry and
their Advocates recognize that if we can
pick off one scientist and make an
example of them for the others I would
just Retreat into my laboratory I chose
not to do that because I recognized that
that's exactly what they wanted they
wanted to silence me many of the media
Outlets that were wittingly or
unwittingly part of the pylon Justified
the space they gave to naysayers as part
of a practice of journalistic balance
one of the Skeptics he's a senior fellow
in Environmental Studies at the KO
Institute and the other side a familiar
face Bill Nye the Science Guy in fact
the TIC ice has been increasing
considerably over the past few months
and that is well known and he would
accept that I'm not sure which bit of
it's increasing if you're saying that
the sea ice is freezing it's winter and
that's what you no it's more more than
before but anyhow the point is not so
much this there's a range of f there's a
range of views on the sides the idea was
balance right and it was tied to a kind
of ideal of objectivity objectivity
means you try as much as you're humanly
able to look at the evidence fairly not
oh well I have to listen to Joe spout
lies for an equal amount of time as
listening to Mike tell me the truth I
mean that's an absurd notion of
objectivity again the industry knew that
journalists felt that way and so they
knew that they could exploit that and
they could persuade journalists in the
interest of objectivity to give equal
time to the industry position even if
the industry position was a lie and even
if we had scientific evidence to show
that that industry position was untrue
in July 2021 Greenpeace the
international climate campaigning
Network released an investigation about
lobbying by the fossil fuel industry
working with the UK's Channel 4 they
went undercover to expose how one
Corporation Exxon has worked hard to
push back against science the facts Did
We join some of these shadow groups uh
to to work
against uh some of the early efforts yes
that's
true uh but there's nothing there's
nothing illegal about that we finally
heard someone say out loud what we had
known for years that Exon Mobile really
was trying to discredit the basic
science of human caused climate change
and spending lots of money in an effort
to do that now the lobbyists seem to
think that that's fine that that's okay
but it's not okay because what Exxon
Mobile and other fossil fuel companies
have done is to mortgage our planet and
and to mortgage the livability of our
planet for future Generations by
blocking the actions we should have
taken decades ago and then there's the
wishful thinking part we don't want the
world to be terrible and we don't want
to believe that people in positions of
authority are lying to us and we find it
hard especially when those people look
respectable I mean one of the reasons
why color crime is hard to prosecute is
because we we tend to assume that good
clothes equates good people or we tend
to assume that professional success
means good morals well of course that's
not true and yet somehow we slip into
that pattern so you know there's a kind
of cognitive dissonance between what we
think about criminality versus the
corporate exeutive and we don't want it
to be true I mean again who's got the
better message I come along where Mike
man comes along and says this is a
catastrophe we're all going to die the
question is never whether or not we're
effed or screwed it's how effed are we
and the CEO of XM mobile says Ah it's
fine don't worry we'll fix it with
technology and so we're working on
Technologies to help close that Gap
we're working on carbon capture and
storage we're looking at biofuels which
are energy dense so who's got the better
message so people will gravitate to the
good news message and they'll tend to
tune out the bad news message American
oil conglomerates are not the only ones
with vested interests in delaying
climate action I asked Naomi and Michael
if this patent is seen elsewhere
certainly climate change denial is not
restrict to the United States and if I
had to say the second worst place it's
actually Australia where the coal
industry has been very involved in
disinformation but we have excellent
evidence that it starts in the United
States and we have pretty good evidence
that it was actually deliberately
exported some of the institutes in the
United Kingdom in Australia in Germany
that have participated in these kinds of
campaigns have direct links back to
American usually think tanks and those
think tanks have links to fossil fuel
it's also important for us to recognize
that there's some bad State actors as
well involved in this Petro States like
Russia and Saudi Arabia that have built
their economies off of our Reliance on
their fossil fuels so fossil fuels prop
up these authoritarian governments they
actually fuel the aggression that we
have seen from Russia and ironically our
continued dependence on fossil fuels is
used by these Bad actors as a cudle um
for example Europe's uh Reliance on
Russian oil was used by Russia to try to
prevent European involvement um in their
war of aggression against
Ukraine the war on climate science has
peeded out oil companies stop pushing
overt climate denial more than decade
ago and while attacks on scientists do
occur and conspiracy theories claiming
climate change as a hoax May surface
occasionally those tactics are no longer
as effective as they once were what is
happening now is a war on climate action
a softer form of denialism in which
deception deflection and distraction are
used ultimately to continue delaying
meaningful Cuts in global emissions
fossil fuel interest polluters they have
sought to deflect attention away from
the needed systemic changes towards
individual Behavior as if it's just
about you and me changing our eating
habits also dividing climate Advocates
getting climate Advocates fighting with
each other online using bot armies and
trolls to divide the community delay
kicking the can down the road talking
about how they will use new technology
that doesn't exist uh today at scale as
a way of
excusing continued business as usual As
you move from denying just uh whether
there is global warming or not the next
step is uh it is there but it's not
dangerous how dangerous is global
warming really well I don't think it's
particularly dangerous or if you accept
that it's actually getting dangerous
then you could always point the finger
to somebody else so we don't have to do
anything now we can delay action because
they should go first is climate change
real yes it is but if you want to and
really change the environment then we
need to start telling China and India
that they have to lower their emissions
and then if you accept actually it is
dangerous now there is flooding and
there is fire but it's actually too
costly to do much about it because it
would ruin our economy and we would lose
our jobs climate change will have a
major impact on employment both on jobs
and the Way businesses operate and
finally you could say well it's
dangerous uh it is costly but now it's
too late to do much about it then the
focus becomes on securing your life
rather than doing something about it
this is a a kind of Continuum of
arguments where you go gradually from
denial to delayer ISM it's always been
about delay delaying action continuing
to promote business as usual that's the
end game Diversion distraction doubt
mongering are all means to the end of
delay and it's what it was for tobacco
the tobacco industry knew they had a
product that was killing people in the
1950s but they also knew that if they
could delay Tobacco Control they could
continue to make large profits and they
would just keep doing that for as long
as they could but we're also seeing some
progress and it's important to keep that
in mind as well we are seeing carbon
emissions now globally start to plateau
and we know that's due to the shift
underway from fossil fuels towards
renewable energy the problem is it isn't
happening fast enough and in large part
because of the forces of inaction and
the stalling tactics that they're
using we live in an age of skepticism
some of it is completely Justified and
necessary some of it though is the
product of deliberate misinformation and
misdirection it has led to distrust of
wellestablished scientific claims about
the climate well I think it's hardly
surprising that people are confused and
that some people don't trust scientists
because they've been the victims of a
campaign designed to confuse them on the
good side I guess I could say the latest
poll results show that the number of
Americans who completely dismiss climate
science is actually down to only 9 %
despite this massive disinformation
campaign so that's really good news the
problem though is how long it has taken
to get to this point and how many missed
opportunities have have been along the
way climate scientists bear some
responsibility for proportion of the
missed opportunities for too long they
operated under the naive belief that
their communication strategies dry
sometimes inaccessible and often not
very engaging were fine and that there
was no other serious way to share
scientific information the temperature
will rise perhaps by something like4 or.
5° F per decade in reality persuading
people Demands a host of different
communication Styles and it helps to
collaborate with social scientists and
communication experts who understand
that it's not just the facts that you're
providing it's how you deliver those
facts in a way that's accessible sticky
memorable scientists like myself
recognize now that the debate over
climate change isn't really about the
science it's a proxy war over policy and
ideology and it's essential that you
recognize that if you're going to Target
the denialism and the delay ISM yeah
it's important to talk about the science
but it's not sufficient we have to help
the public connect the dots you know the
journalism uh Community itself has
become wise and increasingly recognizes
that you don't need to have a climate
change denier quoted in every story
along with you know mainstream climate
scientists that when you do that you're
really skewing the discourse in the
direction of misinformation and
misunderstanding we looked to scientists
to solve climate change because we
thought if they could just explain it
then we'd act on it most people were
pretty slow to recognize it as a
political problem because it was framed
from the get-go as a scientific question
I get a little frustrated actually when
journalists go back to climate
scientists to ask about well what do we
do now yeah they're not actually asking
the right people people now you really
need to get people engaged who have been
involved in social movements who
understand politics who who study
political Dynamics who study social
change we need much more of that
expertise right now yes we absolutely
need the science for but we need to
better understand that the solution
space is not a question of physical
science not as catastropic as as I did
the research for this episode it became
clear to me that climate psychology is
really at the heart of what this series
is about seeking to understand why our
response to this existential crisis is
the way that it
is there's been a pretty sophisticated
psychological operation going on for
decades our fears skepticisms and hope
that somebody else is dealing with it
have all been used against us and in
some cases we've made it easy now though
with time as tight as it is and the need
for understanding and action incredibly
urgent getting a grip on our
psychological responses is key and
working out a to counter for fuel
manipulation is important so there are a
lot of lessons that we can learn from
Communications experts when it comes to
obviously science communication and one
of those lessons is the importance of
narratives the importance of
Storytelling the fossil fuel industry
they have funded so much research they
do focus groups they do polls they
understand which messages work they
understand how to tell compelling
stories and if we don't do the same then
we're going to lose this battle for the
hearts and minds of the
public thanks so much for watching this
latest episode if you aren't aware this
actually forms part of a 10-part series
called all how the planet which looks at
the forces undermining meaningful action
on the climate crisis uh if you'd like
to check out any of those you can easily
use the hash allhow the planet on social
media otherwise look for allh how on
al.com
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