Awe can alter our sense of self and open us to new possibilities – could it help save the planet?
- Written by Nanda Jarosz, Executive Officer, University of Sydney
Arnold Schwarzenegger recently made the claim[1] that climate change has an image problem. He railed against what he thinks is an overemphasis on degrowth and bad optics:
As long as they keep talking about global climate change, they are not gonna go anywhere. ‘Cause no one gives a s*** about that. So my thing is, let’s go and rephrase this and communicate differently about it and really tell people we’re talking about pollution. Pollution creates climate change, and pollution kills.
Whether or not a rebranding exercise will be enough to shift perceptions is as yet unclear. But calls to recognise the power of emotions to drive change[2] are becoming increasingly relevant in motivating action.
In his new book Awe: The Transformative Power of Everyday Wonder[3], psychologist Dacher Keltner claims emotions like awe “unite us into something larger than the self” and can lead to a better relationship with the natural world.
But what exactly is awe and how can emotions help us save the planet?
Review: Awe: The Transformative Power of Everyday Wonder – Dacher Keltner (Allen Lane)
The science of emotions
For a long time, attempts to understand the mind’s responses to reality were grounded in experimental psychology[4]. This involved focusing attention on the internal mental processes at the heart of human behaviour.
Dacher Keltner.
Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-NC-SA[12]
The implications for approaching the world through a systems-thinking framework are wide-ranging. Understanding how environmental processes influence each other has consequences for environmental sustainability. For example, instead of building more dams as part of a flood prevention strategy, a systems-thinking solution would be to preserve and restore wetlands that act as sponges during floods.
A more holistic approach to environmental systems governance can yield better outcomes by moving away from individual interests towards decisions that maintain and support interdependent relationships.
The key is to identify the intricate relationships between natural phenomena to seek solutions that operate successfully within existing environmental conditions. Instead of observing and analysing entities and processes individually, systems thinking leads to a greater awareness of the fragile interdependencies that constitute all life on earth.
Keltner observes that many Indigenous civilisations have long operated with a systems-thinking approach:
Systems thinking, it is worth noting, is at the heart of an Indigenous science now thousands of years old. It is an old, big idea. It may be our species’ big epiphany.
As a result of generations of cultural erasure, much of this knowledge has been lost or destroyed, but Keltner believes it is still possible to experience the world with a sense of awe:
Mysteries awaken us to systems. Look to the sky and listen for migrations of birds. Follow the tides. Watch the growth of a seedling and its relationship to the earth.
Read more:
Saving humanity: here's a radical approach to building a sustainable and just society[13]
Cultivating awe
Keltner also considers the ways that culture represents and shapes our experiences of awe in the form of music, visual art, religion and spirituality. Many of the examples he gives emphasise the importance of discovery:
In musical awe we hear the voices and feel the sounds of our culture. We recognise, we understand, our individual identity within something larger, a collective identity, a place, and a people.
The key is not to extract more from the world. Instead, Keltner thinks awe can help unlock truths within ourselves that are buried by external forces, such as capitalism and economics, reorienting us away from a self-serving, hyper-individualistic and materialistic characterisation of human nature. Cultivating awe leads to an awareness of interconnectedness. It encourages people to engage with activities and experiences that force then to think about humanity’s place in nature as being part of a much larger whole:
In our narration of experiences of awe in these symbolic traditions, a clear motif emerges: our individual self gives way to the boundary-dissolving sense of being part of something much larger.
Keltner does not make any claims for how emotion can motivate positive action. Living a life filled with awe does not guarantee an ethical approach to nature, nor is there any proof that encouraging others to approach the world with wonder will lead to action on climate change. But the practical examples and observations of awe provided in this book suggest that emotions do transform perceptions and can lead to meaningful change.
The epiphany of awe is that its experience connects our individual selves with the vast forces of life. In awe we understand we are part of many things that are much larger than the self.
At very least, these examples of awe serve as a testament to the power of nature to move the human spirit, and if that is not enough to motivate greater care for the environment, then perhaps nothing is.
References^ made the claim (www.cbsnews.com)^ calls to recognise the power of emotions to drive change (www.theguardian.com)^ Awe: The Transformative Power of Everyday Wonder (www.penguin.com.au)^ experimental psychology (imotions.com)^ cognitive revolution (www.cs.princeton.edu)^ behaviourism (plato.stanford.edu)^ Paul Ekman (www.paulekman.com)^ emotional intelligence (www.simplypsychology.org)^ The wonders and terrors of modern technology evoke the ancient concept of the sublime, and present us with a choice (theconversation.com)^ a study (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)^ another study (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)^ CC BY-NC-SA (creativecommons.org)^ Saving humanity: here's a radical approach to building a sustainable and just society (theconversation.com)
