Written by Sustainability… How do we use wealth to insulate ourselves from climate issues?

Written by Sustainability… How do we use wealth to insulate ourselves from climate issues?

While the days of denying the reality ofclimate change are mostly over, a new form of alternative denial has recently become more prominent. Almost everyone subscribes to this denial, whether we realize it or not. Here we mean “implicit denial” or “soft denial,” which is the denial that occurs when we are fully aware of the real danger of climate change, but at the same time we do not respond to this danger concretely in our daily behaviors.

Much research has focused on how humans typically attempt to mentally distance themselves from unpleasant facts and events that occur around them. Therefore, we must study this concept and apply it to the important issue of climate change, and how many of us are only looking for comfort and protecting our thinking from everything related to the negative effects of climate change, in light of the complete absence of principles of social solidarity between the various segments of society.

Social solidarity – which can be defined as cooperation and joint work between all segments of society, to achieve solidarity and expand the scope of each individual’s responsibility towards the other – has become widely applied to climate issues, requiring each of us to act in a responsible manner that is aware of the impacts on the society around him.

To understand the above, let us imagine that we are in the summer in one of the extremely hot areas. In these circumstances, it would not be surprising that each of us tries to escape the scourge of this extreme heat by using the air conditioner in the first place, regardless of any negative effects that may have.

But what about those who cannot provide such a solution? Often they will seek other solutions, such as: natural ventilation, use of water mist, fans, or even wet towels; Although these latter methods are all low-cost compared to air conditioners, they are actually more sustainable options.

But what if the financial situation changed for those who could not afford an air conditioner in the beginning? They will – mostly – buy it immediately, and this is what we referred to at the beginning of the article with the “implicit denial” of climate change, and the absence of principles of social solidarity.

Climate change denial between the past and the present

Traditionally, we viewed the denial of climate change by some public figures – both scientists and businessmen – as a strategy to serve their own personal interests, namely the world’s continued dependence on fossil fuels, and to a large extent our view is correct.

Previously, researchers linked climate change denial to a lack of sufficient knowledge among some people, or even linked it to the social and political orientations of some peoples, such as peoples producing fossil fuels, for example. But recently, researchers have focused their attention on beliefs and psychological barriers at the individual level, and finding out the extent of their moral connection to ignoring the issue of climate change.

The question is: Why might we ignore a dangerous phenomenon such as climate change, or ignore other important issues? The key to his answer lies in one word: “our bodies.” Despite this, the role of the senses and their influence on our daily behavior is overlooked when formulating social and political thought. Therefore, if we want to establish the climate issue in our minds and make it a consideration in our daily behavior and an integral part of our social solidarity; We must take into account the bodily senses of each individual; Then we will realize that climate change denial is more than just a political tool.

How do our senses map the future of our behavior?

We can clearly see the answer to this question within our societies, as our senses control our behavior regardless of our different segments of society. Therefore, we find that the higher classes only see the preservation of the material sense of normalcy and psychological comfort and peace, while we find others from the lower classes forced to bear the brunt of climate disasters, which means the concept of social solidarity is absent from our minds.

For example, people who live in homes without air conditioning are particularly affected by intense heat waves, which negatively affects their bodies and emotions. This makes them exhausted, and they may sometimes suffer from symptoms such as nausea, anxiety, and tension. Then, it will be difficult for such people to do anything but look for any outlet or place to rest whenever they can. In contrast, we will find that people who own air conditioners are significantly less affected by extreme heat waves.

We can summarize the above as follows: If our dealings with heat waves are limited to turning on air conditioners without this changing our daily behaviors, then welcome to all of us in the new camp of deniers of the phenomenon of climate change and its resulting effects!

With the rise in temperatures in the world, the demand for purchasing air conditioners has increased significantly, as the International Energy Agency estimated that by 2050, nearly two-thirds of the world’s households will use air conditioners, especially in countries characterized by a dry and hot climate most days of the year.

The dangerous impact of our consumption pattern

This consumption pattern, which achieves sensual comfort for the higher classes of society, is systematically reinforced in many aspects of life, starting from real estate, residential complexes, through means of transportation and entertainment places, and even dining tables and fashion stores. This is at a time when low-income classes are often marginalized.

But the fateful choice that each of us will have to make is: which of the two things is more important: preserving the well-being of our families – temporarily – in dealing with seasonal disturbances, such as heat waves; Or protect them from the most severe dangers resulting from climate change, such as: floods, drought, earthquakes, forest fires, and others?

Our goal in this presentation is not to place blame on those who own an air conditioner, as the matter is deeper and more complex than this, but we took a simple example from this matter, and through it we tried to bring the picture closer to mind; In order to shed light on a broader, more comprehensive and larger important issue, which is the issue of varying consumption patterns between different social classes, which completely ignores any consideration other than achieving the maximum levels of comfort, even if in an unsustainable way, completely throwing off the wall of everything we seek to achieve true community solidarity and harmony.