It’s simply easier to skip and unfollow than to keep reading things that make us feel bad. But the problem with climate change messaging is way more complex than this. It is not just about “feeling bad” or “being blamed”. In his book “Don’t Even Think About It: Why our brains are wired to ignore Climate Change”, George Marshall dives deep into human psychology and why we act the way we do under different threatening circumstances.
What I didn’t like
This time this is not even criticism on the book itself, but more like a general warning. This book can be emotionally challenging. The author included interviews with people from so many different stances around climate change that it can at times make you uncomfortable or angry. But this diversity of opinions is also very important, and, in this case, I think it makes it easier to empathize with those who hold different opinions than our own (no, I’m not saying Climate Change is about opinions, but measures that need to be taken do involve more than just science).
What I liked
For such a dense topic – climate change and human psychology – this book is actually very light and easy to read packed with short but compelling chapters. Actually, it’s a great lesson in itself for the climate movement, which we can all agree has massively failed at communicating effectively.
This failed communication is, unfortunately, not an easy fix. This book provides many insights into human psychology that I think holds a lot of value for communication of other complex topics as well.
From an economic perspective, it has always made sense to me to make some small sacrifices now for better long-term benefits. However, I had never thought about it from different religious perspectives – at least not in a positive way – and this book left me thinking about that. In my personal life, I’ve had conversations with religious persons that have told me that conservation is useless because “god has a plan”. Ignoring the godly insult to my career, I ask: “what if we ruined the plan?”, but that’s also part of the plan – apparently. Frankly, since my pre-teens, I’ve had bad after bad experiences with religion and it’s not easy for me to see the good side of it, but I know there are good things there. In this book, the author even proposes that we could take some strategies from the religious movements to the climate movement.
From a scientific point of view, I share the concern that treating it as a “religious movement” in any way might make it look like an “ideology” or “mythology” or just something about “opinions”. However, for many – maaany – people it is already thought of as an “ideology” – whether we like it or not. From a communication point of view, I must accept I see a lot of value in looking into religious strategies.
Some historical contexts might not hold anymore today (the book is from 2015), but it is still useful and insightful, and I absolutely recommend it. It’s also helpful in understanding our own behavior & why it’s not always easy to talk about this. From the bystander effect & the conspiracy of silence to “what the green movement can learn from the god movement”, this book provides many tools.