Coming to grips with how we feel about climate change

This article was written by George Marshall on the eve of the climate summit this week. He assesses how we internalise climate change and one of his points is particularly important: “So if we are to really mobilise action on climate change it is vital that we recognise that it exists in two forms: the scientific facts and the far more potent social facts of constructed narratives or deliberate silence.” Marshall is the founder of the Climate Outreach Information Network and author of Don’t Even Think About It: Why our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change. As he stresses, the UN is as enervated by the story of global warming as the public is: protest helps, but we need to reconstruct the narrative.

Why our brains are wired to ignore climate change and what to do about it

As world leaders meet today at the United Nations in New…