He talked about the responsibility and action he feels towards the created world with Ferenc Pál, a Roman Catholic priest and mental health specialist, in the latest broadcast of János Áder, the former president of the Republic, in the Blue Planet podcast.

In the first broadcast of the two-part conversation, the former head of state said that the facts about climate change are obvious, yet the world is in a worse situation than immediately after the 2015 climate summit in Paris.

Ferenc Pál explained that knowing the truth alone does not bring about change. In his opinion, if we want the action to be effective, we need to talk about why the change is not happening. People are not capable of change when it is necessary, he added, but when environmental conditions or the extent of suffering force it. However, "we cannot wait for this time", he noted, referring to climate change.

In response to János Áder's suggestion that "climate anxiety" can be felt more and more often among young people, Ferenc Pál believed that this is a destructive feeling that does not help change, because it works against active action if we are only "worried" and "pessimistic" about the future.

Ferenc Pál argued that in order to advance the ability to act, anxiety must be alleviated, because it creates a narrowed state of consciousness, thoughts and emotions. Using the terminology of the American Richard H. Thaler, who was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in 2017 for his research in the field of behavioral economics, Ferenc Pál also talked about the fact that it is useless to have a realistic, decision-making, deliberate, so-called "designer self" in a person, if his ideas are implemented by the "executive self" ” torpedoes it.

In response to the former president's question, the Catholic priest explained that the purpose of the creation protection camp he led in Baja in 2012 was to create an "emotional experience" in the participants regarding climate change, as a result of which they would begin to act themselves.

Source: hirado.hu

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