Evolution and democracy impede response to climate change

Dale Jamieson, Professor of Environmental Studies and Philosopher at New York University, was the keynote speaker at TU Delft’s Climate Ethics and Policy symposium last June 22, 2015, which was organised by the Departments of Philosophy, and Technology Policy and Management (TPM). As author of the book Reason in a Dark Time: Why the Struggle to Stop Climate Change Failed And What it Means for Our Future, Jamieson gave answers including dysfunctional political systems and an evolutionary inability to respond to what he calls “the slow build up of insensible gases in the atmosphere.”

​Democratic deficits

Jamieson began the symposium by giving a quick history of global climate change since 1957, covering the accumulation of scientific evidence for human-induced global warming, and the various reactions to this evidence. Jamieson spoke about the period between 1988 and 2009 when international action on climate change was at its peak, referring to this as the age of climate diplomacy. He also talked about the influence of detractors or people who refuse to believe in global warming as a consequence of human activity, including use of fossils fuels. “And it’s been demonstrated”, he added, “that climate change denial increases as people go up the US political ladder.” Referring to political systems in general, Jamieson also referred to “democratic deficits”, which fail to represent animals, nature and future generations in its policies, as another reason for our failure to stop climate change.

But primarily, it’s the scale and complexity of the problem that challenges us as human beings. “Climate change presents the largest collective action problem that humanity has ever faced”, argued Jamieson, “presenting us with psychological obstacles. Evolution built us to respond to what we sense, not to what we think”. This making it difficult to feel morally responsible for climate change effects felt by future generations. “As a result”, said Jamieson, “even those of us who are concerned about climate change find it difficult to feel its urgency and to act decisively”.

​Polar bears and the Pope

And what of the actions that are being taken? Pope Francis recently issued an encyclical, giving both scientific and moral reasons for fighting climate change; and later this year, 196 countries will sign a climate change agreement in Paris. Jamieson is clear that this “the tyranny of high expectations” doesn’t work. Neither does the plight of “the polar bear as a symbol of climate change”; this, he said bluntly, has failed. “After 20 years of climate diplomacy, the undeniable fact is that three main factors that have reduced greenhouse gas emissions: global recession, the collapse of communism, and China’s one child policy. The Rio (Earth Summit) dream is over.”