I sat at a table in the hotel restaurant and tried to memorize the key facts from my presentation I was going to hold the next day at a congress of the coal industry. I decided to do presentations in the most hostile field because in my opinion this was where most of the renitency for the transition to renewable energies lays. So far my attempts were not as successful as I hoped, but I was confident I was doing the best I could for the right thing.
I sat down at the bar and ordered a drink. Next to me sat a woman in a pantsuit and talked on the phone. She talked about how to structure a workshop on global politics and management and also about climate agreements. After she hung up I introduced myself and tried to have conversation with her. I told her about my occupation and told her about my conviction with green energy and my own vision of a better world. She told she was organizing many different conferences concerning global agreements, and also climate agreements. I was completely mesmerized by her calm and prosaic way of talking about this highly passionate topic. But soon I realized why. After she talked a while about the logistics and complex plan she had to draw up to get as much leaders and agents as possible at one table. She was talking about it like a logistician. Then I asked her about her own opinion on global decision making and what her vision of the future of the globe looks like.

Her: I can tell you how I think about. But would you like to go outside for one or two cigarettes?
Me: Yes, of course. (I achieved to stop drinking alcohol and meat of all kind over the last few years, but smoking is still left my last guilty pleasure.)
We went outside and looked for a corner on the smoothly lighted patio. After we smoked in silence, she started out with a question.
Her: Why do you still smoke despite the commonly known risks of smoking for your health and the health of others?
Me: I really don’t know. I often thought of quitting, but then I never did because the risk seemed not very imminent and relatively improbable to me. Plus, it is kind of a pleasure, even if it is obviously dangerous.
Her: Ok. You asked me a question earlier. I don’t believe that there will be any progress in global climate agreements in the next hundred years or so. There will be no reduction in green house gas, no direct action will be taken to change all of this. Our only hope is, that we run out of fossils before the world runs out of men. And you just gave the perfect explanation for that: “Affect – and, in particular, negative affect – is the wellspring of action.” (E.U. Weber 2006; Page 104). Remember what you said and listen this: “Low-probability events generate less concern than their probability warrants on average, but more concern than they deserve in those rare instances when they do occur. Personal experience with noticeable and serious consequences of global warming is still rare in many regions of the world.” (E.U. Weber 2006; Page 103). People will always be able to ignore abstract problems, only the direct confrontation with the consequences will evoke visceral reactions towards the risks of global warming. Nothing will happen until it will already be too late.