{"id":552,"date":"2026-03-06T10:19:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T23:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aninconvenientspecies.com\/?p=552"},"modified":"2026-03-06T10:19:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T23:19:14","slug":"fear-overwhelm-denial-just-add-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aninconvenientspecies.com\/?p=552","title":{"rendered":"Fear + overwhelm = denial - just add action..."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>A sad truth about our Inconvenient Species is that fear by itself typically DOES NOT generate behaviour change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This reality  - known by most public health educators - but for some reason ignored by way too many sustainability advocates is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\"What's the persuasive alchemy that allows a communicator to trouble recipients deeply about the negative outcome of their bad habits <strong>without pushing them to deny the problem<\/strong> in an attempt to control their now-heightened fears? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The communicator has only to add to the chilling message<strong> clear information about legitimate, available steps the recipients can take <\/strong>to change their health-threatening habits.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Robert Cialdini, PRE-SUASION (2016)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It's why anti-smoking educators put QUIT links on their \"terrible future\" messaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But how often do you see this simple thing done on a climate disaster message?  Or a species loss message?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And if it is there, how often is it anything more than \"lobby politicians and consume less\" - and does that actually qualify as \"clear information about \"clear information about legitimate, available steps the recipients can take\"?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyone who's looked in a supermarket rubbish skip, or observed their national government's progress on environmental policy in 2026 has GOT to question the legitimacy of those \"steps\".<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And with 30 years of solutions development, commercialisation and scaling, <a href=\"https:\/\/leighbaker.com.au\/solutions-links-for-regenerative-actionists\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">there are hundreds of great options<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So if you want more systems change, faster from our change-avoidant human systems, then see what you can do to add solutions links to disaster porn you come across.  (And find a practical, systems-level action you can contribute to today.)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A sad truth about our Inconvenient Species is that fear by itself typically DOES NOT generate behaviour change. This reality - known by most public health educators - but for some reason ignored by way too many sustainability advocates is: \"What's the persuasive alchemy that allows a communicator to trouble recipients deeply about the negative [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Fear + overwhelm = denial - just add action... - An Inconvenient Species<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/aninconvenientspecies.com\/?p=552\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fear + overwhelm = denial - just add action... - An Inconvenient Species\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A sad truth about our Inconvenient Species is that fear by itself typically DOES NOT generate behaviour change. This reality - known by most public health educators - but for some reason ignored by way too many sustainability advocates is: &quot;What&#039;s the persuasive alchemy that allows a communicator to trouble recipients deeply about the negative [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/aninconvenientspecies.com\/?p=552\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"An Inconvenient Species\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-05T23:19:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/aninconvenientspecies.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/pexels-ivan-s-9628826-scaled-e1772751345875.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1740\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Leigh Baker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Leigh Baker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/aninconvenientspecies.com\\\/?p=552#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/aninconvenientspecies.com\\\/?p=552\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Leigh Baker\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/aninconvenientspecies.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/73c54d547e929d40175f489ae4e89794\"},\"headline\":\"Fear + overwhelm = denial - 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