Week 42: What Does Ecclesiastes Have to Do with the Sustainable Transition?

Dear all,

Divergence feels almost tangible—sharp edges, rough corners, a coarse surface. I dread discussions about physical climate risks within the financial industry. Every time I encounter these unsettling conversations, there's a sense of looming danger. It's often framed as something distant, a concern for the future—something to worry about later, perhaps for someone else to bear. It’s like people sitting in a burning theater, casually discussing the risk of fire, describing exit routes to one another.

There’s a certain comfort in privilege, but it comes with the heavy burden of the harm it brings to those less fortunate around the world. What’s the point of these conversations? What do we truly want to change, and do we have the resolve to do it? For whom do the bells toll? Sometimes, you must close your eyes to truly see. This is what people (picture below) can see—not what they feel. How did we lose touch with that?

People are generally very driven to avoid dangers. For example, if you're walking down a dark, empty street, you become more alert to any unusual sounds or sights, likely speeding up to reach a busier area. If a bus suddenly comes toward you, you instinctively jump out of the way. If an unfamiliar, aggressive dog is growling outside your door, you stay inside. So, if people are naturally inclined to avoid threats to their safety, why is it so difficult to motivate action on climate change?

The reason is that ignoring climate change offers short-term advantages for both individuals and organizations. For individuals, it means they don't have to change their cars, adjust their buying habits, or rethink their living situations. For companies, it allows them to continue producing goods at lower costs without investing in new technologies to reduce emissions. Similarly, governments can cut immediate costs by sticking to traditional, combustion-based power generation, rather than investing in more sustainable, long-term solutions like green energy, even when those are more cost-effective over time.

Second, climate change is a nonlinear problem. People are generally good at making judgments about linear trends. For example, if you spend $5 a day on coffee, it's easy to estimate how that affects your weekly budget without needing a spreadsheet. Research on construal level theory suggests that people conceptualize things that are psychologically distant from them (in time, space, or social distance) more abstractly than things that are psychologically close. When weather disasters that are likely related to climate change (such as wildfires or extreme storms) occur, they often happen far from where most people live. As a result, most people don't have to confront the specifics of climate change and can instead view it as an abstract concept. And abstract concepts simply don’t motivate people to act as strongly as concrete ones do.

The future is always more uncertain than the present. This is one reason why people tend to value the present much more. After all, if you save a lot of money for retirement, there's no guarantee that you’ll live long enough to enjoy it. In the case of climate change, skeptics argue that it’s uncertain whether human activity will have the severe consequences some experts have projected.

In the book of Ecclesiastes, the writer—whoever that may have been—declares that life has no meaning, that evil is rewarded and goodness is punished. Even the most honorable person can be left to die in the street, while the greediest fool receives a eulogy and a proper burial. Regardless of its origin and the various interpretations in the Old Testament, the piercing messages in this book are as relevant as ever. It is a thought-provoking text that offers profound insights into wisdom, the human condition, and the pursuit of a meaningful life. Through reflections on sorrow, the limits of human understanding, the dangers of extremes, and the elusiveness of righteousness, it delves deeply into the essence of what it means to be human. Highly recommended reading if you have an interest and some spare time.