In late 2004, a catastrophic tsunami struck the western coast of Thailand and other countries around the Indian Ocean. I had returned from studying abroad in Thailand a year prior, so I paid particular attention to this tsunami and the stories that came out after it. One specific aspect of this disaster stayed with me: the accounts of those who sensed catastrophe and survived because of it. I read about the Moken people, a nomadic indigenous tribe that live apart from modern society. They inhabit the islands off the western coasts of Thailand and Malaysia, right out there in the Andaman Sea, where the tsunami hit. What was incredible about these people is that they knew the signs of the impending catastrophe, like strange movements of the water and animals running for the high ground, and all but one member of their community survived, while elsewhere all around the Indian Ocean hundreds of thousands of people died. There were also accounts of animals that started behaving strangely before most other people recognized signs of the coming threat.

I’ve thought about this a lot in the last few years, and it’s the basis of my theory of why it feels like we’re at a fever pitch of anger and division in society now and, more generally, a feeling like the world is going crazy.

So while I also like to get into the details of political discussions, this post will take a step back, a zoom out, wide-angle lens on the present.

Somehow, before the tsunami struck the coasts of Thailand and the islands, the animals knew at an instinctual level. They sensed a threat in various signs around them–maybe electromagnetic waves or changes in the air chemistry–and they responded in the way that we are all familiar with: the flight response.

We humans are also just animals. But we are both blessed and cursed with our brainpower–brains that can do incredible things. We calculate, compute, imagine, rationalize. Sometimes, our brains will override other, more elemental or instinctual impulses, to follow some intellectual ideal. The way our brains can rationalize in order to uphold a belief we want to maintain, especially when faced with conflicting evidence, is astounding. 

As a result, it’s possible we’ve lost the ability to follow some of those instinctual impulses. Or we downplay them because we are unable to explain them on a scientific level. We talk about 5 senses, but it’s possible there are other senses we possess but don’t yet understand. Maybe there are scientific explanations for when we have a feeling of deja vu, or when we feel like we’ve predicted something before it happens. Perhaps some of what we call “extra sensory perception” is actually when a person connects with another sense that many of us have lost or don’t know how to recognize.

I believe at a deep, instinctive, maybe even cellular level, humans–the animals that we are–sense the threat we are facing as a result of climate change and wider environmental destruction. Yes, even those who “don’t believe” in climate change–their bodies are still registering this very elemental, existential threat.

And, as the animals that we are, our amygdala–the survival part of our brain–puts us into that flight or fight mode in the face of danger. The anger and division we feel now on this mass level? It’s exactly that response. Fight! It’s the outward expression of the agitation we feel when our bodies are trying to invoke a reaction as a survival mechanism. Even if we can’t articulate the feeling, it is still playing on our behaviour.

Realistically, climate change isn’t going to wipe humanity out in our lifetime–this is a generational threat. Our ability to adapt with changes in how we live, where we live, and the tools we create will keep us going for quite a while. But this continued existence will be more and more challenging. And I don’t think the feelings pulled forward by this threat will go away.

There are other people talking about the threat, of course. And there are people more in tune with the signs in nature who, like the Moken people out in the Andaman Sea, live with nature as a guiding force. But I’ve heard less about our instinctive, biological reaction to this threat. I am not a biologist or psychologist or any type of expert that could properly research this. I feel like someone must be talking about this? But so far when I’ve shared this theory with others, it seems that not many people are, which is why I’m posting about it, like putting out a feeler. If you’ve heard anything like this, please share!

Anyway, I hate to just diagnose a problem without offering solutions. I don’t really have a solution for this problem that requires collective action to solve. But naming something is always a first step. And I do know what won’t work: ignoring it. As a master procrastinator, I can attest to the fact that problems don’t just go away when we ignore them. It doesn’t even get less scary–the that fear runs deep. The next best thing to actually overcoming the problem is to try to address it. To at least make an effort. Because embodied in effort is hope. And hope feels good.

What do you think?