Is the climate a crisis?
[...]
One clarion call is the “climate crisis”, with a long list of other monikers including “climate emergency”, “climate breakdown”, and “climate disruption”. Some are ridiculous such as “ climate obstruction ”. After all, how could we obstruct the climate? Some sound dramatic, but are the expected norm, such as “climate chaos”, because the climate always displays characteristics of mathematical chaos .
In fact, from the beginnings of human-caused climate change being popularly framed as an “emergency” or “crisis”, scientific concerns were raised about this approach . Now, evidence is emerging that these phrases can inhibit constructive action. Its potential is to evoke a fear response, producing hopelessness-fuelled apathy, disengagement, nihilism, or even hedonism since apparently nothing matters, so might as well just feel good.
This is all notwithstanding the need for scientific precision in vocabulary. The concern is actually not climate per se, but rather human-caused climate change. Climate, climate change, natural climate change, and human-caused climate change are frequently conflated, confusing what to do for policy and action.
[...]
Human-caused climate change is fundamentally due to human values, that subsequently shape attitudes, behaviour, and actions. As emphasised by the Centric Lab , “planetary dysregulation” is a term that aims to specify that planetary systems are unable to self-regulate, “particularly due to unsustainable exploitation of ecosystems and chronic exposure to industrial contamination”. Specifics relate to extractivism, consumerism, growth-is-good paradigms, and presuming that more consumption and increased monetary wealth accumulation must be positive.
If we stopped human-caused climate change immediately, then these same values, attitudes, behaviour, and actions would continue to lead to and perpetuate numerous other societal harms, notably for health , from human trafficking and slavery to fisheries and forest destruction. Human-caused climate change is one symptom among many, not a specific cause, of the crisis (problem? concern?) of human values, attitudes, behaviour, and actions. Highlighting a “climate crisis” or “climate change crisis” distracts from the real crises and emergencies — and their causes.
[...]