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The dynamics of denial

19 April 2005
Tom Burke of E3G has spent years observing government, industry and others at close quarters. He defines "the dynamics of denial" like this:

There isn’t a problem.

Well, there may be a problem, but we don’t know enough to do anything about it.

OK, there is a problem, but we still don’t know enough to do anything about it.

There is a problem, but it will cost too much to do anything about it.

There is a problem, but it will be cheaper to solve it later.

There is a problem, but someone else should do something about it first.

There is a problem, but the government should do something about it.

There is a problem, but we can’t do anything about it until everyone does something about it.

There is a problem but we need to form a partnership of government, business and the NGOs to do something about it.

There is a problem but it is too late to do anything about it.

Caspar Henderson

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