To change big things, start small
Author and climate activist Katharine K. Wilkinson on the human infrastructure of social change.
psychology
How to Think About the Future – Part 2: Four variables shaping the coming decades
Nate Hagens expands on the case for holding a distribution of possible futures rather than a single preferred one, and walks through a structured scenario-building exercise.
Rethinking self-importance in a time of social and ecological collapse
Across cultures, practices that limit ego and hierarchy help sustain cooperation and trust. In an era of cascading crises, rediscovering these “social technologies” could strengthen community resilience and collective action.
How to Think About the Future – Part 1: Changing the future starts with how you think
In the first instalment of a new series on thinking about the future, Nate Hagens argues that most debates about what lies ahead are shaped by a single competing narrative. He introduces “scenario thinking” as a way to hold multiple possible futures at once, and explores why this is psychologically and culturally difficult in practice.
How losing nature from our language changes how we think about the world
As references to rivers, trees, and wildlife fade from books, songs, and everyday speech, our connection to the natural world also diminishes. Reclaiming these words can help us recognize, appreciate, and ultimately, preserve the environment.
Put Down Those Rocks You’re Carrying
Indeed, our negative emotions are used to divide and exploit us, to confuse us from seeing who (or what) is behind the curtain pulling the levers. You can stop that cycle, at least with your own life and your own consciousness.
What Evil Lurks
The Shadow is everything about yourself you hate so much that you’re not willing to admit that it’s part of yourself.
Psychology, meet Politics
Whether we manage to find our way through depends primarily on what goes on inside our minds – on whether we’re able to manage our mental and emotional states at a time of extraordinary turbulence; whether we reach for the right stories to explain what’s happening at this moment in history; and above all, whether enough of us can see ourselves as part of a larger ‘Us’ instead of a ‘them-and-us,’ or just an atomised ‘I.’
The Magic Lantern Show
Is there a way out of the magic lantern show? Schopenhauer and Jung both argued that yes, there is—not, to be sure, a way to turn off the magic lantern, but a way to stop mistaking the projections for realities.
Even climate change experts and activists might be in denial
One could argue that those who are very close to the reality of climate change are particularly prone to a need to split their identity. The knowledge they have, and the images they have seen, might unconsciously lead them to the above-mentioned counter-balancing and coping behaviours.
I’d be happier if I didn’t write this stuff!
For years my father–who is a really great guy–has been telling me that I’d be a happier person if I didn’t write about all the converging threats bearing down on the human race. Turns out he’s right!
Climate change will have broad psychological effects, report finds
Stress, anxiety, PTSD among likely impacts to overall well-being,
