Empathy For Sustainability

I really believe that the key to a sustainable future world is empathy. Before people begin to share what they have with others that have less, I think they must be able to empathize with those people. And I think their is a huge barrier there, because the lives of others are often vastly different than our own. But if we can't relate, I don't think we will be inclined to give.

I think empathy is the key to sustainability. If we could all empathize better with the communities that are now feeling the negative effects of climate change, we would not be so slow to make life style changes and give up some of our excesses.

The problem is, we often have trouble empathizing with even our future selves, let alone people across the ocean from us. I think of drinking to excess or eating to excess or staying up all night as prime examples. We know that we won't feel good in the morning. We know that we will feel bloated and slow. We know that there are very real negative health effects to many of our behaviors, yet we do them anyway. Why?

We get drunk and don't worry about the morning's hangover, because that's someone else's problem, that is the problem of tomorrow-Nick. And current-Nick is having a blast. Current-Nick can't get enough of that cake because there is just so much immediate gratification when that sugar hits my tongue. And current-Nick doesn't care that tomorrow-Nick has to get up early, tonight, current-Nick is living it up.

So we can barely empathize with ourselves enough to make sustainable life style choices, how can we possibly empathize with ourselves in the far future when we might start to be more effected by climate change? And how could we possibly empathize with others who live such drastically different and unrelatable lives; how could we get ourselves to make life style changes for the good of others when we can't even motivate change for our future selves??