Devaluing the future

Here's a great post on the tendency of human beings to weight the present over the future... in other words, to make choices that result in short term gratification and often ignore longer term consequences. From an evolutionary perspective, this adapation made sense. The question is, is it now a maladaptation which is leading us down a path toward our doom.

Some of our behavior as individuals and societies with respect to global warming and resource depletion can be explained by this phenomenon. I noticed this in my own behavior about a year ago. I've read a lot about peak oil and understand the impact of fossil fuel burning on the climate. And yet I bought a Mazda RX-8 which gets lousy gas mileage. Sure, I offset my carbon emissions with a TerraPass, but even at the time of purchasing the car I found myself asking: what hope is there for preventing catastrophe if even intelligent people (like me! :-) who understand the issues still make choices that don't serve the common good?

Read the full post here.