"What we think about, When we try not to think about, Global Warming

Undertittel: Toward a New Psychology of Climate Action

av Per Espen Stoknes
Boken er delt inn i 3 deler: Thinking, Doing og Being.

The standard response to difficult problems is to double our efforts. We try harder, pushing the old solution yet again. (..) The solutions pushed by many environmental organizations have become part of the problem.

Denial:
(Sigmund Freud) An automatic inner infantile defense mechanisme that protects the ego, or our I, against perceived threats

(Sosiology professor Stanley Cohen, States of Denial) The need to be innocent about a troubling recognition.

..lying so hard you really come to believe  in your own lie.

Skiller mellom aktiv og passiv fornektelse.


Denialism(5 taktiker)
1. The identification of conspiracies, which is an attempt to take the man, not the ball.
2. The use of fake experts. This can be using or paying a prominent expert in another field to lend credibility.
3. Selectivity-drawing on isolated papers that challenge the dominant consensus or highlighting the flaws in one or two of the weakest papers as a means of discrediting the entire field.
4. The creation of impossible expectations of what evidence research can deliver - a perverted form of skepticism.
5. The use of false analogies and logical fallacies.


If we support denialism, then we lend our cognitive capacity, creativity even, to support a destructive cause.

Evolutionary psychologists highlight 5 ancestral forces:
- Sel-interest:
Climate change is perceived as happening elsewhere
- Status:
..is relative. (..) it is also about having more than others.
- Social imitation:
There is no majority already behaving responsibly that I can imitate.
- Short-termism:
Since climate disruption is - by human standards - a very longterm issue, it falls far down on our list of priorities.
- Risk vividness:


400ppm(mai 2013), har aldri blitt brutt på de 800 000 år vi har klar data.
Sannsynligvis 5-15 millioner siden sist. I en tid uten mennesker, med temperaturer 5-8 grader høyere, og havnivå 4,5-40 meter høyere.

helpless: grows from the recognition that the climate disruptions are very distant from our own locus of control.

It is also social distant. It's not about myself and my friends.

People exaggerate spectacular, but rare, risks and downplay common ones.

Climategate: 2009, Climate Research Unit at University of East Anglia
SKEPTIKERE: Wattsupwiththat.com

"Climate action is costly." We hate losses much more than we enjoy gains.

ABC-modellen:
Affective (følelse-komponent)
Behavioral(vaner)
Cognitive(automatiske tanker)


Climate images and messages indirectly underscore that I should feel bad about the way I live
(..)It is, in one word, shaming.-

Cognitive dissonance: Rater than changing my actual behavior, I can modify my thinking to match what I do.
.. psychologist Leon Festinger, religiøs dommedagssekt på 50-tallet.

4 strategier brukt av de som lider av dissonans:
(røyking, global oppvarming m.m.)
- Jeg røyker/forbruker ikke så mye
- Bevisene er egentlig ganske svake for helsskade/ødeleggelse av natur
- Jeg gjør mer enn min del, så jeg kan unne meg røyken/bruke bilen.
-Jeg fornekter at det finnes noen sammenheng mellom røyking/kreft og global oppvarming/mitt forbruk.

Forskning viser: As long as there are few opportunities for simple and easy climate-friendly behavior, and the message stirs feelings of fear and guilt, then this dissonance will generate a slow, grinding backlash against the climate attitudes.

..#### Greenhood - step by step

..More often than not, it is actually behavior that determines attitudes, not the other way around.

Confirmation bias: we automatically look for information that confirms what we already think, want, or feel.

The overwhelming factor that determined whether or not people rejected climate science is their worldview or their ideology. Worldviews are closely knit with identity and job or profession.
(kultur)

Psychtherapists know that if you push too hard against the inner wall of denial, all you do is strengthen it. Poking the projection mechanism too early backfires on the therapist. The self works hard to undermine whatever it perceives as a threat, and identity easily eats reality for breakfast.

Humankind cannot bear too much reality - T.S. Eliot

De 5 D'ene:
Distance
Doom
Dissonance
Denial
iDentity(cultural identity)


Løsning:
People have to want to live in a climate-friendly sociaty because they see it as better, not because they get scared or instructed into it.

----------------------------------------------------

Individual green consumerism can be helpful, but mostly as signals, reinforcing the emerging business, regulatory, and civic networks that are enacting the green shifts in society. (..) we do know they reach farther if these same acts radiate joy and enthusiasm, rater than guilt and resentment.


Climate communication:
1. Social
applying social norms (eks; naboen din gjør dette, rene gater hindrer forsøpling etc)
app Strava
Cialdini points out that when people are uncertain about how to behave, they usually look around them to see what their peers are doing.
..when a good common cause can be associated with attaining acknowledment and status among my in-group, suddenly the issue of climate feels near and personal, not distant and abstract.
app Rinkwatch

..All in all, being part of an eco-network is one of the biggest determinants of pro-environmental behavior.

2. Supportive
preparedness frame, action to prepare: we're nudged into seeing the issue as more politically important.
opportunity framing: eks: break free from the grid (de konservative)


3. Simple
(eks; Østerrike, organdonasjon 99%) , gjøre printing på begge sider en standardinnstilling, redusere tallerkenstørrelsen på hoteller, ta vekk muligheten for matbrett for studenter, gjøre vegetarmat mer "spiselig"

Bygg: rundt 60-70 prosent av all elektrisitet, og 40% av all energi. Smart-hus (tidlige målinger) ga 20% reduksjon bare ved å vise til realkostnader i samtid.

Disse "små" vinkene, vil også virke tilbake positivt på ens oppfatning: da må jo bakteppet med G.oppvarming ha noe for seg..



4. Story-Based
Bruk eksempler på at ting blir gjort.
Elon Musk of Tesla
Paul Polman of Unilever
Janine Benyus
etc

Vertival Farming..

Biler: 86% av energien i en motor går til spille i varme og eksos. Mindre enn 1% er brukt for å drive bilene fremover. En amerikansk bil er parkert 96% av tiden. 2.5 % av de 4% er brukt til å kjøre bilen, resten i å finne parkeringsplass og stå i kø.

Mat: 80% av skogødeleggelse, 70% av ferskvannsbruk og 30% av drivhusutslippene.

Sementbransjen: 5-8% av totale utslipp

Internet: 2-3%

cartoon: Joel Pett, USA Today

5. Signals
What gets measured, gets managed.
HAppy planet Index.

1-2 tonn per person er hva vi sikter mot. 7 tonn er gjennomsnittet på jorda. De rike landene er den mellom 10-15 tonn.

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Kuznets curve: når land blir rikere, begynner de å redusere sine utslipp

passiv optimisme vs aktiv optimisme
passiv skeptisme vs aktiv skeptisme