Today I Learned: A Collection of Facts We Didn’t Know We Needed to Know

Climate change causes a lot of people a lot of anxiety. However, there is a phenomenon that might be happening in regard to how we measure the changes in our environment. It’s called “shifting baseline syndrome.” The concept behind this syndrome is that there is a gradual change in the accepted norms for a condition, such as the Earth’s environment.

As soon as we get used to certain conditions, such as increased natural disasters, that becomes the baseline for future measurements. So, we might have an inaccurate measurement of how climate change is truly progressing. This happens due to the short-term memory of humans and lack of long-term experience. It’s pretty wild and anxiety-inducing to think about. Yikes.