People can be slow to act when heat is on

[Dr Martin Williams [account from Drupal site]]

A while ago, I saw a documentary on building fires causing deaths. Something that struck me was that, even after they have been told to leave, some people are slow to actually get out – quite a number of fatalities result from people who were too slow to escape.

It strikes me that something similar is happening with global warming; human race is not really akin to a frog in water that is being warmed to boiling (and staying put), but too few people have admitted to severity of issue and need to act.

Quote:

… occupants decide how serious the situation is. The reactions of other people influence their behavior. Without signs of fire, an entire group of people may refuse to evacuate the building in the early stages. Finally, people start to cope with the fact that the building is on fire and they must evacuate. The fight or flight reaction takes over.

Building Systems for Interior Designers, p 345 – on Google books

One thing is, of course, if "fight-or-flight" takes over we don't have the option of flight; we can't leave our planet. Sometime, we will have to fight – and I hope it's warming we combat, rather than each other.

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