Climate Change III
Emotional, but precise were the words of Greta Thunberg at the UN last week. “People are suffering. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction. And all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you?” The current climatic emergency and sustainability crisis will not be resolved within the limits of the system that generated it. In fact, although "natural" scientists have been, are and will be fundamental to show the physical effects of human behavior, they may have fewer tools when what we need is to understand this behavior (Gus Speth).
In traditional economics, this behavior is assumed as a rational choice, with which it treats human physical bodies, their needs, their psychology and their actions as irrelevant (J. Nelson, 2004). In fact, this area gives little guidance. on how to limit the use of fossil fuels, except based on the preferences expressed in the markets or quasi-markets, emphasizing almost exclusively in the optimal allocation through prices and property rights.
However, experimental studies of behavioral economics, the evolutionary game theory and the neuroscience have established that human choice is a social phenomenon, not an individual one (Gowdy, 2004, 2005). It has been discovered that humans regularly exhibit a sense of justice that depends on context, and are willing to enforce cultural norms even at an economic cost (which makes altruism work). In fact, punishing those who do not cooperate stimulates pleasure centers in the brain (Vogel, 2004). That is, the experiments show that homo-economicus is not compatible with any culture studied (Henrich et al, 2001). Moreover, evidence from animal studies indicates that they act more in accordance with the economic model of rational choice than humans (Harper, 1982). Other experimental studies show that monetary incentives can be an impediment to cooperative behavior (Frey, 1997): paying blood donors significantly reduces blood donations (Titmuss, 1971).
Gowdy (2008) states that, just as the ethic of "consumption as happiness" was installed in our culture through rewards and incentives that favored "economic growth" and the burning of fossil fuels. Now, social policies must emphasize aspects that tend to cooperation, non-materialistic values and a shared sense of urgency. The societies where these aspects are the ones that prevail will be, as historically it has been in humanity, the ones that can best face this crisis and Chile, has a long way to go in this regard.
