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Look no further. It’s all the striatum’s fault. When

we become aware of the present and future impacts

of climate change, it’s the “intelligent” part of our

brain that comes into play: the cerebral cortex. All

our ingenuity, abstraction and planning comes from

there as does our ability to invent machines, tools,

planes, telephones... But when we take action, the

deeper parts of our brain are activated, the zones

that govern motivation and desire, in particular

the striatum which lives at the heart of what we

call the reward circuit. This circuit rewards us with

dopamine when we adopt certain behaviours that

enable us to survive: eating, having sex, finding ways

to preserve our strengths.

If we moderate our behaviour to reduce our

consumption, the striatum releases less dopamine.

In the very heart of the human brain lives an

element addicted to growth.

Luckily, we have a parry for the striatum, which

is the front most part of our brain: the prefrontal

cortex. Thanks to this cortex, we can temper and

moderate our behaviour, set limits and resist the

striatum’s urges to always have more. If we give

it a little help. Educating, developing the idea of

pleasure with less, promoting altruism or self-

satisfaction and even meditating are all excellent

weapons against the striatum.