In Learning to Die in the Anthropocene, Roy Scranton describes how we must accept our death as a civilization so that we can move forward and adapt to the new reality of the harsh climate conditions we are creating. His argument surprised me because the word “Anthropocene” implies that humans have been handed the controls, and it made me realize that there has been little public action to mitigate climate change because our instincts lead us to repress thoughts of death. By thinking of our society as “already dead,” we release ourselves from us from changing our comfortable lifestyles and can continue with business as usual. However, our “solution” to climate change will lead to the demise of civilization. The first step to controlling our impact on the Earth is understanding our own psychology; we need to recognize that what is holding us back from public action is fear of our own destructive power. If education about the Anthropocene focused on both the quantitative evidence of climate change and the psychology of repression, perhaps more people would address the fear of death in their conscious minds and take action.
Another way to consider public inaction is through the lense of sacrifice. Although seventy percent of Americans believe climate change exists, most don’t believe that they will be affected. The majority of Americans believe it will be people in the future who will be affected by climate change, so Americans are unwilling to sacrifice their lifestyles because they will not personally be affected. Because of the prevailing individualistic attitude in America, it is important to inform the public that sacrifice is beneficial to the community and the individual. If people accepted personal responsibility for the good of people in the future, they would be compelled to take action.
The map on the left shows the percentage of Americans who believe that global warming will harm people in the U.S. The map on the right shows the percentage of people who believe that global warming will harm them, personally. The scale is from dark blue (0%) to dark red (100%).