Andrew Hoffman tells Michigan Radio cultural shift needed to impact climate change
October 23, 2019
Andrew Hoffman speaks with Michigan Radio in a conversation called “Without widespread cultural change, the climate crisis won’t be solved, says UM expert.”
The discussion explores a “Re-Enlightenment” among religious and philosophical communities outlined in Hoffman’s article “Climate change and our emerging cultural shift.” The paper says faith leaders are positioned to help followers connect to climate change on a moral level and motivate them to take action.
“The answer comes down to a deep shift in our culture,” Hoffman tells Michigan Radio. “Which, the point I make in the paper, is on a scale akin to the Enlightenment or the Scientific Revolution or the Protestant Reformation. And the key to that analogy, there’s several: Those were fundamental shifts in our cultural beliefs as a species, a fundamental shift in our perception of the environment, and a fundamental shift in how we saw the two connected. And, importantly, those shifts took 100 years. … We can’t think about this as a sprint. This is a marathon.”
Hoffman—faculty associate of the Center for Positive Organizations (CPO), professor of management and organizations at the Ross School of Business, and professor of environment and sustainability at the School for Environment and Sustainability—studies the relationship between environmental issues and organizations.