Background

Climate change is among the most pressing challenges facing our generation, posing significant risks to human health, the environment, and the global economy. As per the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, global temperatures by 2030 are expected to rise by 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. This will result in disastrous consequences for the world with a dramatic rise in sea levels, frequency and severity of weather events and extensive biodiversity loss. Additionally, the Global Carbon Project found that despite the economic slowdown resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, carbon emissions were at an all-time high in 2020. 

In spite of a consistent call for action by the scientific community, there exists a lack of awareness and urgency in the general public regarding climate change. Research suggests cognitive biases are largely responsible for this insouciance. For instance, optimism bias leads us to underestimate our likelihood of personally experiencing negative events while overestimating the probability of positive events. Confirmation bias allows us to omit information that does not confirm our existing beliefs and seek only confirmatory information. 

Generation 1.5 was founded to tackle these cognitive challenges, and change the way we think about climate change. We aim to inspire action by raising awareness of such cognitive tendencies and their impact on our ability to take action, eventually helping the public see that changing their perception of a problem as important as Climate Change can be the most important step toward acknowledging and solving it.