\tBeing a member of Generation Z, climate change and the degradation of the environment has been a constant background noise in my life. Similar claims that if we don’t begin to pay attention and act on the critical issue of climate change, humans will cease to exist as soon as some years around 2050\u2014only 28 years from now! I often compare many talks on climate change to lightning striking through a pitch-black night. However, many speakers made a concerted effort to make their audiences feel incredibly guilty and anxious. Does creating guilt and worry strategically contribute any genuine benefits to our environment? It might. What is the proper remedy if that is not the best way to directly contain climate issues? In this blog, I will discuss why provoking negative emotions during environmental crises is not a feasible method to encourage people to take action and what would be a better method instead. <\/p>\n
\tAs I introduced in earlier paragraphs, a distinguished author, Sarah Jaquette Ray, also shed light on how not to use emotions to push people back but to yield to them as encouragement. In her book A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety, Ray expressed that “humanities scholars care not just about how climate change will affect people, but about how the narratives of climate change affect people.” (Ray, pg.34) As she is concerned, simply sparking emotions of fear, guilt, or anxiety may backfire. In chapter two of A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety, Ray wrote, “Simply listing the horrors\u2026 is a poor response to the so-called debate in the dominant media about whether or not climate change is happening.” (Ray, pg. 35) As she compellingly asserts against the commonly seen emotional-provoking strategies, she also points out that provoking negative emotions will be more likely to push people away than encouraging them. Ray then discussed how this approach is rather destructive and only prompts passivity but not effectively bringing out actions. She further points out that people would instead join a movement that seems to provoke positive emotions and bring about promising changes rather than a movement that appears to increment negative emotions. (Ray, pg. 35) Simply addressing the horrible future is more likely to transform people into environmental nihilists who become desperate about the future and think there’s nothing to be done except waiting for the apocalypse. Therefore, to be more effective in enlisting people to contain climate change, sparking negative emotions is undoubtedly the last thing to do. Regarding that, educating people on environmental issues by triggering positive emotions rather than making every sentiment on environmental issues more and more suffocating is more constructive. <\/p>\n
\tIn light of Ray’s idea that the narratives of climate change affect people, many real-life examples vividly reflect this idea. For instance, one of my friends, Lucy, an environmental activist, decided to cease connecting with the group she used to work with in educating people about sustainability. It was unbelievable when she first told me that she no longer decided to protest or write blogs urging for change. She told me that no matter how much time and effort she spends on writing about blogs, and planning for events that raise awareness, all of those actions seem to be in vain. Concerning her situation, she seems to be in a phase that Ray describes as “the ‘nihilist’ stage of the climate grieving process.” (Ray, pg. 31) Lucy has been a person with exceptional determination and perseverance. She even won an essay contest that was themed on writing about determination. Moreover, throughout her life, she has been working on getting more people to be aware of the environmental crisis and educating people about simple changes they can make in their ordinary life. Therefore, I was curious about the actual reason behind it. During a coffee chat, Lucy disclosed that whenever she tried to learn more about how to contain climate change, she felt so much pain and anxiety. Until one day, she thinks the emotional burden is too much for her and that her work in the past did not have any noticeable impact except the bare number of reads she gained after publishing one article online. Every time she tried to make some progress; she became discouraged. Her story should serve as a warning to many of us actively and deliberately making positive contributions to our environment, alerting us to the potential deterrent effects of feelings such as guilt and anxiety. This example should also call our attention to what Sarah Jaquette Ray has been warning us: the continually sparked feeling of “guilt, fear, apathy, nihilism, and ultimately inertia” could destroy a person’s faith in containing the climate crisis. (Ray, pg. 35) People are likelier to shun things that uphold such feelings than join them. <\/p>\n
\tWhat is the right thing to do if we know what should not be done not to make a negative impact? Every activist has a word to say about what keeps their faith from so many outside distractions and discouragement. But moreover, there are narratives that we can adopt to help us maintain peace of mind while facing this invisible and overwhelming challenge. Ray also shared her thoughts on this matter in the following passages. She points out a potential approach that can bridge the idea of countering climate change with some existing core values of people to facilitate the change. She wrote, “We are more likely to accept information and solutions when they come from someone we perceive as sharing our core values,” she expresses that selling an idea that links with other values already installed in people’s minds would potentially be a more manageable approach. (Ray, pg. 36) <\/p>\n
\tBut if we step out of this argument and think, regardless of the practicality of Ray’s proposal, it is perceivable that her idea will raise objections. For example, one may say that feeling guilt and anxiety pushes one to work toward a goal. Many college students, especially pre-med and pre-law students, are GPA driven because they need a high number to get into their dream institute; anxiety and other negative emotions could propel a person to work harder. Students who are GPA driven are certainly not caused by positive emotions. If it is true that students who are under anxiety can perform better in this case, it is because many of them plan to take this anxiety for only a few years before then enter grad school. However, countering the climate crisis is not an effort of three or four years. It is a lifelong project. It is also not a case where if you fail to be sustainable one day, you lose your job simultaneously. There are also no deadlines to keep people working up to the highest standards. As a result, it is effortless to quit this project to avoid negative sensations. So, the claim that such anxiety, fear, or guilt could propel a person to work harder on this matter has no point to stand. The better approach is still to connect the idea of containing climate change with more positive emotions, as Sarah Jaquette Ray would urge. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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