Are our brains -- specifically our physiological fear responses -- wired in ways that will lead to our extinction as a species? Natural Resources Defense Council columnist George Black explores this question, looking at the reasons why Americans aren't more alarmed about the climate change news. His column is titled "Humans with Antlers."
"Our evolutionary development," Black writes, "has not yet caught up with the change in our circumstances. More specifically, the problem is our brain’s fear triggers. Our instincts are still paleolithic; our fear reflexes respond to all the wrong things. They lie dormant in the face of climate change, no matter how ominously scientists predict its probable consequences. But we’re programmed to pump adrenalin at the sight of spiders, snakes, and other mortal threats slithering into our caves."
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