What is keeping us from opening our eyes to what’s happening to our world? Why do we continue with the illusion that everything is fine while the world is falling apart? Is it that we‘re scared silly? Probably. Related to ostriches? Could be. In denial? Most definitely. Overwhelmed? That too.
So much of the American population and our elected officials are in denial about climate disruption, despite the overwhelming scientific evidence. We say we value our scientists. We say we need more of them to be competitive on the world stage. Yet we do not value their scientific findings or listen when they tell us something that we don’t want to hear–that the climate is undergoing a radical change due to human activity. Why is that? Well, according to the mental health profession, holding two contradictory thoughts is called dissociation.
Dissociation is a coping mechanism that is used to minimize or tolerate stress, “…a mental process which produces a lack of connection in a person’s thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, or sense of identity. During the period of time when a person is dissociating, certain information is not associated with other information as it normally would be.” In case you didn’t catch that due to the psychological jargon, here are the two thoughts: everything’s fine and the climate is unraveling.
Here’s another disconnect. If GNP is the value our government considers to be of utmost importance, does it make monetary sense to allow climate disruption to continue unchecked? Think more Katrinas, Irenes, Sandys, tornadoes, floods, wildfires, droughts, crop failures.
Does a weather disaster have to happen to us personally before we take action? Mother Nature can and will arrange that.
Allow me to offer a radical (actually, logical) thought from Buying Climate Stability…”what if we used the money that we would have had to spend dealing with the damage from carbon emissions anyway and instead use the funds to keep carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere in the first place?”
If you are in the process of coming to terms with our new climate reality and would like some support from your neighbors, you are welcome to join us. We have been working on a new vision for the future since 2009 right here in Media, PA. The future doesn’t have to be bleak, but it will take some adjustments. And making adjustments in the company of community makes the load a whole lot lighter.
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