Many People Are in Denial
Last October I wrote about denial, and I feel moved to write about it again now because we continue to see major evidence of it in the beliefs and behaviors of those who don’t grasp the implications of climate change.
Environmental disasters are occurring: derechos in Utah and Iowa, flooding along major rivers and coasts, multiple hurricanes in the South and, perhaps most dramatic, the wildfires in the Western states that are so large that their smoke has reached Washington, D.C. Yet developers, encouraged by the demand, continue to build homes too close to the coasts. And people whose homes in the wildland-urban interface have been destroyed by fire have rebuilt in the same location.
These people are denying the evidence before their eyes: that coastal flooding and wildfires are getting worse every year. Denial is a false solution; that is, a solution that does nothing to solve the problem that it is responding to. Therefore, knowledge of the problem persists, out of awareness, and contributes to a person’s stress level.
What Causes Denial?
It occurs when the knowledge it is obscuring is too overwhelming to contemplate. If someone has spent their life working hard to save money for a long-held dream to live by the ocean, they can’t bear to have that dream destroyed. If someone loves their location at the wildland-urban interface, they can’t bear the thought of leaving it.
What Can Overcome Denial?
For some people it happens the hard way: their home gets flooded twice, or destroyed by fire twice, whereupon the reality becomes too obvious to ignore. But there is a less traumatic way to deal with a difficult situation. My complimentary Tool will help. In Step 3, instead of wishing to feel peaceful and calm, wish for a new mental pathway that will be dedicated to enabling you to perceive potential dangers and respond to them effectively.
GET THE COMPLIMENTARY Tool
