Don't Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change

Why do human beings—from raging climate deniers to liberals who can’t bear to renounce their fossil-fuel-burning pleasures—continue to ignore the reality of climate crisis? What is it about the way our brains are wired, that allows us to compartmentalize this most global of concerns? The author of this book tackles these timely and revealing questions, interweaving neuropsych research and personal narrative with interviews across the range of human attitudes toward climate change. Including perspectives from Tea Party activists and conservative evangelical Christians, climate scientists and aspiring environmentalists, he concludes that this stubborn tendency is more about what connects us than what divides us. It is, in fact, a feature of the human brain, our evolutionary origins, our response to threats, our cognitive blind spots, our love of storytelling, and even our fear of death. By better coming to understand ourselves, we can better understand the reactions of others, wending our way toward a different and more connective vision of climate action.

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