Title: Psychosocial Barriers to Sustainability and Environmental Learning and Action
Headings: Psychosocial Barriers to Sustainability and Environmental Learning and Action
Psychosocial Barriers to Sustainability and Environmental Learning and Action
1. Denial, Guilt and Neurobiology
2. Misperceptions — Or Are They "Mythperceptions"?
3. The "I'm-Not-An-Expert" Barrier
4. "Bahala na" — Lack of Concern for the Future
5. Confusion, Fear and Disempowerment

Content: Indeed, I remember reading about a neurobiology discovery that "the brain turns off when people cannot anticipate a positive future" [56]. Guilt becomes a barrier when it is draining and oppressive [88], when it serves as "a palliative for the conscience of the consumer class" [29], and when it takes the place of action, its source not fully recognized, as ecopsychologist Terrance O'Connor's equation illustrates: " The equation here is: doing nothing plus feeling guilty about it equals doing something. Action is called for, but action motivated by guilt may only compound the problem. We are in disharmony with the world because we are in disharmony with ourselves" [66]. According to neurologist Robert Ornstein and biologist Paul Ehrlich [67], human nature is often blamed for people not taking action on environmental problems. But, they explain, the human nervous system is to blame, because it cannot easily perceive slow changes, long-term implications, or multiple connections. Chris Argyris explains that psychologically, people don't have to pay attention to "the deeper issues until the counterproductive forces are so powerful that they inhibit even routine performance" [4]. Wackernagel and Rees believe that this "reductionist propensity to focus on mere symptoms of problems or on individual events," together with the way the human brain works, leads to the "boiled frog syndrome": "