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Uploaded under the assignment on schoology "Recorded Introduction for your Padlet - Senior Choice Project"

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https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/elie-wiesel

Elie Wiesel, the author of Night, was one of the victims of the Holocaust as he and his family were forced to abandon their lives at the hands of the Nazis. He was then taken to concentration camps where he witnessed inhumane events as he describes in his memoir.

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https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/introduction-to-the-holocaust

This novel is based on his experience through the Holocaust and the incredibly horrific measures that were taken against the Jews. He wanted others to be aware of what had happened to him and his community. More specifically, Wiesel looked at the greater problem of indifference and people's inability to take action when others are suffering. The intended audience of the book are the leaders in the world along with the greater society as everyone needs to be aware of this and what they can do differently in the future.

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https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_sparrow_the_danger_of_indifference?language=en

In this Ted Talk, she dives into the complex topic of indifference and why many people often fall victim to it. Indifference is extremely tempting because it is often easier to ignore others' suffering when it doesn't directly affect you. This is often what takes place subconsciously for most people. In the case of the Holocaust, many decided not to intervene as they were not Jews. They then put it to the back of their mind and continued on with their normal activities. This often happens in peoples' lives because they tend to be more concerned with things that directly pertain to them. It is important to be aware of this thinking as it will be easier to change this pattern and fight indifference.

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https://www.wired.com/story/peak-indifference-on-climate-change/

Climate change has been a growing issue in our world that many have acknowledged but have failed to take action. Many leaders have suppressed this issue which has led others to dismiss it on a larger level. This is part of the problem as many continue to live their lives normally without considering the options of how they can make changes to help save our planet. If leaders make it a priority to talk about ways to help prevent any further damage to our climate, then others would be more likely to take action and avoid any indifference. Many people think that others will find a solution, so they, themselves, do nothing about it. In reality, everyone needs to be a part of the solution by doing their part. However, right now, indifference is what stands in the way of that.

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Something weird is happening around climate change. Republicans are deciding it's real. Three years ago, only 49 percent of Republicans thought so, but by last December it was 64 percent, as a Monmouth University poll found. That's a huge jump in a short time and is all the more astonishing given that the Republican president and many of his party's politicians pooh-pooh the global emergency. Meanwhile, other parts of the electorate are really freaking out. Last year, the percentage of those who say they're "very worried" about global warming shot up from 21 percent to 29 percent, according to a poll by Yale's and George Mason University's programs on climate change communication.

Those who've studied this shift say it's because of the recent waves of unsettling, climate-related news. The problem is now knocking on everyone's front door: record-breaking heat and cold, ravaging hurricanes, rampaging wildfires in overdry forests. "It's not distant," says Anthony Leiserowitz, head of the Yale program.

There's a phrase I like that describes what's happening, and it helps us grasp what might be next: "peak indifference." It refers to the psychology of problems that become too big to ignore.

Peak indifference is a coinage of the sci-fi writer, blogger, and activist Cory Doctorow (who is, full disclosure, a friend). You can think of it this way: Often, when society is facing a problem that's terrible but slow-growing, we ignore it. We're indifferent to the problem. Climate change isn't the only example (think of digital privacy or income inequality), but it's perhaps the toughest to crack.

The psychologist Robert Gifford once enumerated the "seven dragons of inaction" on climate, from ingrained habits (car culture) to lack of trust (in, say, scientists) to numbness (statistics overload). As the crisis grows, our indifference grows too.

But at some point, a crisis gets so bad that it becomes unignorable. Our indifference reaches a peak, begins to decline-and panic emerges. This could describe what we're now seeing in the climate polling. Media coverage and real-life events have finally broken through to folks: "Increasingly they're saying, 'Wait a minute, this is happening right here, right now,' " Leiserowitz says.

This is great for anyone who wants to fix the problem, yes? Society is finally ready!

But Doctorow's theory also predicts another psychological hazard: When we ignore trouble for so long, we can slip quickly into nihilism. It's too late. We missed our chance to take action.

That means the current political moment is incredibly interesting. Anyone who wants to deal with climate change may have only a brief window to sell the public on a plan. In his new book The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming, the writer David Wallace-Wells talks about the value of panic to pushing collective action; Doctorow says it's the point "where you divert your energy from convincing people there's a problem to convincing them there's a solution."

This is why the stakes are so high in the debate over the Green New Deal that Democrats recently introduced in Congress. The young environmental activists of the Sunrise Movement flooded DC this winter to push for a resolution. Six Democratic presidential candidates now support it in principle. And the Yale-George Mason survey found 81 percent of all Americans support the general concept, including-remarkably-57 percent of conservative Republicans. Clean energy policy "has a huge social consensus," Leiserowitz notes.

Still, barriers to action loom. More Republicans may believe in climate change, but they don't think it's caused by humans. And the Yale survey question about the Green New Deal was vague and upbeat, and didn't pose the tough-to-sell policy specifics (zero-emission transportation, job guarantees) or financial costs that the public might dislike. And even people terrified about climate change don't always agree on what policies to pursue. But the Sunrise activists, and all of us who want action on this, have to push hard now. It's only when you reach the peak that you can see where you need to go.

Getty Images (Fire and Lawn)

Clive Thompson (@pomeranian99) is a WIRED contributing editor. Write to him at clive@clivethompson.net.

This article appears in the April issue. Subscribe now.

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We Might Be Reaching 'Peak Indifference' on Climate Change

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Something weird is happening around climate change. Republicans are deciding it's real. Three years ago, only 49 percent of Republicans thought so, but by last December it was 64 percent, as a Monmouth University poll found.

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https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/elie-wiesel-s-night-and-the-holocaust/sources/1536

Within this piece of artwork, there is a quote that says, "Fear not your enemies, for they can only kill you. Fear not your friends, for they can only betray you. Fear only the indifferent, who permit killers and betrayers to walk safely on earth." This captures the overall message of the painting as it is based on the life of Fritz Hirschberger. He and his family were sent to Poland in 1938 and later joined the Polish army. Under the German invasion, he fled to Russia. As he was wearing a Polish Army uniform in Russia, he was automatically sent to a labor camp for his punishment. In his paintings, he reflects upon his experiences through various concentration camps and how the surrounding bystanders failed to take any action. It was unbelievable to him how so many people were okay with watching this large population suffer in silence. As the quote explains, those who are indifferent to a situation are the worst type of people as they don't use their power to make an impact and assist those who cannot stand up for themselves.

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https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/climate-change-compassion-1.6627696

This article recognizes some of the psychological reasons why people tend to be indifferent to larger, worldwide problems. For instance, it is mentioned how humans are more inclined to help those to which they are related. A greater percentage of people are more likely to help those in their own country, rather than taking action in poorer countries around the globe. People's indifference can also be explained by a concept known as "psychic numbing." If there is a larger number of people suffering, then fewer are likely to respond. This took place in the Holocaust as there were millions of Jews placed in concentration camps. However, if the suffering is centered around a couple of people, more people will take an interest in the situation and offer their assistance. The last significant point that is made is how showing people a moving picture of those who are suffering will motivate them to take action. It is important to know these psychological reasons behind why people are indifferent as it will help us to avoid it in the future.

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Imagine a disaster so large in scope that it affects almost Canada's entire population of 38 million: Homes have been destroyed; there is little food; farmers have lost all their crops; there is little access to clean water; children are dying; and people migrate to find somewhere, anywhere that hasn't been affected.

This isn't the plot of a Hollywood disaster movie. It's a reality for people living in Pakistan.

From mid-June to August, severe monsoon rains flooded almost the entire country. It's estimated that 33 million people have been affected. Approximately 1,700 people have died, with almost eight million displaced. And it's likely to take months to recover.

Meanwhile, in Nigeria, rising waters have killed 600 people and displaced 1.3 million more. On the other end of the weather scale, Somalia is experiencing one of the worst droughts in its history, affecting more than seven million people who face starvation.

But news coverage in Canada of Pakistan and Nigeria - of the suffering, the death and the tragedy - seems to pale in comparison when it comes to the coverage of Hurricanes Ian and Fiona, just weeks later.

In September, our television, computer and phone screens were filled with images of storm surges from Fiona destroying homes in parts of Atlantic Canada. We watched as Ian all but decimated Fort Myers and other parts of Florida.

Yet many climate experts feel strongly that people in developing countries are paying the highest price for climate change, even though their countries emit a small fraction of greenhouse gas emissions overall.

"The people of Pakistan are the victims of a grim calculus of climate injustice," United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Gutteres told the UN on Oct. 7.

"Pakistan is responsible for less than one per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet it is paying a supersized price for man-made climate change."

'Psychic numbing' may explain our difficulty responding

Psychologically speaking, the inability to grasp the scope of human suffering may be something that's ingrained.

"Humans are evolutionarily disposed to care about and look after both ourselves and those to whom we are related," Colin Ellard, a professor of psychology at the University of Waterloo, said in an interview.

"I think those kinds of kinship-related responses probably go some way to accounting for why we might have more difficulty responding to news of thousands of people, including hundreds of young children, who drowned in the floods in Pakistan than we do the 31 people who were killed by Hurricane Fiona."

Another psychological aspect Ellard notes is something called "psychic numbing," where people tend to be indifferent to the suffering of a great number of people.

As an example, there is a quote attributed to Joseph Stalin (though it may have existed before he was claimed to have uttered these words): "The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic."

Putting a face to a tragedy may help

Ellard thinks perhaps it is more about the human story than it is about numbers.

"We're not driven by statistics. We're driven by stories," he said. "So you can say, 'X-thousand number of Syrian refugees drowned in the Mediterranean.' I'll say, 'Oh, that's terrible.' But show me that picture..."

That "picture" Ellard referred to was of Alan Kurdi, the two-year-old Syrian refugee who drowned in the Mediterranean in 2015. The photo of the toddler's body lying face down on a beach, which ran on front pages around the world, moved millions.

"That had an impact on the Canadian election. Donations went through the roof, because of that one person," Ellard said. "So when we can attach a story, a narrative to something that's happening, then that compels action - and that makes it real to us."

Not all photos of tragedy have such a profound impact. That may be due to the fact that we've seen images of starving children for decades, perhaps desensitizing us.

It could also relate back to a sense of "othering," Ellard said: They are not part of our clan, so, while we see the tragedy, it doesn't move us in the same way it would if it were happening closer to home.

Victims of a changing climate

When it comes to climate change, there's no doubt that it is primarily countries in the Northern Hemisphere who are the top emitters, especially when you look at per capita emissions. But countries in the Global South are dealing with some of the biggest consequences.

"When you look at any disaster, I don't care what it is, it generally affects the poor first. Simple as that," said Jim Douris, project officer at World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

"Their infrastructures are weaker. Typically, they don't have the resources to respond per se to the advisories, or the capability to move as quickly as possible. They have the most difficulty in recovering from a disaster."

WATCH | Flooding in Nigeria displaces more than 1 million people:

And, he notes, these developing countries are the ones suffering from the most economic damage from weather catastophes brought on by climate change.

So why is it that we don't seem to act to mitigate it, or help poorer nations better cope?

"The major emitting countries are just not doing enough to deal with the impacts they're causing," said Ian Fry, the UN's special rapporteur on climate change. "So the whole concept of 'polluter pays' is not sort of playing out in international debates at the moment."

The UN's next climate conference, COP27, or the Conference of Parties, takes place in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, next month; this is one of the largest meetings of countries from around the world, working to address the various aspects of climate change.

One of the issues brought up during COP26 was the need for a fund for loss and damages, where developed countries would provide funding to developing countries who are already dealing with climate change-related damages, such as the loss of crops. The U.S., Australia and the European Union, however, opposed the proposition, concerned about "large compensation claims."

Last Friday, Fry gave a report to the UN General Assembly that addressed this very thing.

"I'm suggesting the cost is so big that it needs to be taken up at the UN level, I think - to a higher level, the secretary general," Fry said. "I'm recommending the secretary general form a group of finance experts to sort of work on a fund that will deal with these losses and damages."

What comes of that remains to be seen, as the big emitters fear repercussions.

Ellard, the University of Waterloo psychologist, said he has hope that eventually we'll see the world, well, as a world - and not just in terms of how we are personally affected.

"I'm optimistic in the sense that it is possible to have a just world - a more just world than we have," he said.

"Maybe we'll never get to the point of treating them as seriously as the impacts on our own country, or our own local area. But we can do better than we have done."

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ANALYSIS | Why are we indifferent to the suffering of millions? There's a term for that | CBC News

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Hurricanes in Canada and the U.S. versus the immense suffering of tens of millions of people in the global south, yet it seems difficult for some people to grasp the scope of the tragedy. We may be hard-wired that way, according to one expert.

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This poem is important as it shows the importance of overcoming any indifference one may have. People need to realize the power of their voices in speaking up for one another. The final stanza is especially moving as it describes exactly what bystanders did during the Holocaust. Jews cries and pleads for help were consistently ignored as others pretended that everything was perfectly normal. While this poem encompasses indifference on a larger level, it also makes references to much smaller situations. It talks about the importance of showing your emotions rather than burying them so that they remain unseen. This is the first step to stopping indifference. If you are able to present yourself and stand up for what you believe in, it motivates you to make the decision to get involved. This is something that everyone needs to recognize as it has the potential to change the outcome of any situation.