While people that express outright skepticism are fewer and fewer, indifference to climate change seems to be on the rise. Indifference in the face of climate change can result from the perceived inefficacy of activism, the perceptible lack of concern from others in daily life, the inability to afford expensive, individual environmental alternatives like solar panels or hybrid cars or the overwhelming feelings that come when considering climate issues like anxiety and depression. Climate indifference is one of the most serious threats to climate action because it is passive and because this apathy leaves room for more manageable or visible concerns to eclipse environmental ones. This episode focuses on some of the manifestations of climate indifference and proposes some remedies.

Sources Discussed

Powers, Richard. The Overstory: A Novel. W. W. Norton & Company, 2018.

MacDuffie, Allen. “Charles Darwin and the Victorian Pre-History of Climate Denial.” Victorian Studies, vol. 60, no. 4, Indiana University Press, 2018, pp. 543–64.

Gifford, Robert. “The Dragons of Inaction: Psychological Barriers That Limit Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation.” American Psychologist, vol. 66, no. 4, American Psychological Association, 2011, pp. 290–302. APA PsycNET, doi:10.1037/a0023566.