Essay by Eric Worrall
h/t strativarius – Apparently we have adapted to the daily horror of the climate crisis, just like people surviving in a war zone get used to all the death and destruction around them.
Why aren’t we more scared of the climate crisis? It’s complicated
Despite extreme heat and weather in the US, most Americans aren’t cowering in fear. There’s a psychological reason for it
Maggie Mertens
Sat 22 Jul 2023 23.00 AESTThis summer in the United States, millions of people have experienced the intense effects of the climate crisis. The “heat dome” that has gripped the south-west for the past three weeks is expanding into the south-eastern states. Catastrophic flooding in the north-east has claimed lives and wiped out farmers’ crops. And the worst wildfire season in Canadian history has not only caused tens of thousands of Indigenous people to be displaced, but the accompanying smoke has also billowed over into the north-eastern and midwest US, setting records for poor air quality. In many cases, these events have caused irreparable damage and trauma to those directly affected, and can certainly feel like they’re encroaching on those people on the periphery. And yet despite the fact that we’re living through a climate disaster, most Americans aren’t cowering in fear every day about the future of our planet. There’s a psychological reason for that.
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The emotional response to the climate crisis – even if we feel fearful during an episode of wildfire smoke or flooding – is similar to what many people who live in war zones may experience, Lickel said. While at first, the threat of bombs and attacks are imminent and extremely frightening, eventually those who remain in these areas adapt somewhat to a life in which the threat becomes just another thing to deal with daily. “If they’re not escalating or the nature of the threat’s not changing,” Lickel said, “it is to be expected that the felt emotion is going to go down.”
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Instead, humans tend to adapt to our stressors, which happens in one of two ways, according to Susan Clayton, a psychologist who studies the relationship between humans and nature. When faced with a fear, for instance, Clayton told me that there are two things we can address: the situation or our reaction to the situation. Since the climate crisis is not something we can deal with in the moment, and most people don’t even understand it fully, we often choose to ignore it as a way to protect our emotional selves. “We’re really, really good at avoiding things that bother us in many cases,” she said. “It’s denial.”
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/22/climate-crisis-fear-psychology
The article goes on to explain if you are feeling the fear, you can mitigate your distress by installing a heat pump.
The interesting thing is the article appears to suggest they may have already lost, that no level of climate catastrophe will motivate people to act. “I’m skeptical that there is going to be an event that’s going to catalyze us more than any of the things that have already happened,”.
If any future historian ever bothers to look back at when the fake climate crisis failed, I think the turning point will be the failed attempt to convince everyone the crisis is upon us. The fake Covid crisis likely also helped weaken trust in authority. A few big forest fires in poorly managed Canadian forests and a heatwave in Summer is not a global climate catastrophe, regardless of how much alarmists would like us to believe their hype.
For more background on climate change alarmism click here.
The Grauniad: “Trust us this time, it is finally real!”
wolf, wolf, wolf!, Wolf!, WOLF!, WOLF!!
No really this time, WOLF!!!
And if anything at all shows up, it is a Chihuahua.
And a 3-legged one at that. !
In a handbag carried by an “influencer”
A handbag?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyuoUwxCLMs
Or, if you want the full version:
Exactly, the “psychology” is very simple. Most people have cottoned on at this stage and we’re tired of being lied to.
I think for a lot of people the penny dropped with the COVID scam. A lot more people then saw through the climate scam. For most people here it probably worked the other way around.
“The interesting thing is the article appears to suggest they may have already lost, that no level of climate catastrophe will motivate people to act. “
On the other hand, no level of mundane climate/weather calmness (lack of extreme weather) will convince the true believers that there is no climate crisis.
OT a bit but worth a chuckle as we finish the weekend, I did not want to wait for an open thread, get a kick out of the web pages linked. Note the flowery, vague, non-committal language used to describe the university’s “sustainability”. Sustainability – Oakland University
And the real hypocrisy comes in this statement –
“Fiscal Responsibility
The Center will work to ensure that Oakland manages its fiscal responsibilities in ways that align with its commitment to sustainability. This includes sustainable investments (including divestment from industries involved in or promoting fossil fuels), as well as the allocation of university resources to foster practices and initiatives that promote and support sustainability across the university.”
So does that mean they will stop using natural gas to heat the buildings? Stop putting gasoline in university cars and busses?
I’m pretty sure, after reading these excerpts, that the administration at Oakland University does not know what the word “sustainable” means. Apparently it has taken on a new role (not definition, since these people do not communicate in a structured language) rather it is an emotion.
The best approximation I can guess as to the emotion associated with “sustainable” is “Daddy didn’t love me enough, I must find a way to connect with him” These irrational attempts to Do Something is the desperation of trying to earn Daddy’s love.
Or using computers, mobile phones, wearing clothes, eating …..
“I’m skeptical that there is going to be an event that’s going to catalyze us more than any of the things that have already happened,”
While this is probably true in terms of weather events, I suspect we will some see a catalyzing event that will change the narrative. That is regular prolonged electric power failures due to the destruction of reliable generation and dependence on wind and solar. Suffering, economic collapse and deaths due electric power blackouts will focus the attention of the masses very quickly.
I doubt that the “problems” will ever happen ‘all at once, everywhere’… which would be the only catalyst, IMHO, to “focus the attention of the masses very quickly”. ‘Therefore, the water will eventually boil all of us froggies.
This is what I’ve been saying lately. Their desperation is getting louder and more pathetically apparent. Normal summer weather is now hyped as if we’re all going to melt to death.
Well Walter I think that, as you observe – we’ve all been harangued that today’s “extreme weather” is the “new normal”.
Ergo, we ordinary (dare I say “normal”) proles just shrug our shoulders and get on with our lives.
Nothing to do but take it in our stride (as we human species have had to do since we came down from the trees in Africa).
My ancestors parachuted down. My neighbor said his used hang gliders.
if you don’t have videos posted on TikTok it didn’t happen 🙂
Like Elizabeth “Phocahontas” Warren says, I get it from family lore. Who are you to deny my truth?
I believe Nick Stokes’ ancestors may have fallen out of the trees, banging their heads on every branch on the way down!
Yup. And they have been changing the alarm metrics to more alarming. Normal summer temps are now depicted on weather maps in RED!!! And summer temps are now reported as ‘feels like’ combining heat and humidity. So a formerly normal south Florida July mid 90sF is now Extreme Heat Index >110F. The NWS told us that here in Fort Lauderdale all this past week. Scary—NOT.
Funny how y’all’s warmer weather has been the focus of the climate cult all summer. Meanwhile, the peaks of the Wasatch Front still have snow on Pioneer Day. Here’s a picture I took from work.
And Tioga pass into Yosemite NP has finally been cleared of snow and opened.
That “snow” looks like a cloud, to me.
YES! Here near Detroit they now report “heat index” not simply temperature, so you get a higher number. Ramp up the panic!! It is funny to watch them use a new trick. But we peasants all yawn.
Too bad for them that even the UN IPCC CliSciFi AR6 says extreme weather is not increasing, Rud.
Don’t worry, a new weather map is coming with flames to show how hot it is, from a little flicker to a huge inferno.
That’s all they’ve got. When your argument is proven to be flawed, shout louder, talk over your interviewer, then deflect from the question. Fresh from his embarrassingly naive rant On Neil Oliver’s GB News programme on 22nd July:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4NMqVCOOao
the director of “The Climate Media Coalition” doubles down on Richard Tice’s Talk TV show this morning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWpl8nU8gMk
You don’t need to be a behaviour specialist to recognise when someone knows he’s lost the argument.
I watched that interview on Neil Oliver’s show – McCarthy just cherry picked bits of information that he agreed with, ignored everything else, then arranged his ‘science’ into a new pattern that bore no relation to reality. He is truly delusional.
Walter, as they’ve patiently explained to us, we’re “in denial”. We see temperatures that some of us have been used to seeing during July for more than six decades. We instinctively fear this normality and psychobabbleogically block it out. It’s not catastrophically hot, it’s not even as hot as it was when I was a kid we think. No, they shriek, it’s the end of life on earth!
If these extremes were occurring every year and if global agricultural output was being adversely affected to the point that food shortages were causing increasing famines, there might be something to worry about. However, since heat in summer and cold in winter is experienced to varying degrees every year in one place or another, only the climate alarmists are trying to make a big deal out of it. Why not when most of them stand to benefit one way or another from the panic-mongering.
The totalitarians are working feverishly to reverse the annual expansion of burgeoning bumper crops to create famines. They are attacking farmers, cutting off fertilizers, raising the costs of foods artificially, legislating meat off the table …..
I read somewhere that India was going to ban rice exports because floods would reduce production later this year.
Seemed a bit premature to me
India are banning most rice exports except for Basmati rice – they’re getting worried that there won’t be enough food for their own population if they continue exports now. Maybe just a precautionary measure.
And the worst wildfire season in Canadian history has not only caused tens of thousands of Indigenous people to be displaced,…”
Canadian forest fires have been in decline for decades.
True.
Also.
“Canadian forest firesJournalistic standards have been in decline for decades.”Using “journalism” and “standards” in the same sentence is an oxymoron.
Canada’s boreal forest evolved via big fires. Large swaths of similarly mature trees prove that they came about via previous large fires. For many boreal species, fire is required to release seeds from cones. So this is just a Canadian boreal forest rejuvenation year.
True also in the US for mountainous lodgepole pine.
Gary, history began when the journalism intern was born in 2003 and it’s all pretty hazy prior to 6th grade (2015).
“Despite extreme heat and weather in the US, most Americans
aren’t cowering in fear. There’s a psychological reason for it.”
___________________________________________________
Because we know it bullshit.
“Because we know it is bullshit.”
+10 🙂
Bingo.
And for the time being, most of us have reliable electricity such that we can protect ourselves from inclement weather. Thus, no reason to be afraid.
However, Biden and his minions are furiously working on that; rendering our grid to be unreliable by forcing it to be weather dependent. It’s madness, and it’s immoral !
Biden messing with the electric grid is the real problem.
I wish he would.. in his bare feet in water.
“If they’re not escalating or the nature of the threat’s not changing,” Lickel said, “it is to be expected that the felt emotion is going to go down”
Dufus! You got that right! It’s NOT escalating. The nature of the threat is NOT changing. Indeed, it’s not even noticeable.
Only think escalating is the desperate and hysterical over-the-top hype and carrying on by the claimate zealots..
they are petrifying themselves… but most other people are starting to laugh at them.
Here is the take away.
”Since the climate crisis is not something we can deal with in the moment, and most people don’t even understand it fully, we often choose to ignore it as a way to protect our emotional selves.”
“…and most people don’t understand it fully.” Clearly these two don’t understand it fully. They need to spend more time studying and less time jacking their jaws. I don’t care for people’s psychological views.
Either that or people do understand it to be a complete fraud, as bogus as Piltdown Man was a century ago.That’s why the climate fraudsters are panicking: people are onto them.
And as bogus as Meltdown Mann
In war there is real stuff to fear. But you get inured, because fear cripples.
In climate, there was nothing to fear in the first place. You either get inured to the alarmist stuff, or finally realize it was just false fear mongering propaganda. Either way, alarmists fail in the long run.
Realize NONE the big alarmist predictions to now have come true.
Quite so. In fact, Xi’s response to Kerry’s visit to China this month was a pretty obvious, “Get lost, moron. You’re not important enough to meet with.”
Xi was being too polite.
Why should Xi pay attention to pleas for reductions from someone who (along with Joe Biden) “negotiated” the agreement allowing them to continue INCREASING emissions until 2030 when they could then CONSIDER leveling off??
When you have been told of a declared crisis every day, but you wake up the next day without any problems and after 30 years of it…… becomes ho hum.
While Canada has its problems with forest fires, there have been unusually few of them in Alaska. The experienced Alaskan fire fighters are now being put to use in Canada.
Taken in consideration that the first clinical case of climate delusion occurred in 2008, we are dealing with something real over the last 15 years. That the culture of fear is down-sizing is well-known in psycholgy.
What we are dealing with is like the story of the Wizard of Oz. Lets look at it, Bill Gates has once said that people are quixotic because of their beliefs on degrowth.
Quixotic is an intresting word. Especillay when he uses it as following: “People who are in the climate space may not realize how many things are competing for the modest amount of increased ressources that society has” … “and that not that many people are prepared to be worse of because of climate requirments.
Well many is concidering not to get pregnant so the “quixotic” plan based on Malthusian thoughts, Darwinisme and the ideology of Margaret Singer works just as planed. So what he is saying is absolutly rubbish. Step one, it´s all about “quixotic” technological solutions pushed through the governments and the medias blind beliefs on the resume from the IPCC and the words from the grifter and his inconvinient pal Al.
What does quixotic means: extremely idealistic, unrealistic and impractical. For the Wizard of philantrophy what he is saying is empty words. The down-sizeing effects are well-known … Step two, is about to get people to focus on step one.
Basically it´s not that they don´t know the effects of down-sizeing, step-one therefore is the “mockingbird”, step two, is as the CEO of Worldcoin have said it: “Something like World ID will eventually excist whetever you like it or not … the “lockstep” when it comes to Wind mills and Solarpanels are just a distraction to get people not to focus on a digital-panopticon based on patents on the technological solutions he is not talking loudly about. Talk about quixotic, it´s an intresting word isn´t it, step two is extremely idealistic and step one is unrealistic and impractical and not disinflationary as they say.
I remember floods in Bangladesh in the 80s and the huge famine in Africa (that led to USA for Africa’s hit single “We Are The World”).
I don’t remember one mention of climate change. We helped out because we cared, not because of the victims irrationally demanding ‘loss and damage’ for the progress fossil fuels have provided the world.
Natural disasters used to be considered natural or ‘acts of God’. Now every single one ‘has the fingerprints of human influence’ despite the rate and severity being unchanging for as long as we have had accurate records.
The climate change alarmists have nothing but alarm to promote, and they hype every extreme weather event as being caused by humans/CO2, because it is the only ploy they have left to play.
The Earth has always had extreme weather. There is no evidence humans or their CO2 have anything to do with it, despite the handwringing of the alarmists.
Americans, you say? Great. Candidate for the Republican nomination for U.S. President Vivek Ramaswamy, in a Tweet earlier today, referring to what is being said about the 2020 “Proximal Origins” paper:
“It turns out that the “scientists” who denied the Covid-19 lab origin knew their claims were false. The exact same thing is happening right now as so-called “scientists” lie about facts relating to climate change. Accountability is coming.”
He is unafraid. And THAT is also why, in my view, many Americans reject climate alarm.
The more I hear about him the more I like.
He was being heckled by a pro-choice demonstrator. He invited her up to the stage and let her speak her piece.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/vivek-ramaswamy-responds-viral-video-liberal-protester-abortion-free-speech-absolutist
I don’t care if you are left or right, pro or anti. That is really graceful.
I like Vivek, too.
He would make Trump a good vice president, although I think Tim Scott will be a more practical choice because Tim Scott will bring in a lot of black votes, and the Democrats can’t afford to lose black votes.
Plus, I think Tim Scott would make an excellent president all on his own, and I think he has a message that all Americans need to hear. And, Scott and Trump have worked together successfully in the past on Scott’s Enterprise Zones for poor districts across the nation.
I do want Vivek involved in a new Republican administration in some form. We don’t want to waste his talents.
My estimate is “you do not know Tim Scott”. As to Vivek, my estimate is that his value would be lost as VP.
his value would be lost as VP.
I get the impression from him that he would ensure that this was not the case.
Maybe I’ll be scared when and if there is a climate crisis.
Has it never occurred to these psychologists that the realm reason people aren’t in fear is because they don’t actually believe the hype?
If the climate-doomsters told the truth instead of coming out with outrageous claims every five minutes, then people might actually listen to them a bit more.
This used to called ‘common sense’ before ‘experts’ became the norm.
“If the climate-doomsters told the truth instead of coming out with outrageous claims every five minutes, then people might actually listen to them a bit more.”
The people are not ignoring the climate, they are ignoring the climate alarmists.
We aren’t cowering fear because we know that getting hot during the summer is just something that happens. There is nothing unusual about the amount that is happening world wide this year.
Interesting.
“The article goes on to explain if you are feeling the fear, you can mitigate your distress by installing a heat pump.”
So she’s just another grifter trying to sell us something useless? But then, selling us something useless is what the entire AGW sales pitch is all about. Perhaps the growing realization on the part of most of the public is why the UNFCCC and WEF are getting so frantic in their scare stories.
They’re even making stuff up now about a couple of barbecues that got out of control causing parts of Greece to be evacuated.
They must think we’re all stupid.
The small spot of hot WEATHER is travelling across Europe.
There is nothing unusual about that.
And yes, we KNOW you are stupid.
I agree with both of you. They do think that we’re that stupid because they’ve been happily dumbing down education at ALL levels for the past three decades. Thus they think we can be forced into confusing weather and climate.AGW serves just one useful purpose; it provides employment for a host of overeducated morons incapable of doing anything useful.
It goes back at least 5 decades in the US. Standards were increased after the USSR launched the first Sputnik in 1957. Then, college professors started lowering standards in the late-’60s and ’70s to help young men avoid the draft.
As well as the 5 arsonists that have been arrested across Greece and Rhodes. Warm weather seems to bring out the morons and their matches.
Story tip.
Greece has now stated that the fires on the mainland, Rhodes and Corfu were set by arsonists. Greek fire services have found evidence of arson and arrests continue.
BBC’s Justin Rowlatt flew out to Greece to push the climate change narrative and has been very embarrassed by the truth that it was down to arson, not climate change.
I would be amused to see a chart correlating CO2 vs the number of arsons. It’s purely subjective, but they seem to be getting more common.
Disposable barbecues have long been recognised as causing wild fires on many of the moorlands in the UK and people have been burnt at the beach by idiots who bury their barbecue in the sand as a means of putting it out.
Maggie Mertens is an English and “non-fiction” writing major who mostly publishes about sports and other “deep, technically challenging” subjects such as “The Gilmore Girls”. Just the respected authority we need to tell us all about global warming and why should be in fear of it.
After the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, it’s going to take more than a “three week heat dome” to even raise an eyebrow…
Yeah, you ought to see the temperature record for my State during the 1930’s. Today doesn’t even come close to the extreme weather then. Climate alarmists would go insane if it got that hot today.
There was a lot of fuss in the UK media recently about the 53.3 C recorded at Furnace Creek in Death Valley. Few mentioned the fact that the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth is 57.6C, also at Furnace Creek, in July 1913.
Yes, CBS news has been reporting “record high temperatures at Death Valley of 128F.
But as you say, the 1913 record is actually about 134F, so I don’t know where they are getting this “record” temperature at, but it is incorrect. Making it up out of thin air, or maybe their temperature record doesn’t go back farther than 1979.
Exactly, and then there was the drought of the ’30s. A look at the current drought monitor at the CPC website and today’s drought is nothing like what this country saw back then.
The climate crisis is “fake”.
The covid crisis was “fake”
Jeez….
Speaking for yourself here TFN?
I’m with you on the 1st statement.
With statement #2, yes it was a crisis for the frail elderly and others with co-morbidity afflictions, but the evidence is not conclusive regarding risks for healthy people and certainly not young children.
You’re only partially in denial then.
And you are totally in denial.
Natural WEATHER pattern of a jet stream blockage, travelling slowly across Europe.
No evidence it is anything to do with CO2.
You have proven that.
“The climate crisis is “fake”.’
WOW you got something correct… what is happening !!
A few spots of wayward WEATHER.
Yes, fires a problem, especially when it is WINDY.
But it is NOT “climate”.. and it is NOT global.
“and it is NOT global.”
Of course it’s global – it’s happening all across the USA, so it must be. Who cares about little places like Asia and Africa, wherever they are.
In ancient times people were taught to fear the weather and associate disasters with angry gods. They were expected to make sacrifices to those gods in order to hopefully placate them and ensure good weather.
We have sadly come full circle – people are taught to fear the weather and associate disasters with the use of particular fuels and modern standards of living. And they are expected to stop using those fuels and go back to the stone age to ensure good weather.
SSDD….
But luckily today is an age of science (yes, there is still some real science out there) and reason and many, hopefully most people don’t buy the ancient angry weather god explanation.
The interesting thing is the article appears to suggest they may have already lost, that no level of climate catastrophe will motivate people to act.
Yes spine-chilled Nada Farhoud wonders how on earth the 99 percenters aren’t being heeded instead of the dangerous one percenters-
‘Ignore the foolish climate sceptics – the spine-chilling facts speak for themselves’ (msn.com)
“spine-chilling facts”
What facts? You don’t have any facts. Pointing at extreme weather proves nothing about human-derived CO2.
There is no evidence of a connection between extreme weather and CO2. Think about this: CO2 is increasing, yet extreme weather, all over the world, is decreasing. There’s a fact.
It looks like CO2 must correlate with less extreme weather, if you go by the facts.
From the article: “Despite extreme heat and weather in the US, most Americans aren’t cowering in fear. There’s a psychological reason for it”
That would be because people have seen this kind of weather all their lives and it’s “business as usual” for them. That’s why they are not afraid. The ones who are afraid listen to alarmists like the author of this artcle.
From the article: “The fake Covid crisis likely also helped weaken trust in authority.”
Definitely. The covid crisis has caused many people to question authority. And rightfully so.
Questioning authority is the first job of people in a democracy. Leadership must be held accountable.
And trust must be earned – most politicians these days believe it is their god-given right to be trusted no matter what they say and do.
Long-term temperature records going back 50 years or more show that July is the warmest month in most of the continental United States and Canada. So why are people surprised to see hot weather in July? But it’s the best time of year for the global-warming scaremongers to talk about climate change, since it’s USUALLY hot in July!
According to history books, the signers of the Declaration of Independence were complaining about the heat and humidity in Philadelphia in early July, 1776, when there was no air conditioning available. Even during the Little Ice Age, it was uncomfortably hot in July. This was followed by the brutal winter at Valley Forge.
Nobody complained about global warming when there was two feet of snow in Salt Lake City last April, or blizzards in southern California last March. Back then, any warming (or thawing) was welcome. If you don’t like the heat, wait until October.
These so-called “heat domes”, or long periods of clear skies during a season of high insolation, actually sow the seeds of their own destruction. As the air near the ground heats up, it tends to rise, and is replaced by air from surrounding areas. If this air comes from over a body of water, such as the Gulf or Mexico, the Pacific Ocean, or the Great Lakes, that air is cooler and more humid than the air in the “heat dome”, which is bound to form clouds along the edges, which block out the sun, and may cause rain. Even in Arizona, humid air from over the Gulf of California can flow northward and cause summer thunderstorms.