The psychiatrist and social commentator, Robert Jay Lifton had a far reaching and oddly hopeful op-ed in the New York Times, in which he comments upon a “climate swerve” in public opinion. While the United States still leads the world in climate denial and Republicans are seemingly still united around denying the human contribution to climate destabilization, Lifton points out that recent polls have shown that:
“Americans’ certainty that the earth is warming has increased over the past three years”
And
“those who think global warming is not happening have become substantially less sure of their position”
Lifton outlines the social psychology of the moment:
“Falsification and denial, while still all too extensive, have come to require more defensive psychic energy and political chicanery”
