As Stamford High Students, we are constantly hearing mentions about climate change, but never really stopping to think about it. We are wrapped up in our own lives–grades, friends, and college admissions. Yet it is impossible to ignore the sweltering summers, the news stories of hurricanes and wildfires, and the yellow skies last year. Therefore it’s inevitable for climate change to cross our minds, and for some, to evoke fear for our future. But when we do think about climate change, are we even thinking about it right? 

Around 36,000 car crashes occur every day. And yet, every day, we get in our cars without fear. Why? Despite our knowledge of the danger, we simply think “this won’t happen to me.” This is called optimism bias, the tendency to assume we are more likely to have positive experiences than negative ones. In terms of climate change, it causes us to form a false sense of safety. This is a cognitive bias, and there are numerous cognitive biases warping our perception of the world, and of the climate crisis.

There is availability bias, the tendency to consider events in our memory more probable, therefore, those who have not experienced extreme weather events will underestimate the probability of experiencing one. Also, there is confirmation bias, which causes us to cherry pick information to confirm our preexisting beliefs, confirming to ourselves false notions about the severity of the climate crisis. There is planning bias, causing us to underestimate the cost, time and effort necessary to end the use of fossil fuels. There is status quo bias, which is a preference for maintaining the way things are; we somehow think maintaining our societal suicide is preferable to implementing a green revolution. 

There’s another phenomenon I have noticed in my personal life, which is my tendency to think about climate change, not in its entirety. I spend my day-to-day researching climate policy and hearing about individual events such as hurricanes Helene and Milton, but ignoring the larger picture: the fact that humans have existed in an environment with conditions suited to sustain our species, but over merely a few decades we have performed a global geoengineering project. We are changing the environment that we live in. I believe the reason behind this viewpoint is the inability for humans to consider things at such a scale.

Here is a thought activity, imagine the end of the universe. Immediately you will pose the question: “then what is beyond the end?” Perhaps then the universe is infinite. When imagining  the infinite universe, immediately you ask, “when does it end?” This is a paradox that can only be answered with lots of questions, demonstrating the inability of the human brain to think beyond that, being forever confined to this loop.

There are things so large that the human brain simply cannot understand them. And though climate change is not so large as to become an unsolvable thought paradox, it is at the scale of the environment we exist within, including every system both natural and human made. This is difficult to think about, because climate change affects the fundamental conditions of our society.

Not only is it a large-scale issue, the future is uncertain. This isn’t because the science is unsure, rather it’s due to climate projections being dependent on human inputs of greenhouse gasses. The range of possible outcomes makes us feel overwhelmed, and makes it hard for people to understand exactly how climate change will affect us. 

Of course, we have tools like metaphors and observable data to help us wrap our heads around the scale and uncertainty of climate chaos. But, I believe that we will never be able to fully comprehend it. Hence, the bias mentioned before, as well as, what we pick up from our surroundings, shaping our understanding of it. As a result, we develop opinions and different mindsets to process the climate crisis. 

Some will develop what is called “climate apathy,” defined as the “subjective evaluation of individuals towards climate change, representing an attitudinal tendency.”  Simply, people with this mindset won’t consider the climate crisis important. However, some will take on an attitude of doomerism, thinking of the climate crisis as an inevitable course to an apocalypse. Ironically, climate doomers will end up at the same place: apathy.

But what if we were to think about the climate crisis with an optimistic mindset. A simple fact to consider is that while humans are poorly adapted to live in a world with one degree of warming, it is even worse at two degrees, and worse still at three, four, five degrees of warming. Every degree, every tenth of a degree that we can limit climate change to is a planet that is much more hospitable. We don’t have to understand climate change to know what we need to do about it. We need to come together as a community and fight to end the use of fossil fuels.

The fact that coral reefs will most likely become extinct, and that West Antarctica may soon reach a tipping point of collapse are terrifying ideas to consider. But, while there is fear for our future, there is also hope. That hope can, and must, become a cause for action. Our generation has become increasingly reduced by climate ‘doomerism’. 

As the youth of today, we should be taking the opposite approach, and use our hope and our fear about our future, to prompt us into action. With this in mind, I started a club- Fridays for Future Stamford, FFF. We are a climate activist club. So far we have attended a youth climate strike in NYC, we are planning a bake sale to support those affected by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton. We plan to start school strikes and advocate for climate legislation. We meet on Thursdays in Mrs. Karlson’s room, and you can find more information on our Instagram. If you are someone who thinks about climate change through the lens of taking action, FFF Stamford is an opportunity for you. And there are many more opportunities to get involved, from beach cleanups with Save the Sound to advocacy with Sierra Club. If you are looking to get involved, I would recommend joining a climate organization with priorities that are meaningful to you. Our thoughts must lead to action.