Facing Climate Change: An Integrated Path to the Future

by Jeffrey Kiehl

Overview

Facing Climate Change explains why people refuse to accept evidence of a warming planet and shows how to move past partisanship to reach a consensus for action. A climate scientist and licensed Jungian analyst, Jeffrey T. Kiehl examines the psychological phenomena that twist our relationship to the natural world and their role in shaping the cultural beliefs that distance us further from nature. He also accounts for the emotions triggered by the lived experience of climate change and the feelings of fear and loss they inspire, which lead us to deny the reality of our warming planet.

But it is not too late. By evaluating our way of being, Kiehl unleashes a potential human emotional understanding that can reform our behavior and help protect the Earth. Kiehl dives deep into the human brain's psychological structures and human spirituality's imaginative power, mining promising resources for creating a healthier connection to the environment—and one another. Facing Climate Change is as concerned with repairing our social and political fractures as it is with reestablishing our ties to the world, teaching us to push past partisanship and unite around the shared attributes that are key to our survival. Kiehl encourages policy makers and activists to appeal to our interdependence as a global society, extracting politics from the process and making decisions about our climate future that are substantial and sustaining.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231177184
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	03/01/2016
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jeffrey T. Kiehl is a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society. He is a recipient of the AGU Climate Communication Prize. He is also a senior Jungian analyst with the C. G. Jung Institute of Colorado, the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts, and the International Association for Analytical Psychology.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Part I. Changes
1. A Journey from Climate Science to Psychology
2. Learning to Embrace Change
3. Facing Our Fears Associated with Climate Change
Part II. Patterns
4. How Images Facilitate Transformation
5. Opposites and Our Relationship to Climate Change
6. Balancing the Opposites of Climate Change
Part III. Being
7. Exploring Our Being in the World
8. Beauty's Way in the World
9. Why Meaning Is Important to Being in the World
Part IV. Awakening
10. How Our Many Worlds Are Entwined
11. Recognizing the Importance of the Transpersonal
12. Awakening to One World
Epilogue
Further Reading
Index

What People are Saying About This

Mary Evelyn Tucker

Kiehl provides a moving account of the challenges of climate change that will engage a wide spectrum of readers. His ability to navigate the domains of natural and social sciences in a personal manner is rare and invaluable. This book articulates a way forward beyond fear and politics toward shared concern for our planetary future.

Dennis Hartman

Kiehl's work is a meditation on the human condition, bringing together science, Jungian psychology, and Buddhist philosophy. I don't know of any other book quite like this one.

Michael E. Mann

Facing Climate Change is a must-read for anyone concerned about human-caused climate change and how we get past the psychological barriers standing between us and a solution to this existential threat.

Benjamin Santer

There is nothing similar to Facing Climate Change in climate-science literature; it is unique. Jeffrey T. Kiehl calls on scientists to find their voices as humans, as citizens of this planet, to declare their moral and ethical values.

Editorial Reviews

The book does an incredible job of not only explaining the deep rooted psychology behind climate change denial, but also guides individuals and decision makers to repair the damage that has already been done.

Shore and Beach - Melis Okter

A fresh perspective on the climate crisis.... Kiehl finds a successful balance between brevity and substance

The book's personable style and interdisciplinary appraoch will interest readers with focuses ranging from psychology and spirituality to climate change.

Choice

Highly accessible.... A gift to the reader.

PsycCritiques

2015-12-20
Psychology provides an answer to the question of why so little has been done to address the problem of climate change. A senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and a senior Jungian analyst at the C.G. Jung Institute of Colorado, Kiehl asserts that to transform the world, we must first transform ourselves. He sees four paths to transformation: science, which provides the facts; Jungian psychology, which helps us understand why we fear change; philosophy, which prompts us to ask questions about our way of being in the world; and Buddhism, which grounds us in awareness, providing the tools for change. For those unfamiliar with Jungian psychology, the author provides a helpful introduction. He spends little time on the science, rather more on the psychological defenses against anxiety over change (interestingly, denial is one of the prevalent defenses), and even more on the need to bring balance within ourselves and to the planet. "We need to balance opposites in addressing this problem," he writes, "the opposites of thinking with feeling, and sensing with intuition, the balance of outer and inner, masculine and feminine." To live a balanced life requires understanding the nature of our being in the world, which is the subject of Part III, "Being," the most abstract portion of the book. There, Kiehl urges readers to "walk a path of authenticity" and thereby become "open…to inner and outer beauty." At times, the author brings himself into the narrative, describing his experiences of interconnectedness and aesthetic wonderment at the world around him. As he writes, technology alone is not the solution; empathy and compassion for one another and for the world are necessary. In this slim book, Kiehl argues that social problems such as climate change should be viewed from a more comprehensive psychological perspective, an approach that practical-minded policymakers may regard as touchy-feely and impractical.

Kirkus Reviews