In fact, the pressures we exert on the planet have become so great that scientists are considering whether the Earth has entered an entirely new geological epoch: the Anthropocene, or the age of humans. It means that we are the first people to live in an age defined by human choice, in which the dominant risk to our survival is ourselves.¹

The dominant risk to the survival of humanity–and possibly any galactic intelligent life–is self-annihilation. One example of the major problems in the world, perhaps “the biggest problem facing humanity and our species as a whole,” is climate change.

The challenge of thinking about climate change is that it’s “wildly complex,” with a vast span in space and time. The time span leads many Americans think of climate change as a distant problem–distant in time because the impacts won’t be felt for a generation or more. These challenges, of complexity and time span, are related to how we think. How many people are able to take on the challenge of thinking about climate change?

Complexity

Innovation and technology impact socio-economic systems. The overview to The Next Frontier: Human Development and the Anthropocene, a Human Development Report, mentions in various places the characteristics of these impacts:

• complex,
• dynamic,
• interconnected,
• interdependent,
• multidimensional, and
• non-linear.

Approaching technological impacts as independent and isolated problems, solved by nation-states without shared institutional decision-making, can lead to dangerous unintended consequences.²

The systems and complexity thinking in this Human Development Report is the kind of thinking that comes with later adult development and requires a shifts in thinking. As we grow through the stages of adult development, we think in more complex, systemic, strategic, and interdependent ways.³

Time Span

As we develop as adults, we also think differently about time. Along with increasing wisdom comes increasing foresight and ability to act in the moment.

The easiest change to see is the time spans that preoccupy our conscious thoughts. These time spans affect our work life, beginning with the interview question “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” In fact, the level of responsibility of an organizational role can be measured in terms of the target completion time of the longest task, project, or program assigned to that role.⁴

As we mature, our relationship to time changes in other ways as well. Responses to mature adult or leadership profiles show shifts from the routine to the strategic, from the literal to the symbolic.

Photo by Benjamin Lim on Scopio

Layer Cake of Society

If the deeper wisdom and understanding of later levels of development could help with thinking about climate change, how many people are able to take on the challenge? Susanne R. Cook-Greuter’s 1999 study of 4510 United States adults⁹ shows the thickness of the various layers⁵ in the “layer cake of society.”¹⁰

Studies like these suggest that the portion of adults with a complex worldview and an intergenerational perspective is small.

Conclusion and Personal Note

Adult development research consequently has at least two implications for meeting the challenge of climate change in particular and the existential risk of Anthropocene in general:

1. We would do well to have later-stage thinkers as decision-makers, researchers, and strategists.
2. Communication of existential risk, however, could be targeted toward earlier-stage perspectives.

My time seems short in comparison to the time required to sustain life and make a contribution to the well-being of my species and our planet–lasting peace, valuing of culture, and sustainable relationship to our environment. Sometimes I wish that I had been better with my time on this planet so far, and there were more time left here for me personally–but who am I, anyway?

Notes