Norgaard on Norway: Heads in the snow, even when there IS no snow

Norgaard, K. (2012). The everyday denial of climate change. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. July 5, 2012. http://thebulletin.org/everyday-denial-climate-change

"We have no experience with a narrative of potential extinction."

  - Robert Jay Lifton and Richard Falk in their 1982 book, Indefensible Weapons: The Political and Psychological Case against Nuclearism,

So, there's the problem! Instead of getting really serious about contemplating the end of humanity, the old white men who ran the Cold War during the 20th century decided to back the 'f' off. And now we face an even-up odds of destroying the planet's human habitability and we have no good reference point for how to have the discussion. As a parent of children - from whom I always tried to keep the worst images of human suffering - I have to think that's a good thing.

Yet we are left with a challenge of how to sensibly manage bad new, and threatening conditions, when human habit is to turn away, to deny, to blame others, or to just slide into the middle of the herd and hope that, if someone falls, it will be a weak member stumbling about on the periphery.

That latter reference to the tactics of herding animals is the only part of this that does NOT come from Norgaard, whose insights in this regard have been profound. From her research in Norway, she has tracked people's effort, "to avoid emotions of guilt, fear, and helplessness." But while that sounds somehow cowardly when rendered out of context, the psychoanalyst would have to advice that finding some way to back safely away from those emotions is an important talent in a happy life.

But Norgaard finds that people don't cope, they deny, but they do so carefully and unconsciously: "... for most people, who do genuinely care about the planet, denial takes the form of avoidance rather than rejection. People avoid disturbing information in order to sidestep unpleasant emotions and to maintain positive conceptions of individual and national identity."

And they do so because, well, the whole thing is overwhelming: "Part of what makes people feel helpless is an assessment of this very serious problem in a context where nobody else is acting, and political actions appear to be socially unacceptable or politically unfeasible."

No wonder they choose denial. The alternative looks very like despair.

To which Norgaard offers a solution, of sorts: "Working together may, over time, create the supportive environment that is a necessary (though not sufficient) condition for people to face greater fears about the future and engage in large-scale social change."

That would be good.