The Cycle of Climate Change Acceptance

Like all major socio-economic revolutions the acceptance of climate change takes time. Although reluctance to fully engage the battle against climate change may seem painfully slow, it is consistent with the theoretical stages in what is known as the cycle of acceptance.

The popular attitude towards climate change, must go through various stages before the bitter truth can be inculcated into the public psyche.

Organizations and individuals who are confronted with facts about global warming have been thrown into a cycle of acceptance. The stages in the process of acceptance are part of a well known process first introduced by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in her 1969 book, On Death and Dying. The Kübler-Ross Model is commonly known as The Five Stages of Grief, it is also referred to as the Cycle of Acceptance. In essence it involves 5 steps:

1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Depression
4. Bargaining
5. Acceptance

Denial, although a waste of valuable time, is the first step on the road to acceptance. Over the last couple of years we have seen a lot of denial and anger surrounding the issue of climate change, but there are indications that we may be moving towards acceptance.

People are at different stages when it comes to climate change. While some are still stuck in the denial phase, there are others who feel hopeless and depressed due to the slow acceptance of climate change in North America. While many polls indicate that American support for climate change declined in 2009 and 2010 there may be a positive trend beginning to develop in 2011.

Popular support for the issue of combating global warming has languished over the last couple of years, however, according to a May 2011 Yale Survey titled Public Support for Climate and Energy Policies, an increasing number of Americans now believe that tackling climate change should be a national priority.

We are currently experiencing an upswing in a cycle that will entrench environmental issues into the popular psyche.

The Pembina Institute provides policy research leadership and education on climate change and energy issues. Clare Demerse, acting director for climate change at the Pembina Institute’s Ottawa offices, believes it’s only a matter of time before we are all talking about global warming.

“All issues go through a cycle where they are at top and then fall off and that’s where we are now. It will be back up there again.”

However, the amount of time it takes a person or an organization to complete the cycle of acceptance is critical. The longer they take to come to the stage of acceptance, the less likely they are to ever fully complete the cycle, and the less likely they are to make the difficult decisions to deal with the problem wisely.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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The Last Best Hope to Combat Climate Change

With governments unable or unwilling to pass climate change legislation we need to consider how others have successfully faced serious adversity. In the US there is no hope for climate change legislation for the remainder of President Obama's first term and the recent victory of the Canadian Conservatives has shelved government support for a low carbon economy in that country for the next four years.

Due to the fact that we are unlikely to see significant policy and legislative actions, we need to consider other ways of advancing meaningful change.

Perhaps we need to revive the eternal wisdom of well respected leaders like Abraham Lincoln. This is a man who successfully navigated virulent opposition. Lincoln said, "I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crises. The great point is to bring them the real facts."

In our times the provision of the 'real facts' is impeded by the propaganda machines of powerful oil interests and the politicians who are beholden to them. Nonetheless, we must try to move forward, As Lincoln said, “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” Despite the obstacles we face we must press on,"The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just." Lincoln encourages us from the grave to work tirelessly towards what is right. “To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.”

Lincoln was one of the greatest leaders in human history and in his day he faced a series of challenges, most notably bloody resistance to the emancipation proclamation. Lincoln's "last best hope" letter to Congress contains some statements that are relevant to the dire environmental crisis we face today.

On December 1, 1862, one month before signing the Emancipation Proclamation, President Lincoln sent a message to Congress in which he said:

"We can succeed only by concert. It is not "can any of us imagine better?" but, "can we all do better?" The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise -- with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country."

"Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We -- even we here -- hold the power, and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free -- honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth."

Although these words were written almost 150 years ago, they resonate in light of the current environmental impasse. Today our very survival depends on freeing the environment from the slavery of human abuse.

As Lincoln said, “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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