A Revolution In Imagination

“A symptom of how underdeveloped our sociological imagination is relative to our ecological imagination is the recent finding that more Americans can imagine the “end of the world” than can envision a switch from using fossil fuels or an economic order other than capitalism.”

           

This week’s reading by Kari Marie Norgaard, “Climate Change Is a Social Issue,” explains that an ecological imagination is no longer enough for the world we live in today and rather an imagination that looks at the sociological outcomes is just as essential. We have seen and heard about impacts on the earth’s systems due to human actions but we have never really looked deeper into the relationships that are making up this degrading social structure. Norgaard calls for more sociological theories and insights as she states, “When individuals are detached from their social context, we cannot account for where values or beliefs come from, and thus how they might actually change.” By only listening to scientific experts, we are missing the whole picture on how society itself can change course.

           

One question I felt was very important to me was when Norgaard brought up the increase in amount of wildfires and she basically said, “What is this going to mean in your lifetime?” Yes, we have policies that have been implemented, and have recently reached a new agreement, but once the damage is done, have we really fixed the issue? Is it already too late? Do we want to live in a scorched world with climate change policies only implemented afterwards by government as a result of what happened? A world run by the government? Or rather a world where individuals are taken into context? Where values and beliefs are engaged in the conversation? Where we are able to see this social structure at its core and know exactly what to do even at the local level before the issue takes root? This sociological imagination is a new form of seeing that can make it possible to imagine ecological changes transitioning into social, political, and economic outcomes, can reroute society down the right path, and get rid of this “end of the world” mentality.