Climate change - how we justify inaction to ourselves

There's four existing explanations of why we fail to act. All are wrong:

• color:black;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"">"If only people knew" - yet we know more about climate change science than ever before
• color:black;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"">"If only people cared" - yet concern about climate change continues to increase
• color:black;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"">"People care about more immediate needs" - yet for most people in affluent societies, needs
  are social constructs font-family:Arial"">
• color:black;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"">"Everything will be fine" - yet people place less trust in the governments or technologies that
  might solve climate change font-family:Arial"">

Instead, inaction is a consequence of denial at both a personal and social level. It's not denial of the science (except for
some nutters) or of the threat. People are deeply concerned and care about the
future. However, they also "work to avoid acknowledging disturbing information
in order to 1) avoid emotions of fear, guilt and helplessness, 2) follow
cultural norms, and 3) maintain positive conceptions of individual and national
identity".

font-family:Arial;color:black"">People do not like to feel threatened by
problems that are out of their control. They do not want to face large-scale
problems that have no easy solutions. They do not want to feel guilty that
their actions are contributing to the problems. They do not want to see
themselves as bad people. All of which adds up to inaction. 

font-family:Arial;color:black"">Her recommendation for enabling action is to
provide a "sense that something can be done" and accurate information
about effective action. The approach to personal action should focus on media
information campaigns and opportunities for effective actions "that build on
a favourable view of the self".

font-family:Arial;color:black"">An example of this approach could be the UK's text-decoration:none;text-underline:none"">10:10 project:
font-family:Arial;color:black"">"10:10 is an ambitious project to unite
every sector of British society behind one simple idea: that by working
together we can achieve a 10% cut in the UK's carbon emissions in 2010...
Cutting 10% in one year is a bold target, but for most of us it's an achievable
one... It's easy to feel powerless in the face of a huge problem like climate
change, but by uniting everyone behind immediate, effective and achievable
action, 10:10 enables all of us to make a meaningful difference... Let's get
started."

font-family:Arial;color:black"">Their approach is positive, personal, uniting,
and enabling. Go them.

font-family:Arial;color:black"">If you're not keen on reading 68 pages of wonkery,
then here's a clear comment on the paper What retards action on climate
change? and a Wired interview with her: text-decoration:none;text-underline:none"">The Psychology of Climate Change
Denial. (Just don't even glance at the comments, it's a
disheartening parade of the kind of denial that she's talking about).

(So I could go back to the first paragraph of this article and completely re-write it to avoid the doomyness. Then again, I'm
a scientist who grew up in the cold War - I'm entirely happy with doubt and
doom. But I recognise that few people have that kind of approach to reality.)