Ordinary life and climate change from the prism of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
- Climate Change will negatively affect all types of Human needs.
- We can shift our approach in fulfilling our needs to mitigate these effects.
- As we recover from the present pandemic, this is right time to make the required changes.
The severity of any threat depends on the extent with which it affects us: will it cease us to exist? Will it be a minor inconvenience or a major disruption to our ordinary lives? The present outbreak has been former for some and latter for most of us. Similar effects, but on a much larger scale are expected from climate change. Looking around at the heavy loss of lives and livelihood around the world, it is clear COVID-19 is the tiger on the hunt, the immediate threat that we all have to deal with. Every time a deer senses a tiger nearby, it can only think about running from it. It cannot plan to do something to reduce the risk. Thanks to evolution, we humans can conceptualize about building a safe shelter even in the absence of immediate danger and in fact just in the in anticipation of the thunderclouds on the horizon, thus decreasing the risk significantly. While we are taking heavy damage due to the present crisis, it is clear that humanity will endure it albeit with some scars. The thunderclouds on the (not so far) horizon is climate change for which a shelter has to be prepared. Do not get me wrong, when I say the ‘horizon’, I do not mean that climate change is far. Human-induced climate change is happening now, at the very moment. It is the severe impacts of it that are at the horizon for the time being but only if you are not among the already impacted (Residents near Wildfires, Citizens of Tuvalu Islands). If we are feeling uneasy with the lockdown and disruptions from COVID-19 then it is the appropriate time to look ahead towards how climate change will affect our ordinary lives and what we can do to minimise it while we recover from the present battle.
Talking about the impact of any crisis on an ordinary life, because that is what we- the ‘myopic beings’ care most about — our daily life, we have to understand the why of it. Why do we want to do the things we do? Welcome Mr. Abraham Harold Maslow, eminent American Psychologist of 20th Century. In one of his most widely accepted works, Maslow theorizes that behind our every action lies a motivation based on an innate need to be satisfied. He categorized the needs and put them in an order of preference widely known as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. In brief, some of our most basic actions are a result of biological needs — Food, Water, Air, Sleep, etc. Then comes the need for safety, which include prevention of injury, emotional and physical health, financial stability, security. Next comes the social need for a sense of love and belonging, which manifest through giving and receiving care, love, friendship, and being part of a community. In the fourth group, Maslow puts the Esteem needs- respect, status, freedom, sense of accomplishment. The top of the hierarchy is the need for self-actualization. This is a subjective need, which depends on the person, but the common feature is, it results in a person striving towards realizing his/her full potential whichever domain it may be- a painter, a musician, a parent, or a human being.
Few facts:
1. Every human being strives to fulfill all these needs.
2. Not every need is to be fulfilled 100 % before moving on to next.
3. The movements towards the upper level are not linear and depending upon personality and life experiences people may move up or down.
Thus, our ordinary life is composed of actions, which satisfy our present set of needs and move towards next. To trust the above theory, you can take a moment to ponder about what all you are doing in daily life and does the above holds true to you.
The impact of COVID on our daily lives presents evidence that we cannot keep our needs isolated from a global crisis. In addition, the way in which individuals and various governments are dealing with it together presents hope on what is achievable with cooperation. For the common good, we are able to do things, which were not even conceivable few months back. With this understanding, let us see what challenges climate change will present in fulfilling our needs and how can we align our actions to avoid the unfavourable outcome while doing so.
In simple terms, climate change refers to the shift in long term weather patterns, which will result in an unfavourable climate increasing the risk of extreme weather, global sea-level rise, uncertainty in rainfall, among various other phenomena. While the earth’s climate changes naturally and gradually over time, the problem is with the extent and rate of this change due to greenhouse gases that the 21st-century human activities release. Since the start of industrialization, global temperatures have risen about 1®C and continue to rise at a rate which might result in 2®C rise by the end of the present century. While on the first look 2®C rise does not look quite much given our air conditioners will handle it without much trouble. However, there are many issues. Firstly, not everyone has the same resources that we have access to i.e many people already live and work in harsh climatic conditions, for whom this will be catastrophic. Secondly, though modern life makes us forget it, we all live in a very interconnected and interdependent world. The changes in climate will have long-lasting effects on many of Earth’s physical and biological systems, which will directly affect our lives. The first impact of climate change, which we will feel, will be to our physiological needs.
The air we breathe is turning polluted day by day. According to the World Health Organization, in 2018, 97% of cities in low- and middle- income countries do not meet the air quality guidelines. The higher temperature may also lead to more allergens, particulate matter, and increased level of surface ozone, a harmful air pollutant[i]. Water Scarcity- Climate Change disrupts the water cycle causing shifts in precipitation; some regions may receive higher rainfall than historical, causing floods while others may experience droughts. Cities around the world are uncertain about the water demand that they may experience due to climate change uncertainty. Due to increased melting of glaciers and snow, the mountainous regions around the world and plains dependent on them, first might experience floods followed by droughts. For instance, Climate change may lead to water shortages for 1.3 billion dependent on water melt from the Himalayas[ii]. Food- The increasing temperature and irregular precipitation will affect the crop yields, livestock, fisheries, and ultimately the food prices. In addition, increased atmospheric CO2 can also decrease the availability of macro and micro-nutrients in certain crops[iii].
The next level of our needs i.e. sense of Safety is also threatened: The science is clear that there will be more number of more extreme weather events as the climate changes like more severe cyclones, floods, wildfires, heatwaves, etc[iv]. increasing vulnerability of our physical safety. On an average 85 additional deaths per 100,000 will occur due to climate change, which will be more in low and middle-income countries[v]. Then there is not so much discussed the impact on mental health. Thirdly, financial security will be difficult to maintain, as the economy will be destabilized by stress on sectors like Agriculture, Energy, demographic shifts, and decreased workers’ productivity and health. This destabilization of the economy increases the desperation, resulting in an increased risk of Political Instability, Trade wars, Country Conflicts on the national level, and increased crimes on a sub-national level. A study at Harvard projected that the United States will experience an additional 35,000 murders, 216,000 cases of rape, 1.6 million aggravated assaults, 2.4 million simple assaults, 409,000 robberies, 3.1 million burglaries, 3.8 million cases of larceny, and 1.4 million cases of vehicle theft, compared to the total number of offenses that would have occurred between the years 2010 and 2099 in the absence of climate change[vi]. Similar will be projections of other countries due to the human nature.
Moving towards the impact on psychological needs of Love and Belonging, the research is still lacking but it is obvious that in a stressed economy and climate, social relations will also be impacted. The highest grief humans experience is related to their children, either their death or medical complications. Increased amount of Greenhouse gases negatively effect the prenatal and neonatal developments. Children will be particularly vulnerable to increased disease and mental health risk due to increased temperatures[vii].For adults, more ideological polarization will lead to a wider divide in people to increase the sense of belonging.
Similarly, the need for self-esteem will also become difficult to meet. The increased visible loss of life and harsh conditions around the world will either increase the sense of depression or apathy. Due to the desperate measures in dealing with the crisis, the individual may have to sacrifice much of the political freedom, rights, and say, leading to decreased esteem. As the individual feels more and more powerless to participate in reducing the suffering, he may lose the dignity and feel further disconnected from other members of society. Celebrities, Brands, and Material goods may try to provide them with an artificially constructed sense of belonging and esteem which might work for some people for some time.
In such times, working towards the highest and most surreal need of self-actualization would be both condescending as well as difficult, if not impossible for most people, due to increased hardships, threatened basic needs, and limited resources. Not many musicians will be going to reach their peak performance when the day job is uncertain and the audience is hungry. Or will they?
Thus, we can have a ‘rough’ picture of what the future might hold if the things go as they have been going. We all will have to suffer hardships just to fulfill even the basic needs. Those who work mindlessly, without compassion, towards building a personal citadel of greed might just face little inconvenience while the rest of the people drown. We might have personal air purifiers, climate controlled cities, luxury apartments touted with ‘green views and natural feeling’ but securing them would take much more hardship, numbing work, and time of our lives. These may prolong lives but it will render us isolated and unfulfilled for most part.
Dystopian? Maybe, but there is an option of moving towards a kinder future- using a different approach to meeting our needs while facing the challenges and building a better world. Though the opportunities are endless, I have exemplified few in the above figure. The first change is to be mindful while satisfying our physiological needs- What do we eat, consume, and buy? Where does it come from? What do we drive? What impact does it have? How much waste we generate? Where does that waste end up? That is to say for every action we do we have to ask is there a better alternative, which may cause less or no damage. Most of the time answer will be yes if you are determined. These changes are very much important and welcomed but they are not enough. It would be naive if you feel that by changing your lifestyle you have done your part. This is so because there are also multitudes of people who either do not want to shift because of inertia or cannot because they do not have alternatives. A person in a remote village may have to use an old polluting scooter because they do not have air-conditioned buses for commuting but most of us do have and if not, we can if we want.
Every person in addition to being an individual also plays many other roles in the society e.g parent, employer, employee, etc. but most importantly as a citizen. A citizen plays a role in shaping the world of tomorrow through his believes, opinions, and actions. Therefore, we should become a more active participant towards the government actions. If we are ourselves, aware of what the problem is and what needs to be done, we can have our communities organized for working towards a common solution, thus increasing our sense of security and belonging. The state of being aware and taking action in our capacity will also increase our sense of achievement, enhancing the self-esteem while meeting other levels of the hierarchy of needs. Next, we can focus the art we create, movies we make, stories we write, any medium we use to self-actualize to spread the message across to more people (Picasso’s well know painting Guernica was created during World War II to depict horrors of war). If any human is able to contribute as much as he/she can towards minimizing, the suffering of their fellow humans might undergo then surely, he/she will fulfil the highest need of self-actualization.
What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-actualization — A.H Maslow
In Conclusion:
The present virus has shown when the fear kicks in, the reptilian brain takes over and people hoard resources to increase the chance of survival. Thus, once past the tipping point we may not even care for the vulnerable people let alone other species of planet. Now that after the pause, we are starting again, this is the right time to act, to use new approach, to overcome the reptilian brain, practice altruism and use resources to accommodate many more lives (including other species) on this ride to future, to not only increase the chance of survival but also overall well-being. Would it not satisfy the needs of humanity?
[i] https://www.cdc.gov/climateandhealth/pubs/AIR-QUALITY-Final_508.pdf
[ii] https://www.bsu.edu/news/press-center/archives/2020/5/water-shortages-loom-for-1-3-billion-people
[iii] https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2019/09/a-brief-guide-to-the-impacts-of-climate-change-on-food-production/
[iv] https://earthjustice.org/blog/2019-july/how-climate-change-is-fueling-extreme-weather
[v] https://www.brookings.edu/research/ten-facts-about-the-economics-of-climate-change-and-climate-policy/
[vi] https://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/mrcbg/publications/awp/awp8
[vii] https://data.unicef.org/topic/climate-change/overview/
