Author: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change

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Today we had the joy of participating in a small group from the faith community with George Marshall on the topic, “Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change,” from his most recent book.

George is a British environmental campaigner, communications specialist and writer. He is the founder of Climate Outreach, a UK charity that specializes in increasing public engagement in climate-change related issues, and he is a specialist in climate change communications. His faith background is in the Anglican tradition.

Mr. Marshall has spoken and written extensively on the need to engage new audiences on climate change, especially conservatives and people of religious faith.  His first book was “Carbon Detox” (Hamlyn Gaia, 2007) and it focuses on personal action to reduce emissions. His second book, “Don't Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change” (Bloomsbury 2014), explores the underlying social and psychological obstacles to accepting the reality of climate change.

In the climate change discussion, Mr. Marshall said he believes the most important issue is how to communicate. For him the key question is, “Where are peoples’ shared values, especially people of faith?”  He said he has found that his work with faith groups has fallen into two distinct periods, before the Paris Accord and after. The latter period is especially defined GreenFaith. He reminds us that the world in which we live in is a precious gift, an understanding that transcends all faith traditions.

Nonetheless, he continued, we each have to admit that communicating about climate change is both hard work and a moral challenge. To be effective, conversation involves both speaking and especially listening. Each of us must learn to speak from our own personal experience. In order to be an effective communicator, trust is important and we must approach these two-way conversations from the perspective of love. We are most effective communicators when we invoke the Scriptures and their focus on love. This is true in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions.

Mr. Marshall said that he has seen change since Paris, and it is moving in the right direction, just not fast enough. Since Paris, he has found that people are more accepting that climate change is happening, and that it is happening now rather than later. However, a major roadblock is that many people still don’t think that climate change effects them, and this is especially true in the politically polarized USA.

Following our small group discussion, I interviewed Mr. Marshall for Texas Impact. That interview will be posted soon on the Texas Impact website and possibly on the Texas Observer website which is providing our video coverage of COP 25.

The rest of my afternoon was spent with a cadre of clergy colleagues preparing worship resources supporting COP25 for use in worship services this weekend.  Those will be available on the Texas Impact website, www.texasimpact.org.

Robin Caraway attended a session on indigenous peoples at an adjacent site, The Green Zone.Speakers included representatives from indigenous groups all over the world. The program focused on food security. Their food security depends on having control over their own production, storage, and ties into issues of human rights and climate justice. Anything that affects their food security also affects our own food security.We have much to learn from our sisters and brothers in the indigenous communities. We are all connected, and when we try to modify their food sources, we all suffer.

The Rev. Mel Caraway, a retired clergy member of the North Texas Annual Conference, is a United Methodist EarthKeeper, an environmental mission program affiliated with the General Board of Global Ministries. His reports are adapted with permission from his blog on the Texas Impact website. United Methodist Insight participates in Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration founded by the Columbia Journalism Review and The Nation magazine to strengthen coverage of the climate story.