{"id":40941,"date":"2018-11-26T07:51:12","date_gmt":"2018-11-26T12:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=40941"},"modified":"2018-11-26T07:51:12","modified_gmt":"2018-11-26T12:51:12","slug":"we-need-a-new-common-consciousness-of-whats-necessary-and-possible-to-curb-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=40941","title":{"rendered":"We need a new common consciousness of what\u2019s necessary and possible to curb climate change."},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb_text_column wpb_content_element \" data-scroll-reveal=\"\" data-scroll-reveal-initialized=\"true\" data-scroll-reveal-complete=\"true\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cusp.ac.uk\/themes\/s1\/blog_tb_common_consciousness\/\">We need a new common consciousness of what\u2019s necessary and possible to curb climate change.<\/a><\/h3>\n<p>Cultural resistance to the need for a fundamental, urgent, unprecedented rethink of the way we conduct life in order to limit temperature rise is continuously fed by the apparently affirmative but actually misleading words of charismatic thinkers such as Rutger Bregman and Steven Pinker, Teresa Belton finds. What we need instead are fresh holistic narratives\u00a0of contented material sufficiency and personal and social enrichment \u2014to create the critical mass for a new common consciousness, and to protect the world from catastrophic ecosystem destruction. (<em>This article is an edited version of a piece first published in <a href=\"https:\/\/theecologist.org\/2018\/nov\/05\/climate-consciousness-requires-political-pressure\" rel=\"noopener\">The Ecologist<\/a> on 5 November 2018.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<div>\n<hr \/>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wpb_single_image wpb_content_element vc_align_center\" data-scroll-reveal=\"\" data-scroll-reveal-initialized=\"true\" data-scroll-reveal-complete=\"true\">\n<figure class=\"wpb_wrapper vc_figure\">\n<div class=\"vc_single_image-wrapper   vc_box_border_grey\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"vc_single_image-img attachment-full\" style=\"border: none; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; vertical-align: top; max-width: 100%; height: auto;\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.cusp.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/pavel-nekoranec-668660-unsplash.jpg?fit=1000%2C630&amp;ssl=1\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.cusp.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/pavel-nekoranec-668660-unsplash.jpg?w=1000&amp;ssl=1 1000w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.cusp.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/pavel-nekoranec-668660-unsplash.jpg?resize=300%2C189&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.cusp.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/pavel-nekoranec-668660-unsplash.jpg?resize=476%2C300&amp;ssl=1 476w\" alt=\"We need a new common consciousness of what\u2019s necessary and possible to curb climate change. | Guest blog by Teresa Belton\" width=\"1000\" height=\"630\" data-attachment-id=\"10746\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cusp.ac.uk\/themes\/s1\/blog_tb_common_consciousness\/attachment\/pavel-nekoranec-668660-unsplash\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.cusp.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/pavel-nekoranec-668660-unsplash.jpg?fit=1000%2C630&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1000,630\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"We need a new common consciousness of what\u2019s necessary and possible to curb climate change. | Guest blog by Teresa Belton\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;We need a new common consciousness of what\u2019s necessary and possible to curb climate change. | Guest blog by Teresa Belton&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.cusp.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/pavel-nekoranec-668660-unsplash.jpg?fit=300%2C189&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.cusp.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/pavel-nekoranec-668660-unsplash.jpg?fit=476%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" \/><\/div><figcaption class=\"vc_figure-caption\">Mural by Super A and Collin van der Sluijs. Image: (CC.0) Pavel Nekoranec \/ Unsplash.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wpb_text_column wpb_content_element \" data-scroll-reveal=\"\" data-scroll-reveal-initialized=\"true\" data-scroll-reveal-complete=\"true\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<p>Political and social consciousness of the looming threat and the measures necessary to limit rising temperatures is still largely unengaged. In the UK one need look no further than the government decision to build a third runway at Heathrow airport, the continued subsidies given to fossil fuel companies, the reduction in incentives to install solar panels, and the slackening of planning regulations to allow fracking applications free passage. And at the household level, sales of consumer goods and use of energy continue unabated, as though they\u2019re no threat to tomorrow. Popular discourse is lacking in sound or alternative messages. Two recent books by \u2018believers\u2019 in anthropogenic climate change offer clues as to why public attitudes are generally so apathetic.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We need a new common consciousness of what\u2019s necessary and possible to curb climate change. Cultural resistance to the need for a fundamental, urgent, unprecedented rethink of the way we conduct life in order to limit temperature rise is continuously fed by the apparently affirmative but actually misleading words of charismatic thinkers such as Rutger [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2648,20783,141,23149,328,23212],"class_list":["post-40941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-anthropogenic-climate-change","tag-centre-for-understanding-sustainable-prosperity","tag-climate-change","tag-cusp","tag-fossil-fuels","tag-teresa-belton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40941"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40942,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40941\/revisions\/40942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}