Declinism

Biological Parallel

Older elephants perceive current environmental conditions as degraded compared to their youth—declinism shaped by baseline memory. But the 'pristine' environments they remember were already degraded from their parents' generation. This is shifting baseline syndrome: each generation anchors to the diminished state they first encountered, perceiving further decline while missing long-term trajectory. The mechanism: memory records absolute states, not historical context. Perceived decline is real; recognizing cumulative decline requires intergenerational data.