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Newsletter Nr. 582
Amsterdam, August 5th, 2015

PSYCHOLOGICAL ADAPTATION TO THE THREATS AND STRESSES OF A FOUR DEGREE WORLD - CLIVE HAMILTON & TIM KASSER

Some climate scientists now believe warming of four degrees or more this century is likely. Stresses and conflicts associated with harsher living conditions and greater resource competition will demand social and psychological adaptation as well as changes to physical infrastructure and economic systems.

Extensive social scientific research into human reactions to threats provides some insights into the psychological strategies humans are likely to adopt. These “coping strategies” are designed to defend against or manage the unpleasant emotions associated with “waking up” to the dangers of a warming globe.

We group coping strategies into three types. Denial strategies aim primarily at suppressing anxiety associated with predictions of climate disruption by not allowing the facts to be accepted into the conscious mind. Maladaptive coping strategies are deployed to blunt the emotional impact of the facts about climate change. Adaptive coping strategies are used when the person accepts both the facts and the accompanying emotions, and then tries to act on the basis of both.

Read more:
http://www.integralworld.net/hamilton2.html