Shifting Baselines

The term shifting baselines refers to the fact that human perception changes inasmuch as the surrounding environment changes. For instance, a transgenerational pilot study investigating environmental perceptions of fishermen found that older interviewees were very aware of the declining fish populations and the disappearance of fishing grounds, while younger fishermen did not know about the stocks being larger and more varied only a relatively short time ago. Shifting baselines pose a serious problem in the context of climate change and the associated need for a change: How will problems in connection with climate change be perceived if there is no memory of strong reference points to evaluate changes in the environment?
The project “Shifting Baselines”, a side project of  KWI's Climate Culture Project addresses this topic.