Record heat, record emissions, record fossil fuel consumption. One month out from Cop28, the world is further than ever from reaching its collective climate goals. At the root of all these problems, according to recent research, is the human “behavioural crisis”, a term coined by an interdisciplinary team of scientists.
Great to see an article that goes beyond the usual techno-fixes although the focus on individual behaviour is disappointing as others already noted.
I see capitalism, current behavior and culture as different aspects of the same thing. We can’t address the climate crisis by tackling just one of those we need to do all of them and we need to do it yesterday. If we seek to make changes in only one area the pushback from the other two will stop it.
Obviously that isn’t going to happen, given the political systems humanity has. There is no mechanism for globally coordinated action as a species, especially of the kind that socially engineers new values. The UN is not up to the task.
All we can do is reduce the damage of what is to come.