How Social Warming Contributes to Climate Warming

Social warming is the name given to the ubiquitous social trend of hotter tempers and tribal alliances due to our internet age of social media.

When we hold worldviews as social creatures, we also spark our many cognitive biases that human brains evolved for survival purposes. For example, we need reassurance that our death is unlikely when we fly on an airplane, so we seek clues to confirm it’s going to be okay. These thoughts, and our fear of death, can be both conscious and unconscious.

All of our alliances confirm that we belong to our kith and kin. This is why you will hear people speak of “Our trans community” or “Our Native American community,” “Our Engineering team” or “Our Christian” or “Muslim Community.” Every person belongs to expansive intersectional communities, but inclusion of several is typical of most people. Even sports teams are indicative of belonging to some kind of ingroup or outgroup.

The internet and information age has connected many such groups into networks that are now global and almost instantaneous.

But the advent of social media has also brought with it the world of anonymous hate speech, trolling, and very problematic misinformation and disinformation.

In addition to real world floods, our world is awash with rumors and fake news that are even more complicated by AI, automation, information overload, and the true difficulty of being able to discern what is reliable and accurate.

If your world view is one of science or climate denial, you will find confirmation and thousands of stories that assure you that your particular facts are the best ones. For example flat-earthers can refer to as much data as they need to feel reassured. But, so too, can spherical “earthers.”

This is complicated even farther if living requires you to use any carbon-based fuel, consume anything with packaging, work in jobs that require consumption, or vote for policies that do. It is easy to see how our entire system is soaked with CO2 emissions, and the only way out of our enormous carbon footprints is to be involved in both individual and group alliance transitions to greener alternatives.

We are off to a slow start with clean energy, green agriculture, and more, but at least it is a start.

Curbing social and climate costs

The social warming aspect of our psychology may be more challenging. It is human to have psychological defense mechanisms such as denial. And, as mentioned they comprise a large part of our identity and inclusion needs. Until entire nations agree to do their part and governments make green alliances, and until all people tweak consumption habits, we will continue to pay very high environmental costs.

The cost of climate collapse is incalculable, but there are also social costs and rewards to be considered.

There are several things that people are beginning to do that show some promise. The externalized costs of our consumption is so far always passed on to people, places, and obviously, nature. But people are beginning to demand that things like plastic pollution in our oceans, and the clean up costs to landscapes and habitats should also be carried by those who profit from these products. Recycling programs are better in some locations than in others, and whole villages, towns, cities and nations are beginning to learn from one another. What works in one location may be different than what works in another place, but also due to technology — and our social media — such information can be shared.

Still, individual and group activism is still the best mechanism so far to win the cleaner, greener world we need to create. Compassion and reciprocity are key, and as social beings, we love being part of just such a team, tribe, or movement. We find knowledge, comfort, and meaning this way.

Know thyself

You do not have to identify as anti-human to acknowledge we all have defense mechanisms and confirmation bias. You just have to know it is a human trait, just like our social need for belonging.

The body of living creatures such as we are, can go into shock when trauma occurs. Our psychological defenses work similarly. When a person hears bad news, such as : “Your mother has been killed,” the first response is often shock and/or “I don’t believe it. It’s not true. It can’t be true.”

We cannot be faulted for our sincere emotions and feelings that are based on our love for others and our world. We just have to learn to know ourselves and our planet in ways that reflect reality. Nature’s reciprocity is key. Immersion in nature and reconnection to our non-abstract lives are particularly good at teaching us this self-care.

And, perhaps just as importantly, we belong to that social community we call planet Earth.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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