What We Think About When We Try Not To Think About Global Warming: Toward a New Psychology of Climate Action

Forsideomslag
Chelsea Green Publishing, 2015 - 290 sider

Why does knowing more mean believing--and doing--less? A prescription for change

The more facts that pile up about global warming, the greater the resistance to them grows, making it harder to enact measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prepare communities for the inevitable change ahead.

It is a catch-22 that starts, says psychologist and economist Per Espen Stoknes, from an inadequate understanding of the way most humans think, act, and live in the world around them. With dozens of examples--from the private sector to government agencies--Stoknes shows how to retell the story of climate change and, at the same time, create positive, meaningful actions that can be supported even by deniers.

In What We Think About When We Try Not To Think About Global Warming, Stoknes not only masterfully identifies the five main psychological barriers to climate action, but addresses them with five strategies for how to talk about global warming in a way that creates action and solutions, not further inaction and despair.

These strategies work with, rather than against, human nature. They are social, positive, and simple--making climate-friendly behaviors easy and convenient. They are also story-based, to help add meaning and create community, and include the use of signals, or indicators, to gauge feedback and be constantly responsive.

Whether you are working on the front lines of the climate issue, immersed in the science, trying to make policy or educate the public, or just an average person trying to make sense of the cognitive dissonance or grapple with frustration over this looming issue, What We Think About When We Try Not To Think About Global Warming moves beyond the psychological barriers that block progress and opens new doorways to social and personal transformation.

 

Indhold

The Many Faces of Skepticism and Denial
9
The Human Animal as Seen by Evolutionary Psychology
27
Cognitive Psychology
35
Social Psychology
54
The Psychology of Identity
70
The Five Psychological Barriers to Climate Action
81
From Barriers to Solutions
87
The Power of Social Networks
95
New Signals of Progress
151
Being
163
Stand Up for Your Depression
171
What Is It Trying to Tell Us?
190
ReImagining Climate as the Living Air
202
Its Hopeless and Ill Give It My All
217
Notes
229
Bibliography
251

Reframing the Climate Messages
110
Make It Simple to Choose Right
124
Use the Power of Stories to ReStory Climate
132

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Om forfatteren (2015)

Per Espen Stoknes is a psychologist and an economist. An entrepreneur, he has cofounded clean-energy companies, and he spearheads the BI Norwegian Business School's executive program on green growth. He has previously worked both as a clinical and organizational psychologist and as an advisor in scenario planning to a wide range of major national and international businesses, government agencies, and nonprofit institutions. His research interests include climate and environmental strategies, economic psychology, and energy systems. Teaching areas include green growth, foresight and corporate strategy, behavioral economics and expressive arts. He has written three books, including Money and Soul. He lives in Oslo, Norway.

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