Climate Change: Learning from COVID
September 30, 2020
Paul S. Chinowsky聽
Climate change scientists, advocates, and researchers have a common question that they ask in many different forums: 鈥淲hy don鈥檛 more people take climate change seriously?鈥澛� Another version of this is, 鈥淲hy aren鈥檛 communities taking more action on resiliency?鈥� There is frequently confusion and a sense of disbelief that people still take little or no action even with the overwhelming evidence presented.
I have to admit I've been one of these people who asks these questions. But I now believe I have a better understanding of why this lack of action occurs. To understand this response, we can look at the current COVID crisis. Over the last six months, we have had the leading scientists worldwide tell us how wearing masks is essential, avoiding crowds is vital, and basic hygiene is a key to staying healthy. Additionally, we have had engineers analyze buildings for airflow and provide guidelines for making buildings safer. In short, we have probably seen the most significant public health education effort in the last several decades.
However, even with all of this education, we read and see how people are still getting infected in large numbers every day. People are not following public health guidelines, and people continue to die in alarming numbers. From a science perspective, this is almost inconceivable. However, what we are forgetting is that the COVID crisis is not just about science. It is also about human behavior. And human behavior is not always rational, explainable, or logical. People do unexpected things. People do things impulsively. This does not make them bad people. It makes them human. It does not absolve them of responsibility for their actions, but it is a large factor in understanding why people do things that make others sigh in disbelief.
How does this inform us about our climate change questions? The answer is the same鈥攈uman behavior. In an age of divided politics, a pandemic, economic instability, global instability, and daily news stories questioning what is ahead for society, the thought of climate change actions seems to many to be something that is light-years away. This line of thinking is not intentionally irresponsible. It is human behavior. People will always address immediate threats, even if they are less critical than the long-term imperative.聽
This insight into human behavior is essential for those who focus on climate change and its impact on individuals, communities, and the globe. Climate change does not rise to the level of immediacy for many, many people. The challenge is how to change this perspective. The challenge is how to make temperature projections in 2050 have greater relevance than the latest unemployment numbers. Or, how to make projections of sea level rise in 2100 have equal or greater impact than the latest COVID outbreak statistics.聽
And this is where human behavior comes into play. It is an unrealistic expectation to think that the majority of people will put aside their immediate concerns of financial security and health in favor of concerns for impacts that are 20, 30, or 50 years away. Rather, we need to focus on the reasons people have for not taking climate change seriously or choosing not to address their communities鈥� resiliency.聽
It is time to understand that human behavior is a critical component of climate change action. It is time to start talking about sea level rise in terms of the cost today that will be charged to families to protect their homes. It is time to start talking to parents about the lowering of their children鈥檚 test scores that are resulting from classrooms that are too hot. These are issues that bring immediacy to climate change.聽
We have a choice. We can continue to wonder why people do not take climate change seriously. Or, we can start to put climate change in terms of immediate life concerns such as financial or family impacts. Let鈥檚 learn from the COVID crisis and start understanding that science cannot be separated from human behavior.聽 Science may tell us that it is getting hotter, but human behavior wants to know how increasing temperature impacts the wildfires that are threatening my home today.