The entire time I was reading about the cognitive dissonance theory I could not help thinking about the environmentally destructive behavior people have developed in the past century and the recent research claiming their behavior is wrong. This must have aroused an extreme amount of dissonance in most people who have been living in environmentally destructive ways. While it is evident that change has started to come about and there is definitely pressure to continue this movement towards a sustainable world, I wonder what kind of cognitive changes people have been making to cope with their past behavior. Are they discrediting the evidence as false? Are they claiming to enjoy destroying the environment that has given them so much? These questions and many more will have to be answered by the numerous numbers of people who are beginning to feel dissonance as we continue to move down the path toward sustainability.
Hopefully as more and more people begin to feel cognitive dissonance about their past behavior they will attempt to eliminate their destructive behavior, but as with smoking and weight loss, this may not be possible. We can only hope for that those who try and succeed outweigh the number of those who try and fail. If that does not turn out to be the case, we will find ourselves in a world full of excuses and justification. This world will not only lack beauty, resources, and other things that contribute to our current quality of life, but will eventually cease to exist.
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