Change and the climate crisis: Aligning urgency and agency

Abstract

Opinions of the enormity of the climate crisis range from President Trump’s denial (Jacobson, 2016) to the belief that we are experiencing the sixth mass extinction (Ceballos, Ehrlich, & Dirzo, 2017). In November 2016 on New Zealand television, Emeritus Professor Guy McPherson stated he could not imagine a human left on the planet in ten years, and that was three years ago (Newshub, 2016). More recently he has stated, “To put it simply, our fate as a species is sealed. We’re headed for extinction in the very near term” (McPherson, 2018, para. 20). These perspectives are poles apart on a continuum of opinion. The deniers are not motivated to reduce climate crisis drivers, while others on the continuum face the dilemma of how to respond.