Please join the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions for an event with psychologist and economist Per Espen Stoknes, featuring his new book, What We Think About When We Try Not to Think About Global Warming.Open to the public. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. 

Book Description

The more facts that pile up about global warming, the greater the resistance to them grows, making it harder to enact measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prepare communities for the inevitable change ahead.

Rich in story and examples, Stoknes reviews recent psychological research and explores emerging strategies for how to overcome this paradox. A more compassionate climate communication can now rely on approaches that employ the power of social networks, reframing, nudging, storytelling and better climate response indicators. Also, the acknowledgement of grief, helplessness and despair can be a deep source of motivation for a grounded hope. Stoknes seeks to answer the fundamental questions: Is humanity up to the task? Or are we humans inescapably locked into short-termism?

 In What We Think About When We Try Not to Think About Global Warming, Stoknes not only masterfully identifies the five main psychological barriers to climate action, but addresses them with five strategies for how to talk about global warming in a way that creates action and solutions, not further inaction and despair.

About Per Espen Stoknes

Per Espen Stoknes is a psychologist and an economist. An entrepreneur, he has cofounded clean-energy companies, and he spearheads the BI Norwegian Business School’s executive program on green growth. He has previously worked both as a clinical and organizational psychologist and as an advisor in scenario planning to a wide range of major national and international businesses, government agencies, and nonprofit institutions. His research interests include climate and environmental strategies, economic psychology, and energy systems. Teaching areas include green growth, foresight and corporate strategy, behavioral economics and expressive arts. He has written three books, including Money and Soul. He lives in Oslo, Norway.

For more information on this event contact Courtney St. John,cstjohn@ei.columbia.edu.

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