This semester I am lucky enough to be the teaching assistant for Environmental Psychology, a class I would have wanted to take anyway, were I an undergrad. I plan to pass on some of the things I learn, because I think they are very valuable in understanding human behavior towards the environment.
One of the first topics we covered in class was defense mechanisms. Though many of Freud's theories are no longer accepted in modern psychology, his conception of defense mechanisms remains relevant and particularly useful in conceptualizing attitudes towards the environment. According to the theory of defense mechanisms, these are strategies that we all employ when we want to be able to simultaneously acknowledge reality while reducing our anxiety.
Not surprisingly, the most relevant defense mechanism to environmental issues is denial. Because our situation is so frightening, it's too troubling to acknowledge, so we deny that the problem even exists. Since the implications of the problems are so devastating, the strength of our denial tends to be quite powerful. And it makes sense; if all of this could somehow just not be true, I think we would all want to live in that world.
In thinking about denial, I realized that even though I believe in climate change and fully acknowledge the severity of our situation, I still like to enter denial-land sometimes. I think it happens in subtle ways; I start to let the comfort of denial distance me from the anxiety of thinking about the state of the environment. Maybe its just too anxiety-provoking to fully acknowledge it at all times and incorporate it into our perspectives in day to day life.
Another thing that makes denial easier is that most of the people around us seem to be in denial as well. If we really are on the brink of collapse, shouldn't all the people around us be in a state of panic? But they're not; they are walking around, going about their daily lives, and worrying not about environmental problems, but interpersonal problems. I think we take our cues from the people around us to interpret what we should and should not be afraid of, and if everyone seems to be fine, then everything is fine, right?
I think its difficult to know how to reconcile what we know about our planet's precarious state with our daily lives. We can all make small changes in our behavior or join a "green" organization, but none of it seems proportional to the size or urgency of the problem. I think if there were some concrete thing we could all do together to "fight" global warming, maybe get together and beat some styrofoam cups with a bat, we would all do it. And I think we would feel much more productive.
In a way, denial is a neat trick that we play for ourselves, to protect our egos or reduce our anxiety. But here's the thing about denial- denying something doesn't make it any less true. Climate change doesn't care if we believe in it or not. And living in a state of denial can be adaptive in the short-term for some problems, but in this situation, it could be our downfall.
