The following article was written on 02.02.2025.

“I think the greatest illusion we have is that denial protects us. It's actually the biggest distortion and lie. In fact, staying asleep is what's killing us.”

Eve Ensler

Los Angeles is still in the midst of its worst wildfires in history.  The fires are still not contained and the threat of high Santa Anna winds are predicted to revisit the area this week. 

While simple explanations and blame are ever present both politically and privately, there may be a more precise explanation of the problem that is beneficial.  Climate change is already upon us and there are still special interest groups that continue to be deniers.  In spite of the fact that climate scientists were 97% in agreement in 2019 and 100% in agreement in 2021 that fossil fuels continue to be the main culprit, the deniers hang onto a manifesto of reasons to resist the science. ⁽¹⁾

Why We Do Less Than We Should

At the 27th International Congress of Applied Psychology 2010 in Melbourne, Professor Robert Gifford’s presentation on the ‘Seven Dragons of Inaction – Why we do less than we should’ still resonates as worthy commentary on this critical subject.  What are these reasons for inaction?

“There’s ignorance (not knowing enough about environmental problems, or which solutions to take), uncertainty resulting in postponed action (‘is climate change really a serious and urgent problem, or is there something in what the sceptics are saying?’), optimism bias (tendency to think that environmental problems couldn’t really be that bad, or that surely someone will come up with a silver bullet solution just in time), and temporal and spatial discounting, when people presume environmental problems are going to be worse in the future and in other parts of the planet, and so are less likely to be motivated to take action now.” ⁽²⁾

”Censorship no longer works by hiding information from you; censorship works by flooding you with immense amounts of misinformation, of irrelevant information, of funny cat videos, until you're just unable to focus.”

Yuval Noah Harari

Climate Misinformation and Disinformation

Climate misinformation can arise from genuine misunderstanding, drawing conclusions from incomplete information or misinterpreting data. It involves the spread of inaccurate information through ignorance.

Climate disinformation is a more insidious form of misinformation given that its distributors are knowingly sharing falsehoods and may intend to protect their own interests to the detriment of others by doing so. For example, they may use deceptive tactics to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change or cast doubt on the severity of its impact. ⁽³⁾

Both misinformation and disinformation are creations of confusion and delay that inhibit actioning solutions.  The doubt is spread with an agenda to maintain the status quo of inaction toward limiting fossil fuels, which are lining the pockets of the rich and powerful.  The ambiguity that is being perpetuated by misinformation and disinformation creates a resistance to change and an indecisiveness that permeates inaction.

"When dissonance is present, in addition to trying to reduce it, the person will actively avoid situations and information which would likely increase the dissonance." - Leon Festinger

Cognitive Dissonance  

Cognitive dissonance occurs when a person's behaviour and beliefs do not complement each other or when they hold two contradictory beliefs.  There is an incongruity within the person’s psyche.  This state of mind is full of ambiguity and ambivalence, which we know feeds inaction.

To complicate the issue, we have all the misinformation and disinformation on top of this ambivalence.  Climate change facts are lost in the shuffle of this malaise of confusion.  We are fooled by others but we also fool ourselves in our blind optimism that eschews all reality.  We believe the myths of misinformation and disinformation with the thought that denial will protect us.

The most common theory is that denial is about maintaining one’s sense of emotional security. Something about what is being faced threatens the denier’s sense of emotional security. This means, that something triggers their anxiety or some painfully intolerable thoughts or feelings. Denial becomes the refuge to keep these thoughts and feelings sequestered. When we hide our true feelings, we may fool others but we are still aware we are being inauthentic. Many of our maladaptive behaviours come from this denial of authenticity. No wonder we say their feelings are bottled-up. The cork has become the catalyst to their denial. ⁽⁴⁾

“Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality.” – Nikos Kazantzakis

Reality Bites

The residents of LA are experiencing the rath of climate change reality.  They no longer have the luxury of denial to protect them from 100 mile per hour winds in a desert landscape, which has had less than an inch of rain in the last 4 months.

Political opportunists will persist to blame and shame with misinformation and disinformation to distract from the realities of climate change and maintain the status quo of the fossil fuel fiction.  The reality is obvious, nothing politically would have stopped those embers of fire from spreading, not more manpower, not more water, not more equipment and not more money.  The climate is now in charge.  We have to decide to listen to the science and take the actions necessary to alter an inevitable course toward a 2-3 degree rise in temperature on our planet by the end of the century.  Mother Earth needs rescuing!

^References

^{1-NASA Science (2021).  Do scientists agree on climate change?}

^{2- Burke, S. (2010).  Understanding the psychological barriers to climate change action.  Australian Psychological Society, InPsych 2010 | Vol 32, December | Issue 6.}

^{3- The London School of Economics and Political Science (2024).  What are climate misinformation and disinformation and what is their impact?  22 April, 2024.}

^{4-Wilson, B. (2022).  Planetosis and Denial. ArticleBiz, Aug 22, 2022.}