Guest essay by Eric Worrall
According to sustainability PHD candidate Barbara Jane Davy, public nature veneration rituals and dedicating time to appreciating ancestors help people stick to the climate friendly life choices which deep down they really want.
How gratitude for nature can rein in your existential angst about climate change
April 8, 2021 2.24am AEST
Barbara Jane Davy
PhD candidate, environment, resources and sustainability, University of WaterlooWe’re all going to die. This is the repeated warning about climate change in some media: if we don’t change our ways we face an existential threat.
So why haven’t we got a policy solution in place? Reducing emissions is in our best interest, but despite widespread popular support for government action, implementing policies and programs continues to be difficult. Social science research shows that the more we hear about climate change, the less inclined we are to take action.
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However, participating in rituals that inspire gratitude for nature can reduce the desire to over-consume — and thus reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that fuel climate change. My research indicates that unconscious motivations and ritual practices may be more effective in shifting our behaviour than rational argumentsin the fight against climate change.
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When talking about environmental concerns, avoiding the use of economic language such as costs and drawing attention to gratitude can help keep environmental values top of mind instead of triggering the psychological effects that stimulate consumerism.
Expressing appreciation for what we have been given and publicly sharing our gratitude inspires a sense of contentment that makes people want to give in turn. Practices of praising ancestors (ancestor veneration) are surprisingly pro-environmental because they prompt people to want to pass on what they have been given rather than consume more themselves.
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Read more: https://theconversation.com/how-gratitude-for-nature-can-rein-in-your-existential-angst-about-climate-change-156840
Some of the most fanatical climate activists I have encountered were raised as Christians, but somehow lost their faith. They cling to the increasingly ritualised climate quasi-religion, in a futile attempt to fill the God shaped hole in their lives.
Update (EW): The picture at the top of the post is from the 1973 version of The Wicker Man. Below is one of my favourite scenes from the 1973 Wicker Man, in which Willow (Britt Eckland) torments the buttoned up police officer Neil Howie (played by Edward Woodward). Trigger warning involves nudity.
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The Chinese venerate ancestors. They also build gigawatts worth of new coal plants.
Reminds me of “Mummers Dance” by Loreena McKinnet.
https://youtu.be/LzE32ChEp24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxTpvA-pUG0 shows the dancers
Q: What would you call an overweight Irish stepdancer?
A: “Lard of the dance”.
Start <Devil’s Avocado> (just for a change haha)
There is quite a sizeable diamond here in what most commentators see as a Mountain of Rocks
And the very fact that time was found and effort was made in the Comments Section shows it off beautifully.
(The Human Animal cannot lie)
Thus and for those who are so rich and intelligent that they’ve stopped making babies yet many comments demonstrate a different truth, lets edit the headline:
1) “Venerating Ancestors” isn’t this something to do with learning ‘History‘ = why we see so many little graphics of the LIA, RWP & MWP?
2) Public Ritual
NatureAppreciation HelpsUs GreenOur LifeChoicesIOW: Do you ‘work to live’ or live to work’
What would happen if the electricity went off for 4 or 5 hours per day. Every day.
“Oh” everyone round here would scream “Doom Gloom Disaster.The World Would End”
Oh yeah. Which ‘world’ are you talking about.
Yet when warmist use the same words they are relentlessly trashed
Do you know which world they are talking about?
Has anyone actually thought about what sort of ‘Extinction’ the folks at ER are rebelling about? Is it ‘people’ or ‘planet’
(Do beware Projection and Magical Thinking, assuming you have the guts)
Admittedly ‘people’ are inextricably linked to ‘planet’, maybe even the members of ER ain’t completely clear about what they’re trying to save.
But they know the answer.
They do demonstrations = public ritual = socialising = good for life.
Not so much being Smart Alec computer keyboard junkies
On my way home just yesterday afternoon from my routine INR test, I was following a bus
This was on the back of it
Somebody is starting to work it out….
BTW: Isn’t the play on ‘Whicker’ neat?
Whicker = Wicca = Witch = Wise One
Usually female – as folks answering to the name ‘Barbara Jane’ often are.
How might the sexist commentary have changed/progressed (or not) if ‘Willow‘ was recognised as A Witch?
Maybe ‘lads’ (not many girls saying much here are there) a trap’s been set….
<End Devils Avocado>
PS If anyone here has, or has is an acquaintance that has, Root Canal Dentistry.
Get Rid Now
While not obvious to anyone, not least the recipient/user/wearer/victim, but those things go rotten inside your mouth.
If they are ever opened up, they Stink To High Heaven
But while remaining in-situ, constantly flood your bloodstream with bacteria that should not be there.
Thus you can ‘Say hello’ to, in no particular order..
Is any sort of picture starting to build in folks’ minds yet………….
Seems you forgot to take your tablets.
Not so good for teeth…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablet_(confectionery)
Sun worship and human sacrifice are next. Welcome to the dark ages masquerading as progress.
From what I’ve heard coming from California, not too unlikely on the second part. But no sun worship – can’t have anyone thinking the SUN has anything to do with anything…
Are they going to start sacrificing virgins?
Vegans I think 😉
Hardly, that’d be most of them for a start.
As I always said and have been saying: “sustainability” belongs in the Department of Occult Sciences.
if people had to go work planting etc then theyd appreciate the energy needed and reduce food etc maybe knowing your stored food is X and has to last for Xtime helps a lot
prancing around communing with nature n hugging the odd tree wont solve or sort much
I’m sure my ancestors were perfectly capable of recognizing blithering idiots.
Unfortunately , that ability seems to be lost in the past somewhere.
Nope – some of us still retain that ability. It’s definitely getting rarer though.
Think it be it. Simple as in: Widespread public support for government action.
I love how it starts with “We’re all going to die.”
Pretty well sums up the mindset.