http://www.livescience.com/46173-fight-or-fiight-climate-response.html
Is Climate Change Response 'Fight or Flight' or 'Rest and Digest'? (Op-Ed)
Humans have evolved to sense some crises instinctively — like the sight of a fire or a snake — and respond with fight or flight. But human response to slowly unfolding emergencies — like climate change — may be akin to that of a frog in a pot of water being heated slowly.
The news on climate change is relentless and mostly focused on the negative impacts. This tends to raise stress and kick the amygdala and the SNS constantly. Society needs solutions and visions for a sustainable future in order to balance the SNS response and keep us in the PSNS as much as possible. Mindfulness of the PSNS must guide our every action from turning on the faucet for brushing our teeth in the morning to turning off the light at night for bedtime. We need fundamental and comprehensive behavioral changes. Such changes can provoke stress, arousing the SNS. We have to find our way back quickly to PSNS so we can rest and digest the impacts of our action, and respond with mindful actions each day.
We ignore our psychological impacts of climate change at our own peril. It is not just the fight or flight response that the SNS tends to engender. It also can produce the freeze response and that is the most prevalent "wait-and-see" attitude towards climate change that we see even from the richest of countries like the United States and Canada.
If you're a topical expert — researcher, business leader, author or innovator — and would like to contribute an op-ed piece, email us here.
The freeze response is almost appropriate for farmers in developing countries who have low incomes and who sometimes pay the price for the excesses of the Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic (WEIRD) countries, since the people with fewer resources hardly contributed to the mess we are in.
Sadly, the nouveau riche of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) also are living up to the same standards of consumption as the WEIRD nations. So we all are in it now, with total consumption almost certain to trend upward in the coming decades. Most of the poor are forced to live in the SNS and it is mostly the climate variability and the extreme events they have to worry about. Can we expect them to worry about 2030 or 2050 when most don't even know where their next meal is coming from?
In the meantime, many people and organizations are trying to change the world and save the planet. But PSNS may help us realize the real meaning of what the poet Rumi meant when he said: "Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself."
Wisdom comes from the PSNS and not from SNS. The poor may have no choice but the rich can at least begin to rest and digest the consequences of their actions and mindfully steer towards a habitable planet for all.
The author's most recent Op-Ed was, "Pause in Global Warming Comes Served With Unwelcome Side Dishes." This Op-Ed was adapted from "Climate Change Response: Fight or Flight? or Rest and Digest?" onGudde-Blog. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on Live Science.
We ignore our psychological impacts of climate change at our own peril. It is not just the fight or flight response that the SNS tends to engender. It also can produce the freeze response and that is the most prevalent "wait-and-see" attitude towards climate change that we see even from the richest of countries like the United States and Canada.
If you're a topical expert — researcher, business leader, author or innovator — and would like to contribute an op-ed piece, email us here.Sadly, the nouveau riche of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) also are living up to the same standards of consumption as the WEIRD nations. So we all are in it now, with total consumption almost certain to trend upward in the coming decades. Most of the poor are forced to live in the SNS and it is mostly the climate variability and the extreme events they have to worry about. Can we expect them to worry about 2030 or 2050 when most don't even know where their next meal is coming from?
In the meantime, many people and organizations are trying to change the world and save the planet. But PSNS may help us realize the real meaning of what the poet Rumi meant when he said: "Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself."
Wisdom comes from the PSNS and not from SNS. The poor may have no choice but the rich can at least begin to rest and digest the consequences of their actions and mindfully steer towards a habitable planet for all.
The author's most recent Op-Ed was, "Pause in Global Warming Comes Served With Unwelcome Side Dishes." This Op-Ed was adapted from "Climate Change Response: Fight or Flight? or Rest and Digest?" onGudde-Blog. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on Live Science.
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