How to Shift Mindsets on Climate (Without the Usual Doom and Gloom)

Today you’re never far away from a headline which talks about the climate and biodiversity emergency. We’re well versed, and arguably fatigued, with articles about rising levels of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere or declines in species diversity across the globe.

Yet, despite these alarming headlines, emissions are rising and rates of extinction increase. The majority of people, despite often having well-meaning intentions, continue to live as they have always done – and why shouldn’t they – or we (I count myself in this bracket)? The fact is, being ‘green’ is often seen as more expensive, less convenient, confusing or someone else’s problem.

The Systemic Challenge of Living Sustainably

The system we live in doesn’t make sustainable choices easy. It rewards speed, consumption, and short-term gains – our economy and lifestyle is locked into infrastructure, policies, and cultural norms that weren’t designed with planetary limits in mind.

A veg box of locally produced organic food is highly likely to cost you more than supermarket veg sourced all over the globe, public transport can be a gamble (especially if you live outside London!) and nature is something you drive to rather than live in, change can feel like a luxury—or a burden. Cycling to work on a wet February morning feels less appealing than a warm car, even if it means being stuck in traffic…. Equally we’re driven to consume the latest, newest and shiniest products when what we have already probably does us fine.

Beyond Cost and Convenience: The Missing Connection

But perhaps the deeper issue isn’t just convenience or cost. It’s connection.

For many of us, the climate and nature crises feel abstract—vast, global problems that exist somewhere else, happening to someone else. Over used cliché imagery of a melting glacier, a distant rainforest or a polar bear spring to mind. Significant, but far removed from the daily decisions of how we live, travel, eat, or build.

Rethinking How We Communicate Sustainability

Does this demonstrate that a shift in language—and thinking—is urgently needed? Undeniably more effective communication is needed to drive change.

Take for example the term ecosystem services. This term is used to describe the regulating, cultural and supporting services humans get from nature. It’s undeniably a useful framework, and it has helped policymakers and economists justify the protection of nature.

However, it doesn’t come without risk we reduce nature to a list of services, only valuable when it serves us. When this happens, we stop seeing nature as a living system and start seeing it as a resource bank.

Would we be better off using the term ‘egosystem’ for this approach, and would it focus minds more if we did?

From Ego to Eco: A Change in Perspective

Arguably a true ecosystems approach requires a shift in thinking which puts humans dominant at the top of a pyramid (as we often see in GCSE text books), but as an intrinsic part of a system with reciprocal relationships between all species.

I appreciate this might sound a bit far-fetched, but should we be re-framing our thoughts from how can I be greener? but how can I belong to the places I live in? Do we need to see sustainability not as a personal objective, but as a collective practice and that real change is less about swapping out products, and more about shifting our relationships—with time, land, community, and value.

Closing thoughts

If we can shift our mindset from ego to eco, then perhaps we can stop simply talking about the crisis—and start living our way into the solution.

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