Distant future people fail to arouse the empathy that would curb environmental harm

Evidence

Current generations are engaging in environmentally degrading practices that will make life worse for future generations. … Because our descendants seem like remote abstractions to us, it is difficult to arouse empathic concern and moral self-sanctions, both of which would curb environmentally harmful practices. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2627 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Accelerating climate destruction may be crueler than hastening humanity’s end — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1976; Suppressing our emotional response to environmental disaster enables our own destruction — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 1195; Future generations seem abstract, so empathy fails to curb environmental harm — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2627 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Future generations seem abstract, so empathy fails to curb environmental harm #expands (0.95) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2627