The difficult conversation surrounding our climate is becoming increasingly urgent and unavoidable. But, while it’s likely that we all believe in climate change, why are so many of us not taking action? Read on because I’ll be looking at why.

Climate Anxiety

I am increasingly anxious about the climate crisis. With a constant news feed at our disposal, it is easy to fall into a trap of bad climate news and feel hopeless. How do we respond to this information? I have found myself being too scared to confront the realities of climate change, leading to perhaps a chronic state of inaction. I wanted to understand why this happened to me, so I watched a Ted Talk given by Reneé Lertzman on climate anxiety. Dr Lertzman PhD is a leading researcher using psychology to tackle climate change. She believes that,

“Human psychology is the X factor for unlocking action on climate and ecological crises. Full stop”

When faced with such a large, impending threat such as climate change, this can cause considerable stress which, as Dr Lertzman explains, can be outside of our window of tolerance. This confrontation of stress can be too much to process, forcing us into a state of denial and fear. These defence mechanisms can lead to our inaction, to avoiding the issue because it is just too scary to think about. The good news is, this doesn’t mean people don’t care about the issue, we just need to break the cycle of avoidance. 

I’ll Deal With That Later

Our fight or flight response is part of the reason many of us are being immobile in climate action. We are very good at identifying immediate threats around us but less good at understanding progressive threats. Conor Seyle, a leading political psychologist at the One Earth Future Foundation describes this evolutionary behaviour in a BBC article:

“Cognitive biases that ensured our initial survival make it difficult to address complex, long-term challenges that now threaten our existence, like climate change.”

For me, this article also explains some of the specific cognitive biases associated with this inaction, including hyperbolic discounting, which describes our tendency to prioritise the present over the future. Another cognitive bias mentioned is the sunk-cost fallacy: a tendency to stick to systems we have invested lots of time into, even when they are clearly no longer efficient. This rigidity of convention prevents us from making necessary changes quickly but, it is possible to break away from the fear of change. 

How Do You Really Feel? 

The fact is, we all say we'll do things, but we don't always follow them through. Why is that? Generally, because our true feelings are often not aligned with our intentions. Understanding people at an emotional level and how they really feel, rather than just what they say, is essential if we are to achieve a united action to stop climate change. History - particularly when it relates to global politics - is littered with false dawns and broken promises. Action is often only being taken when votes are at stake.

Truthsayers® is one organisation that is determined to get to the truth. Truthsayers® is currently running a global survey, open to everyone to participate in. The goal is to gather data on how people really feel about climate change. They are doing this by using two methods of assessment: explicit, which is a familiar, traditional style rating survey, together with implicit, which will be unfamiliar and is more gamified. Implicit has the power to capture true feelings and attitudes before our natural biases creep in. Comparing results from both these methods gives us a holistic view of people's sentiments and attitudes towards climate change. 

What We Have Found

So far, our survey has found that people believe climate change is happening now, and more action is needed to stop it. But alarmingly, while people openly disagree that “it’s too late to stop climate change”, 62% actually feel it is too late, revealing an inherent lack of hope for climate improvement. Despite this, almost everyone surveyed agree - both explicitly and implicitly - that we should all be doing more to combat climate change; but this sense of responsibility does not translate so positively on an individual scale, with only 20% of respondents implicitly believing they should be doing more, personally.

Belief in the science behind climate change is surprisingly low with 18% feeling unsure about it, even though, explicitly, 90% claim that they do. This is deeply concerning. I wonder whether this is more of a reflection on the complexity of the science, rather than public scepticism; with so much information, mostly using scientific language, being able to interpret the workings of climate change is not so accessible.  

Finally, the results indicate an extreme lack of trust in the government to take action, with a high degree of authenticity in how respondents answered. This feeling of distrust is likely to be contributing to low confidence in the halting of climate change. Isn’t it time our governments prioritised climate solutions - even if only to raise our confidence in them as leaders?

What Next?

To tackle inaction we need to break the cycle of avoidance. Many of us have suggested we don’t understand the science behind climate change, so firstly it's important to start actively learning. Although gaining a detailed knowledge of how climate change is occurring might seem challenging and might cause us more anxiety at first, the issue will become a concrete idea in our minds, as opposed to being an abstract fear. It is also important to read positive climate news, including new innovative solutions. Marine Engineering Professor, Minyi Xu, and founding director of Georgia Tech’s Centre for Nanotechnology has recently developed power-generators inspired by seaweed; This technology works by flexible generators swaying on the seabed, just like natural seaweed. This development has huge potentials for renewable energy, with Xu estimating that,  

“a network of these devices over an area equal to the size of Georgia could meet the entire world’s energy needs.”

Understanding the issue is one thing, but it is time to start making changes. According to recent research by Microsoft and Dr Chris Brauer of Goldsmiths, University of London, cited in Edie.net, less than half of the 1,707 business leaders polled have set net-zero targets for 2050 or sooner.  Only 19%, of the 2,153 employees surveyed, said their employer is implementing its current sustainability plan effectively. Business leaders cited the challenges to include lack of clear centralised government guidance and lack of embedded, organisation-wide sustainability strategies. Dr Brauer said:  

“UK organisations have strong net-zero ambitions, but to truly address the climate emergency before us, actions must speak louder than words.”

Businesses should be prioritising restructuring their systems to embed sustainability into their long-term practices, rather than just setting goals with no strategy. I believe this can apply personally too. I recently read ‘Atomic Habits’ by James Clear, a book about the impacts that small changes can have long term. James Clear emphasises that setting goals without changing pre-existing systems in your life won’t lead to successful outcomes. So, I took this approach to start becoming more sustainable at school, firstly by making my note-taking method completely paperless. While this is a small step, it helps me build towards a bigger goal, slowly shifting my habits into becoming more climate-friendly. Now is the time to change systems, become more adaptable and create sustainable practices for a greener future.

written by Lily Brough, an intern at Truthsayers®. Lily is studying A Levels in Psychology, Politics, Art and Global Perspectives.

You can be part of the research - contribute to the Neurotech® Climate Change Survey now: