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Posted Fri Feb 20 2009: from Michigan Technical University, via EurekAlert:
Abandon hope http://apocadocs.com/s.pl?1235170535
Do you "hope" that everyone will see the light and start living more sustainably to save the environment? If so, you may be doing more harm than good.... For decades, say Vucetich and Nelson, we have been hammered by the ceaseless thunder of messages predicting imminent environmental cataclysm: global climate change, air and water pollution, destruction of wildlife habitat, holes in the ozone. The response of environmentalists—from Al Gore to Jane Goodall—to this persistent message of hopelessness has focused on the need to remain hopeful. But hope may actually be counter-productive, Vucetich and Nelson suggest. "I have little reason to live sustainably if the only reason to do so is to hope for a sustainable future, because every other message I receive suggests that disaster is guaranteed," they explain. People are hearing radically contradictory messages:
  • Scientists present evidence that profound environmental disaster is imminent.
  • It is urgent to live up to an extremely high standard of sustainable living.
  • The reason to live sustainably is that doing so gives hope for averting disaster.
  • Yet disaster is inevitable....
"Instead of hope, we need to provide young people with reasons to live sustainably that are rational and effective," they say. "We need to lift up examples of sustainable living motivated by virtue more than by a dubious belief that such actions will avert environmental disaster."
[Read more stories about: lived experience, sustainability]

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'Doc Michael says:
I hope we can abandon hope. At least, I hope I think so. Or think I hope so.

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