These emotions actually drive climate action

Friday, September 1, 2023:

Hey readers,

Happy Friday. It’s Izzie Ramirez, and here’s what we’re following for the weekend:

First up: How we feel about climate is changing.

In other news: Covid cases on the rise, Trader Joe’s recalls products (again), and student loan interest rates resume. 

We’ll be off for Labor Day on Monday, so Sentences will return to your inbox Tuesday. Enjoy the long weekend!

There’s been a shift in how we think about climate change

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Back-to-back disasters might not just change how we think about climate change, but how we feel about it. In just the last month, there were devastating wildfires in Maui, Hurricane Idalia pummeled Florida, and Louisiana — one of the wettest states — caught on fire.  

The lowdown: Our actions today will determine just how bad climate change will become. But our emotions may hold the keys to pushing us to actually alter our behavior for the better.

• For a long time, scientists believed a hypothesis called the “finite pool of worry” limited how much action people were willing to take on climate change. The idea is that there’s only so much a person can worry about at a given time. 
  
  

• But there’s been a recent wrinkle in that theory. Polling did not find that concern about climate change shrank when the global Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020, as theorists would have expected; it actually grew.
  
  
• Lorraine Whitmarsh — an environmental psychologist at the University of Bath — co-authored a 2021 paper that found “very little evidence” to support the hypothesis on the finite pool of worry for climate change.

The stakes: All this means there might be more opportunities to get people to believe in and take action on the climate than previously thought.

Climate reporter Rebecca Leber spoke to Whitmarsh about how climate advocates might be able to use people’s emotions to influence their behavior when it comes to climate change. Rebecca learned that stoking fear or anger with doom and gloom maybe isn’t the way to go.

“We know emotions are a really important driver of people’s behavior,” Whitmarsh said. “But it is still true that while anger might motivate climate activism, which is one subset of behavior, we also need to engender some sense of hope and agency.”

Basically, perhaps climate activists can make the pool of worry a little bigger if they lean into the positives of making changes rather than the negatives of continuing down our current path.

Read the full interview here.

Yes, there is a Covid-19 spike!

Denis Novikov/Getty Images

It’s not in your head: People are getting sick with Covid again. Here’s what you need to know:

• Meet Eris and Fornax — the two variants driving the uptick in cases. The good news is that these variants likely won’t cause as big of a wave as previous ones, but protections from past infections or vaccinations are waning. [Vox]
  
  
• As Covid cases increase, so should mask usage. The old strategies we used to protect ourselves still work: masks, testing, and evaluating your risk when going to a social event. But right now, it’s up to individuals on how they want to protect themselves. [NPR]
  
  
• Booster guidance is still pretty confusing. The CDC is saying one thing, while other experts are saying another, and Americans are being forced to decide who to listen to. [Associated Press]
  
  
• You definitely still need to let others know if you get Covid. Because the virus can have long-term health consequences, communicating about positive infections remains important. [Vox]

#SeAcabo: Spain’s World Cup reckoning

Saying “it’s over,” Spain’s World Cup-winning women are using an unwelcome kiss to try to end sexism in sports.

• The US government is funding state-organized hunts of endangered animals, activists say. Species targeted include gray wolves and grizzly bears. [The Guardian]
  
  

• Student loan interest kicks back up this month, and repayments in October. Here are 12 tips to help you navigate the end of an era. [NPR]
  
  

• Trader Joe’s issues its sixth recall in two months. The grocer is recalling its Texas Gourmet Black Bean Tamales because they might contain milk allergens. [CNN]
  
  

• The military banned openly LGBTQ+ members during “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and denied honorable discharge to thousands. Now veterans are fighting for justice — and benefits. [The 19th]

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