Delving into the human brain, breaking down our decision-making process, and understanding the psychology behind our actions
One of the main causes of the climate change crisis is that we, humans, are not ready to break our habits or to sacrifice personal pleasure for the environment. In this article, we are going to explain why it is so difficult for us to change and how changing our routine could be the determining factor that is missing to save our planet.
Essentially, our brain likes to stay the same at all times: it does not like changing. Moreover, in our brain, the ideas of risk and fear are associated with change. When a habit is installed, it is very hard to change it as our brain likes to take the “path” of least resistance, meaning the one that can be completed using the least energy and with ease. Therefore, the more you practice the same repeated action, the harder it will be to change it. This could provide an explanation to why many elderly people do not change and say it is up to the younger generations to save the planet – which is not the case.
When we try to change a habit, we come up against resistance in our brains, since we are used to performing another action. Consequently, we get tired faster as our brain uses more energy. Then, as soon as we are tired or even stressed, our brain takes away our conscious control and rapidly slips us back into our old habits, where little energy and focus is required. This often leads to complete backtracking for a certain period of time, where we go back to old customs.
In addition, research has shown that two of the habits that are the hardest to change are the ones linked to chemical changes in the brain (ex: addictions to junk food, alcohol or drugs…) and the ones you do not really feel motivated to change or that you do not feel the urge to change now. This research is very interesting since it can really be assimilated with the reason why there is such a crisis: for example, many people are not ready to stop buying biscuits or chocolate that is wrapped in plastic because there are addictive chemicals in them and stopping consuming them would provoke a huge change in the brain. Furthermore, many people are aware that there is a massive climate issue and that they should change. However, they do not possess the extra key motivation required to start changing their routine because they do not think it is an urgent danger.
Nevertheless, this does not mean that change is impossible, it only demonstrates how hard it is to change. This is why changing our behaviours is required and would be a determining factor in the quest to save the planet. Indeed, altering for good our customs to make them eco-friendly would resolve nearly all of the major ecological issues our planet is facing. Depending on how much you are doing for the planet, whether it is nothing, very little or a reasonable amount, you will need to plan accordingly, give yourself small weekly targets and change each habit one by one, even if it takes a long time. If you cannot maintain change, do not give up and do not think it is impossible as it is completely normal to backtrack into old habits sometimes. Finally, if we had to summarise in three words what skills are necessary to change they would be the following:, urgency, determination, patience.
To conclude, change is absolutely necessary to save the planet because if we do not, our beloved planet Earth will shortly be in an irreversible state.
Soon, we will not be able to eat fish anymore, as they will have too much plastic in their stomachs.
Soon, the sea level will rise dramatically and will cause huge flooding all over the world.
Today, this crisis is in our hands.
This is an urgent matter.
(Image source: ©️https://dribbble.com/shots/2190853-Brain-Icon)
Written in November/December 2021 © Your Green Footprint