Our memories impact imagining and planning for the future

In a broader context those of us in the rich world are used to things getting better every year, no matter what. It doesn't really matter if we elect crooks president, get into wars that don't have any objective, have our share of natural disasters or let the Bankers rob everybody and then bail them out after they've stolen our money; things just keep getting better. We have better toys to play with, more TV channels, bigger houses than our parents had and holidays that used to be once in a lifetime events, are now no big deal. We don't have any memory of things getting worse, so we don't expect things ever to get worse. As Dr Temler says:

"This is because our ability to remember the past is linked to our ability to imagine the future."

Perhaps more importantly though; as Dr Temler says:

"Memory affects our ability to plan for long term goals"

This makes us reluctant to make changes, like the changes needed to fight global warming, because we always think, everything will be getting better as long as we just keep doing what we have been doing. Things always get better, there is no sense in making big changes.

In fact, though, things have started to get a bit worse in the last 20 years. The natural environment has taken a gigantic hit. There is far less natural habitat and only half as much wildlife as 40 years ago. Worldwide pollution is worse but in the rich world it's getting slightly better. None of that will be of much concern to most rich world city dwellers, though.

Big city commuters have gradually gotten used to their travel times to work increasing 2% a year every single year. That doesn't sound like much but when you bought your house thinking you had a 45 minute commute and 20 years later you're spending over 2 hours a day commuting, you start to pine for the good old days. (That's the story from all my friends in Los Angeles.) In addition, we now have the privilege of paying $100 a week to use the new toll roads. Using the points Dr Temler has made, it isn't hard to imagine a 3 hour commute and $200/week in the next few years.

In many cities buying a home is much more difficult than it was 25 years ago. It's easy to imagine a future where most people live in apartments rather than on quarter acre blocks with a nice garden. Even now the yards are tiny on all new homes.

Petrol and electricity prices have been climbing recently. That never used to happen. We might imagine a $1000 electricity bill, but if we also imagine living in a small apartment the bill probably won't be that big, even as the price per kilowatt increases.

Wages have been flat while corporate profits climb. That didn't used to happen either.

How long it takes these new memories to push out the old ones is probably another project for Dr Temler.

All these issues have been worsened by population pressures, but we've always had increased population and life has always gotten better, so why worry? Our brains tell us very clearly that population growth goes with things getting better. Proponents of population stabilisation such as Dick Smith and David Attenborough make statements like "you can't have infinite growth on a finite planet," and think that such an obvious statement would be a compelling argument, but as Dr Temler points out, our minds just don't work that way.