What is ontological security?. Sociology

Global warming threatens natural conditions, economic prospects, and social structure (IPCC 2001). At the deepest level, large-scale environmental problems such as global warming threaten people's sense of the continuity of life, what Anthony Giddens calls ontological security (1984, 1991). What will Norwegian winters be like without snow? What will happen to farms in the community in the next generation? Giddens' notion of ontological security refers to the “Confidence or trust that the natural and social worlds are as they appear to be, including the basic existential parameters of self and social identity.