A follow up to last week’s post on denial and the lizard brain I last week’s post I wrote that: …politicians, corporations, and others have weaponized our lizard brains against us. They have done this by taking advantage of our fixation on personal freedom and property rights to portray solutions to societal problems as threats to liberty so that our lizard brain reacts. and that: The skill set that helps us recognize environmental problems can also help us recognize the denial and reactance in others. We can take steps to offer solution paths with small, achievable, non-threatening first steps that … Continue reading A roller coaster and a sign

Our fixation on freedom has been weaponized against us. Most of the work I’m doing, and most of what I post about here, is at the interface of environmental and public health issues and society and culture. Although the science is clear on climate change, sea level rise, and contamination in water, we have a hard time making progress on implementing solutions. Why is it that seemingly reasonable solutions run into a buzzsaw of objections? Here are a couple of examples from projects I’m working on. In my back yard My drinking water comes from a small community water system … Continue reading Denial and the lizard brain

Last week saw new lawsuits and a settlement. The stock market shrugged. The past week saw two new lawsuits naming manufacturers of “Forever Chemicals” (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS) from the State Attorney Generals’ offices of Pennsylvania and Washington, and a settlement in the South Carolina aqueous film-forming foam multi-district litigation (AFFF MDL), where the trial was due to start today. Stock prices in the companies affected rebounded sharply Friday June 2nd. A settlement, and a punt As reported in , Dupont and two related PFAS manufacturers settled Friday ahead of the South Carolina trial due to start today, … Continue reading Lawsuit week for PFAS