Hello Beautiful People

The latest TribeSteemUp question was put forward by @riverflows, asking us "Do we only shift our thinking when disaster strikes? ". We have all experienced our own fair share of disasters, personal and global and although they may cause us to reflect more do we actually change the way we think, which in the end will ultimately change the way in which we react.

Everyone who answered brought different opinions and arguments to the table. As most of us wrote our replies, the fires in Australia were raging out of control still and the media was citing Climate Change as the cause. But once you dug deeper you could see that there were various other things at play, water rights being sold for example. Which begs the question how should we really react, when we are being fed false information.

So please take the time to enjoy each response and do engage and share your point of view. You can show your support by following the TribesteemUp Curation Trail, this way way you are supporting all the great authors who are creating quality content.

What I always learn every time we have any kind of question is that when I really study every word and meaning in the question, i almost always end up saying something like, IT DEPENDS WHAT YOU MEAN BY... i.e.. it depends on how you define a certain word, or how you take its meaning. In this case there is the word ONLY in there, which means that were asking is that the ONLY time that we change our thinking. SO .. if i take this question literally the answer will have to be a surprising NO (shock horror @riverflows ;-)) ..

My favourite 'Road to Damascus' article is by environmentalist George Monbiot, who described how he changed his mind about nuclear power after Fukishima. Whilst he still found problems with how the industry is run, the disaster of Japan's power plant had him changing his mind about the cost of nuclear power:
Every energy technology carries a cost; so does the absence of energy technologies. Atomic energy has just been subjected to one of the harshest of possible tests, and the impact on people and the planet has been small. The crisis at Fukushima has converted me to the cause of nuclear power.
Whatever our opinion is about nuclear power, what is laudable about this post is his ability to look at the facts on his table and change his thinking, despite some very adamant views that nuclear power is folly.

I struggle with questions that use the term 'we', implying that perhaps we all behave and think in similar ways. As if I could possibly know what the majority of the world think or feel. I could of course let the media influence my opinion here, but I learnt a long time ago that the only way you can truly know something is to go and find out for yourself.
This is one question, that may lead a few people to say yes straight away. Because when you look at the world you can see that things are pretty fucked up, that our natural world has been exploited in every way possible and that we have perhaps, lost the power to change it.
So brainwashed and disillusioned about what is really happening in the world today. So we need something huge to wake us up from our slumber.

On Thursday, October 5, 2017 at 7:28 am, my husband left me in an email. I cooked my kids pumpkin pancakes for breakfast, went to get ready for the day, and dropped to my knees on the bathroom floor as I read his words. My whole world crashed down. I was a stay-at-homeschooling mom. He was our sole provider, and he was on his way to Mexico without us.
I had been busily trying to create the perfect life as the perfect wife, mother and daughter. I had so many masks in my closet to pull out for any occasion that I had forgotten what my reflection actually looked like. That email stripped me to my bones. For the first time in my adult life I was left alone and naked with who I really was. I did not have any room emotionally for anything else. I had to determine what I valued and how I was going to provide a life for my children.

The short answer is no. People may shift their thinking for a variety of reasons but disaster is the ultimate motivator. Critical thinkers on the other hand may change their thinking simply upon learning something new while others refuse to even consider it despite all evidence.
With knowledge comes responsibility that a lot of people don't want when it's going to upset their life's routine that they've become comfortable with.
We are resistant to change when the inertia of one idea must be suppressed to allow another idea to take root. How far are we willing to take it? How long are we willing to ride one idea despite the deep inside knowledge that it's wrong?
"There's an inmost center in us all, where truth abides in fullness." ~Robert Browning

First thoughts are that there’s a lot of terms that need defining, the definitions of which will determine our answer to the question…..
In terms of disasters I’m going to follow @riverflows and focus on global warming and limit my focus on ‘thinking’ to how we think about the causes of and solutions to global warming. As to the ‘we’ I’m going to focus mainly on American public opinion, because they're the most sever per capita polluters in terms of CO2 emissions.
So I can effectively rewrite this question as follows: have environmental disasters such as the recent wildfires in California and Australia changed the way the public thinks about the causes and potential solutions to global warming?
More people seem to believe that climate change is man-made
According to a 2019 report 'Climate Change and the American Mind' by Yale's Centre for Climate Change and Communication, there does seem to be a gradual increase in the number of Americans who believe that climate change is man-made

My thoughts...
I feel this is not necessarily so.
Although it may be when disaster strikes, that we are put more on alert, with heightened senses and may have an awakening of sorts, this can bring about a change of our way of thinking, but it is not the only time.
When we can see clearly that the way we have been conducting ourselves may not be optimal or we are not living our life the way we are meant to live it, some folks can make the shift without having to be really shaken up but others it may need that wake up call!
With this I began thinking of astrology, and the Saturn return.
Astrologically speaking, Saturn return is
astrological transit that occurs when the planet Saturn returns to the same place in the sky that it occupied at the moment of a person's birth. source -Wikipedia
It takes about 29.5 years to make that cycle and the effects lasts for about two to three years.

This is a very interesting question, and I see the answer as something that actually breaks down into 3 main points:
Our thinking is changing all the time. Every time we have a new experience or take in some new information, our thinking changes. Of course, the carefully-crafted mind control that is "schooling" trains most people out of their natural drive to learn & expand their minds.
When a disaster or other MAJOR event happens in our own life (near death experience, psychedelic experience, major break-up, death in family, etc), we often re-evaluate our lives, and make major changes.
There is a long-practiced method referred to Problem-Reaction-Solution, used by many governments for (at least) centuries, and it only works better in the modern world, where they can be such an easy flood of "media" pushing whatever disaster they have planned.

A big thank you to @hungryhustle for creating the amazing infographic of the 8 Pillars Of TribeSteemUp and For @eco-alex for creating the tribesteemup banner and logo.