Energy and Human Ambitions on a Finite Planet, 2021a

20 Adaptation Strategies 330
debate or a hearing, <strong>and</strong> see how the event is covered by various news
sources. Does the coverage 3 reflect the event as you experienced it?
Did it focus on the key developments or on distractions that might be
emotionally “triggering?”
Entertainment is another source/activity that can influence mindsets
in subtle ways. For example, the grossly simplified <strong>and</strong> virtual world
of video games promotes a false sense of what is possible—rather than
helping model responses to real-world challenges, constrained by many
layers of practical considerations. Reaching level 42 without suffering
too many damage points is a fairly empty accomplishment 4 that just
means having followed some game designer’s artificial <strong>and</strong> arbitrary
rule set pretty well, combined with some skill in pressing buttons. More
impressive is building or creating something, repairing something, or
having some beneficial impact in the external world that would not
otherwise have happened.
Likewise for movies <strong>and</strong> shows, which can provide healthy joy <strong>and</strong>
social bonding. But because the industry is not constrained to follow
rules of nature, it is easy to form dangerous misconceptions about what
humans are capable of doing. 5 As a result, not only does the likelihood
of disappointment increase, but the necessary sort of deliberate <strong>and</strong>
unglamorous work that must be initiated well before crisis becomes
apparent is less likely to materialize if the populace is trained to hold
out for unrealistic <strong>and</strong> spectacularly successful outcomes. 6
20.2 Communication
3: Boring coverage turns out to be a decent
indicator of accuracy!
4: Sure, some games aim to improve cognitive
skills, which could transfer to real-world
application. Is this the most effective path
to making a difference?
5: ...a space-faring future; an untrained
hero saving the world; the message that
anything can be built—just awaiting a genius
idea from an unlikely source
6: . . . jet packs, flying cars, fusion power,
Mars colonization, teleportation, food replication,
<strong>and</strong> warp drive—always just in time
In a democracy, collective public awareness drives the issues politicians
serve. Only by having voters dem<strong>and</strong> action will progress follow.
Conversations with friends <strong>and</strong> family then become necessary to raise
awareness among others. Effective communication that accomplishes
this goal without turning people off is tricky. When the message contains
bad news or suggests sacrifice, the effort can easily backfire.
It is important not to polarize the conversation by “bossing” people or
projecting a sense of authority. An effective strategy is to fairly represent
uncertainty, while still conveying credible concern. Caveats like “it seems
that,” or “it appears to me that,” or “I may be wrong, but” go a long
way to taking the edge off of the message <strong>and</strong> inviting the listener
into a constructive conversation. It is possible to couch the language in
uncertainty while still hitting the main points. Words like “possible,”
“likely,” “plausible,” <strong>and</strong> “risk” can be useful to soften the tone but still
express concern.
Division in the U.S. is frighteningly high right now, so that distrust is a
real barrier to sharing a common factual basis. The communication needs
to be “we,” not “you.” For instance, “we really should be concerned
© 2021 T. W. Murphy, Jr.; Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Lic.;
Freely available at: https://escholarship.org/uc/energy_ambitions.