Why our Brains Don't Fear Climate Change Enough

为什么我们的大脑对气候变化还不够恐惧

The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos

2024-01-02

37 分钟
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Humans are great at reacting to mortal danger... but only sometimes. Unfortunately, some risks to our safety and wellbeing don't set off alarm bells in our brains. Climate change falls into that category. Why is that? Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert explains how some dangers trigger us, and some don't. In discussion with Dr Laurie Santos, he also outlines ways in which we can be made to care more about threats to the planet and maybe react to them in more positive, happiness-inducing ways.    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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  • Pushkin.

  • He's giving us a thumbs up.

  • So as usual, we just have you start by introducing yourself.

  • Hi, I'm Dan Gilbert.

  • For the opening of this new season, I'm really rolling out the big guns.

  • Dan Gilbert is a huge figure in happiness science.

  • He's one of the field's most respected psychologists and an absolute whiz at explaining some of the most puzzling aspects of human nature.

  • And that is going to be a big help today,

  • because the question I have for him is as confounding as it is serious.

  • This episode is all about the puzzle of why we're not doing more for things that are really hurting us,

  • potentially badly.

  • That sounds great.

  • Every January, the Happiness Lab puts out a new year-new-you type season.

  • We explore the personal challenges that so many of us face,

  • and the ways we can understand them better to make a fresh start in the year ahead.

  • But this year we're doing something slightly different.

  • This season is going to focus on a topic that makes a lot of us feel scared, angry, and vulnerable.

  • That topic is climate change.

  • The federal government says this fire season is unprecedented.

  • The first serious fire season is in the past,