Systems thinking and the narrative of climate change

Key players in the controversy over climate change appear to have difficulty moving the discussion past the existence and relative danger of the problem towards potential solutions. Instead, the discussion returns again and again to describing the problem, in greater and greater detail, with arguments stalling on various small pieces of the problem. Our inability to move past the problem to solutions is based in part on how the various critics frame the discussion. Critics on both sides of the issue are subject to a framing effect, where we house the problem mentally within the boundaries of the human economy. While opponents of climate change suffer from their own framing effect, this post focuses specifically on the proponents' framing effect. Those who advocate for policies to limit change make four main assumptions that impact their thinking . . . .