Deny Deny Deny

Denial is a powerful defense mechanism, capable of blinding parents to the true behaviours of their children, capable of blinding institutions to the true nature of an issue, and in this context, capable of blinding us both individually and collectively to the effects and future impacts of climate change.  There is an alarming amount of resistance to the idea of climate change, a phrase or wording that in itself lends itself to an easy out for people who doubt the science of climate change or global warming.

The Lertzman and Norgaard (2011) article points to the 3 central emotions that are activated by climate change: Fear, helplessness and guilt.  There is no doubt that people are conflicted as the acknowledgement of climate change entails a critical examination of some of the fundamental values of western culture, and in doing so invokes the aforementioned emotions, emotions whose expressions are often tempered by our cultures emotional norms.

Norgaard believes that part of the solution rests in our ability to challenge people’s feeling of isolation by making them aware of local community initiatives that already exist.  In some respects is does come back to the adage “think global act local,” except that maybe we need to do a little local thinking as well.  I think people feel most disempowered when they see the general political apathy with regard to climate change.  If denial is rooted in hopelessness then we require clear paths to empowerment (I’m ok with leaving some crass people behind).

The idea that “we are pushed and pulled in very complex ways where we may simultaneously want to do different things” (Lertman& Norgaard, 2011, p. 8) is something that I find myself constantly grappling with.  I love driving, and the sense of independence that comes with it, I love travel, wines from Italy and a number of other vices that run counter to my acknowledged awareness of an environmental crisis.  It is true that “it is difficult to do, when others do not” (Lertzman, 2011, p. 9), and as we drift towards a tragedy of the commons I wonder what our collective threshold for change resistance will be?

 Lertzman, R., & Norgaard, K. (2011). A dialog between Renee Lertzman and Kari Norgaard. Ecopsychology, 3(1), 5-9.[Looks like this link may not be working; it's available through RRU so please use normal methods of tracking this paper down in the electronic database.]