ABSTRACT
Climate change is the most pressing problem that we face, or have ever faced. Science tells us how severe this problem is and what effect it is going to have on our planet. Many campaigns have been tried without any real success to change this. There also seems to be a very severe disconnect between the reported attitudes of those who do believe in climate change and want to do something, and their subsequent actions. The authors consider cognitive and social biases, and how people maintain that warm glow of optimism in the light of compelling scientific evidence that spells out the devastating effects of climate change. They discuss certain distinct sets of cognitive processes, and the difficulty with much of the psychological work underpinning climate change campaigns, and carbon labelling and all that great advice about reducing carbon footprint, is that this basic fact has not been recognised.
