The Inconvenient Truth of Climate Change

The battle against climate change is like eating bitter gourd. We all know it’s good for us, but who wants to eat it?

Climate change is like bitter gourd. We all know that it’s good for us, but who wants to eat it (unless it’s unhealthily deep fried)? So it is with climate change. We know what we have to do but just can’t do very much.

A recent report published by the American Psychological Association identifies key human behavioural barriers that keep us from acting against climate change. These range from uncertainty about climate change itself, our mistrust of risk messages from scientists and government officials, and powerlessness (how much will I be able to change?)

People are also quite simply paralysed by the size of the problem. And then, there’s plain old neighbour’s envy: ‘If Al Gore’s got a big house (that has to be cooled and heated) what’s wrong with mine?’

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Pramila N. Phatarphekar