Kenneth Worthy

Onward

Ken — Fri, 01 Apr 2016 18:45:24 +0000

Dear reader,

For all my latest posts, please instead visit my blog The Green Mind at Psychology Today: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-green-mind.

But while you’re here, please visit the page for my book, Invisible Nature: Healing the Destructive Divide between People and the Environment, to learn why Booklist called it

“A superbly written clarion call to reformat our lifestyles and embrace a deeper connection with the living world.”

and why Times Higher Education wrote,

“Indispensible … I’ve read few books that make such a thoroughgoing case for ecological awakening … told with such detail and eloquence … A necessary book.”

and why Invisible Nature has been endorsed by Vandana Shiva and leading environmental scholars.

best wishes,

Ken Worthy

Do Polite People Enable Environmental Destruction

Ken — Mon, 23 Jun 2014 05:31:49 +0000

An intriguing new study has come out saying that people willing to ruffle feathers and buck trends are less likely to inflict suffering on other people because they’re less likely to obey destructive influences. I discuss it in my latest post at Psychology Today.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-green-mind/201406/are-polite-people-more-violent-and-destructive

The industry of ignorance & denial

Ken — Mon, 07 Apr 2014 18:22:05 +0000

The tobacco industry elevated the art of sowing doubt among the population as a way of confusing people into thinking that their products might be safe. Today, the sugar industry, on the defensive against accusations that their products are leading to the epidemic of obesity, diabetes, and various other illnesses in America, are adopting some of the same techniques, as are global climate change deniers (even while some oil-industry spokesperson admit that global climate change is real and caused by humans).

The purposeful creation of ignorance, by corporations and others, is so widespread today that a new field has popped up to describe its study: agnotology. This article provides a short summary.

Ignorance is at the root of our inability to respond to the ruination of Earth:

“Citing the results of a 2012 Gallup poll, Proctor asks, ‘If half the country thinks the Earth is 6,000 years old, how can you really develop an effective environmental policy?'”

Depending on so many complex institutions of science, governance, and industry to know about the world makes us all more susceptible to manipulation by misinformation and false doubt. Ignorant of the natural world and how it sustains us, we can’t step out and see what’s true and real for ourselves. Ignorant of the myriad complex consequences of our sophisticated modern lifestyles, which require complex methods and instruments of science to truly assess, we become dependent on far-flung institutions to tell us important things.

Under such circumstances, it’s essential that people guard against the planting of ignorance by corporations whose leaders wish to continue to enrich themselves at the expense of public health and well-being and environmental sustainability.

Facing the Specter of Environmental Doom

Ken — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 04:03:04 +0000

Last week saw a major report (not the first, though) that we could be headed to collapse of our society, due to resource pressures & economic inequality. I discuss the psychology of this strange situation in my latest post on Psychology Today. See

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-green-mind/201403/facing-the-specter-environmental-doom

Ideological Blinders Can Lead to Environmental Ruin

Ken — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 03:50:14 +0000

Do Conservative White Males feel threatened by a greener future?

Find out at my latest Psychology Today posting.

Trouble in Paradise

Ken — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 05:37:34 +0000

When I was in Bali with my students in January, we saw some pretty disturbing things. In my latest post on my Psychology Today blog, I begin to grapple with what we saw.

Take a look: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-green-mind/201403/trouble-in-paradise

Invisible Nature reviewed in The Times Higher Education

Ken — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 05:48:17 +0000

This is what Laurence Coupe of The Times Higher Education, the premier higher education news magazine in the UK, had to say about Invisible Nature:

“Worthy’s book … looks to me as though it will be indispensable.”

“I have seldom come across the whole story of how we came to be so hopelessly severed from the sources of life…told with such detail and eloquence.”

“A necessary book.”

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/books/invisible-nature-healing-the-destructive-divide-between-people-and-the-environment-by-kenneth-worthy/2008909.article

Seeing and believing

Ken — Mon, 04 Nov 2013 18:17:59 +0000

Environmental problems seem abstract in our everyday lives. The cap of the toothpaste I used only twenty minutes ago seems like just a cap, but eventually it could become a death sentence for an albatross.

See how in the trailer of the eye-opening, devastating film Midway:

MIDWAY a Message from the Gyre : a short film by Chris Jordan from Midway on Vimeo.

Films such as Midway bring home to us the connections between the immediate context of our everyday lives and the results out there in the world that we really don’t want to see. In doing so they empower us to head toward a world that’s healthier for us and other creatures.

My book talk tonight at Mrs. Dalloway’s Bookstore in Berkeley

Ken — Wed, 23 Oct 2013 19:21:10 +0000

Tonight, I’ll be speaking about my book Invisible Nature at Mrs. Dalloway’s Bookstore, 2904 College Ave., Berkeley. Please come if you’re in town.

http://www.mrsdalloways.com/events/kenneth-worthy

Catching Up with Caveman

Ken — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 05:17:40 +0000

Science has recently been telling us some truly wonderful news: We humans are not alone in the universe as the only conscious, feeling beings. Other animals are conscious, can think, can feel pain, and can even be considered people. The question is, Why do we need to be told such things that our ancestors already knew?

I pursue this vital question on my The Green Mind blog at Psychology Today. Take a look:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-green-mind/201310/catching-caveman