Good grief

I was just trawling through my councils web site when I found this little gem.

9.1.1 At the outset of this topic review, Mr Peter Moore, KCC’s Environment Strategy Manager, suggested to the Select Committee that the degree of acceptance of  climate change could be likened to the stages of ‘the grief cycle’.

9.1.2 This cycle details the stages of emotional response that an individual goes through over time in reaction to bad news175. This cycle begins with paralysis, progressing through denial and anger and ultimately to acceptance and the desire to move forward constructively.

9.1.3 Members of the Select Committee each began the inquiry at different stages on this cycle but ended it with clear and unanimous acceptance that climate change
above and beyond that which can be explained by natural variation is happening and accelerating and that human activity is, at least in part, responsible. This is matched by a desire to ensure that KCC and Kent as a whole move rapidly towards a constructive, appropriate and adequate response to the many challenges which climate change represents. All Members of the Select Committee hope that the considered recommendations in this report will drive KCC and Kent to achieve this.

Now my reader might wonder why I’m writing about this. You’ll see in the above text the number 175. This a link to an external web site of which I’ll give you a little excerpt.

The Kübler-Ross grief cycle

Background

For many years, people with terminal illnesses were an embarrassment for doctors. Someone who could not be cured was evidence of the doctors' fallibility, and as a result the doctors regularly shunned the dying with the excuse that there was nothing more that could be done (and that there was plenty of other demand on the doctors' time).

Elizabeth Kübler-Ross was a doctor in Switzerland who railed against this unkindness and spent a lot of time with dying people, both comforting and studying them. She wrote a book, called 'On Death and Dying' which included a cycle of emotional states that is often referred to (but not exclusively called) the Grief Cycle.

In the ensuing years, it was noticed that this emotional cycle was not exclusive just to the terminally ill, but also other people who were affected by bad news, such as losing their jobs or otherwise being negatively affected by change. The important factor is not that the change is good or bad, but that they perceive it as a significantly negative event.

Strange to use a paper on grieving as your rational for tackling Climate change. I’d like to give em grief over the amount of MY tax their wasting on this tomfoolery.