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There is urgency: urgency to act in the face of climate change. The science is clear, the researchers repeat: a disaster is brewing. And yet, we persist in doing nothing, or very little, like rabbits caught in the headlights of a car. Why do we continue to knowingly destroy the planet? What are the biological, historical and cultural explanations for such behavior?
There is “emergency”, there is “no planet B”, “our house is burning and we are looking elsewhere”. We have known it for years, even decades: the climate is disrupted, biodiversity is collapsing. It’s a fact, the science is clear, Man is responsible for it. And yet, nothing is being done. Last year, humanity has never emitted so many greenhouse gases, in total contradiction with the objectives set at COP21 in Paris.
Why this discrepancy between what we know to be necessary and our actions, individual and collective? What is it that we don’t succeed or even that we don’t even try? Is the answer only due to economy, overconsumption, the comfort to which we have become accustomed? Or does it have its roots in our history of Sapiens… and the way our brain has gradually been built?
With Thierry Ripoll (professor of cognitive science and psychology) for his book Why are we destroying the planet? Is the brain of homo-sapiens able to preserve the planet? published by Le Bord de l’eau.
Raphael Hittier’s film My brain plays the ostrichis currently online on Arte.tv.