The Impact Of Conscience On Climate Change
“We have 135 months until the planet passes the point of no return for runaway global warming”. Accurate or not, this was it . This was what completely re shaped my perspective on the seriousness of climate change; this was my slap of reality. Being someone who has been silently concerned about climate change but hasn’t found the “correct” opportunity to make a difference, this Instagram post made me realise something, which seems to have actually been obvious this whole time. We, as a collective must change our lifestyles and create a climate change conscience within ourselves. We must stop pre occupying ourselves with the issues, which seem to be the most important in the short-term, such as celebrity cheating scandals and realise that, if we were to look back at the most detrimental issues, which our planet has endured, in the past century, climate change is amongst the most prominent issues but we continue to feed this fire, which we ignited together.
The lack of conscience
Human conscience, being defined as: “the inner sense of what is right or wrong in one’s conduct or motives, impelling one toward right action.” It may seem that creating a collective climate change conscience is an effortless task. The issue that arises, however, is that in our extremely fast moving lives, we seem to be overlooking our conscience and what it’s telling us to do in relation to the issue of climate change and some of us seem to not have a conscience at all. Is this because our conscience creates a sense of guilt within us? Do we feel pressured? The absence of an interest or understanding of this issue and the lack of the belief of personal responsibility have been the major cause of this overlooking. Although, many of us have been made aware of the “right and wrong” actions, in relation to decreasing our own carbon footprint, there is still a lack of personal responsibility. This idea of the implications of the lack of a conscience is illustrated though Shakespeare’s historical play, King Richard III. Shakespeare places a notable restraint/limit on the power, which conscience possesses in the narrative/play and this is ultimately how he demonstrates his development of conscience. One of the three murderers sent to murder feels a sense of remorse and leaves, showing the interrelatedness of morality and consciousness. The world of Richard III is one comprised of evil and good and psychological, emotional, spiritual and physical outcomes of their actions. Many of us are also in need of the “pang of conscience”, which the murderer had but in relation to our individualistic carbon footprint and our personal, extensive contribution to climate change, which not only affects us as individuals but as society as a whole. It has suitably been stated that, “without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness, the catastrophe toward which the world is headed will be unavoidable” in a climate change and consciousness live stream. Developing a climate change conscience or a conscience in general can additionally be considered to be an opportunity for moral growth and stems from the realisation that the threat of climate change comes from within us, rather than external sources.
Human conscience and morality
Our conscience is our moral compass and climate change continues to be an assessment of our individual and collective sense of morality. Climate change has been described as “the defining moral issue of the century”. A major misconception and assumption about climate change is that it is exclusively just a scientific problem, when in reality it is just as much a moral issue, The impacts, which this almost uncontrollable issue has on the entirety of the human race is just as important as the impacts it has on the physical environment, ecosystems and climate. Ironically, us as humans are both the solution and cause of climate change. However, a lot of us are finding ourselves thinking about whether there still or ever existed was a solution for climate change and if so what is that solution? We all need to realise that this isn’t an exclusive issue but a transnational issue, which has extensive, impacts worldwide. Since this is a highly diverse issue, it puts us in a morally diffused situation. We must also understand that since climate change’s origin is transnational, the response and solution must also be transnational in nature. Cooperation is key. But how can the actions of one person increase or decrease climate change? As a result of this issue becoming overwhelming, many of us believe that none of our actions will be helpful enough to contribute to the resolving of climate change, leading to our conscious lack of effort and/or morality.
Unfortunately, the cooperation that is so crucial for combating climate change and our prized self-interest cannot coexist. Our overriding self-interest is catalysing our destruction through the implications of climate change. In Shakespeare’s Richard III, Richard III woos Anne in accordance to his self-interest and didn’t consider the ethical aspects of this action. This results from the fact that if RIII did actually consider these aspects, it’d become obvious that he is behaving unethically. This mode of thinking mirrors that of those who are well aware of climate change but consciously ignore it anyway. (INCOMPLETE)
Al Gore’s, documentary , An Inconvenient Truth, produced over a decade over was and continues to be one of the most influential contemporary texts, which outline climate change, how we all contribute and potential threats. As the title states, climate change is something some of us think is much too inconvenient to fathom. Having been made to watch this documentary twice, I have become aware that climate change is not just an environmental issue but more so a behavioral and ethical issue. Additionally, the difficulties, which arise in changing the way people think and act in relation to this issue and decreasing this overriding self-interest and increasing or creating our climate conscience are illustrated in An Inconvenient Truth. On another note, this documentary varies significantly from the “futuristic” texts we’re attracted to. These texts centering on alien invasions, robots, technology, etc. but not the realistic issues of our future – climate change. (INCOMPLETE)
Cognitive biases and denial
Heat waves, more frequent natural disasters, shrinking glaciers – the direct physical impacts of climate change beg for our attention. But why are there still climate change deniers? “Hyperbolic discounting”, the absence of a concern for future generations, “the bystander effect” and “the sunk-cost fallacy” are among the cognitive reasons behind this denial. According to political psychologist, Conor Syle, “cognitive biases that ensured our initial survival make it difficult to address complex, long-term challenges that threaten our existence, like climate change”. The main trend to be noted here is that climate change denial stems from this conscious valuing of the present, lack of personal responsibility and unwillingness to change.
