Homeostasis

The self-regulation of organisms, which tends to bring them back to a state of balance when there is a fluctuation in levels, is now well understood.

Thus, excesses — whether too much or too little — are detected, and systems are set in motion to return to a balanced value beneficial to the continuation of the system in question.

In a sense, this explains why habits are so important: they allow these equilibrium values to be gradually changed, and thus allow change itself. For changes that are too great and occur all at once will be considered abnormal, and therefore brought back to the initial value.

At the scale of an individual, understanding these mechanisms and believing that one can change through new habits is crucial.

Of course, particular cases exist, sometimes so extreme that they profoundly alter the system at play.

Climate change is part of these extreme situations. The scale involved being that of the entire planet, the timescales are far greater, and it becomes difficult to feel its effects as a simple individual.

This is also due to the homeostasis of the planetary system, which attempts to compensate for warming with the means at its disposal, notably through the warming of the oceans at first.

These oceans, representing the majority of the globe’s surface, give the system an inertia that makes the warming seem almost invisible…

And yet, the damage is already done, and the equilibrium value that will be reached depends on our actions.

For it is also our actions that have created this change of state…