Moving to a sustainable and carbon-neutral society is, ultimately, not about science but behaviour. Understanding the reasons why people choose to act (or not act) in a certain way, and how these choices can be positively influenced, is emerging as the key to tackling climate change and many of the myriad social and environmental issues currently confronting us. This article is a good summary (albeit a little dated now) of why people choose not to act.

The psychology of climate change: why we do nothing – The Ecologist

Well-publicised simple steps like using energy-saving light bulbs may be making it more difficult to prepare people for the bigger changes needed to tackle climate change, argue psychologists Upwards of 75 per cent of the general public, going by recent polls in the US and UK, say climate change is an important issue. But few of us are doing much to actually tackle the problem and reduce our own emissions. It is a conundrum that we are, perhaps belatedly, realising should be seen as a psychological one - (Tom Levitt 12th August, 2009).

Some great resources here from WWF, with a common theme of behaviour change and ecopsychology. There are links to several interesting reports about what it really takes to motivate people to make effective change to move closer to sustainable development.

Strategies for Change – WWF UK

WWF’s Strategies for Change project re-examines some of the assumptions that underlie current environmental campaigning, and suggests new evidence-based responses. In particular, the project looks at the importance of collective social values in driving change, and at the ways those values are shaped.

There is a large body of empirical evidence that the values people hold and the goals people pursue are critically important in motivating ambitious change. A lot of current environmental campaigning seeks to identify areas where short-term financial self-interest or the pursuit of social status coincides with environmental aims. But this approach will almost certainly be inadequate to meet the environmental challenges we collectively confront. Fortunately, there is clear evidence that we can begin to engage with dominant values and sources of identity – and there are strategic interventions that the environment movement can make in order to do so. WWF’s Strategies for Change project marshals the empirical evidence for a values-based approach to environmental campaigning.

Reports
Different Politics, Same Planet – WWF UK 13 December 2011 - Different Politics, Same Planet: Values for Sustainable Development Beyond Left and Right argues that governments must lead a shift in values if we are to transition to a sustainable economy

Communicating bigger-than-self problems to extrinsically-oriented audiences. – WWF UK 25 January 2012 – This report, published jointly by Climate Outreach and Information Network (COIN), CPRE, Friends of the Earth, Oxfam and WWF-UK, summarizes the results of an interdisciplinary research project conducted jointly by researchers in the School of Psychology at Cardiff University and the Department of Linguistics at Lancaster University.

Think Of Me As Evil? Opening the ethical debates in advertising – WWF UK 24 October 2011 – Published by Public Interest Research Centre and WWF-UK, this report examines the evidence that commercial advertising could exacerbate the social and environmental problems that we collectively confront.

Common Cause – WWF UK 15 September 2010 – The case for working with our cultural values WWF-UK has partnered with four other organisations – Climate Outreach and Information Network (COIN), Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), Friends of the Earth (FOE) and Oxfam – to explore the central importance of cultural values in underpinning concern about the issues upon which we each work.

Meeting Environmental Challenges: The Role of Human Identity – WWF UK 17 June 2009 – This major new publication, written jointly with Professor Tim Kasser (Knox College, Illinois, and author of ‘The High Price of Materialism’) examines those fundamental aspects of human identity that operate to frustrate approaches to meeting environmental challenges.

Simple & painless – WWF UK – strategies for change 20 February 2009 – The limitations of spillover in environmental campaigning The comfortable perception that global environmental challenges can be met through marginal lifestyle changes no longer bears scrutiny. The cumulative impact of large numbers of individuals making marginal improvements in their environmental impact will be a marginal collective improvement in environmental impact. Yet we live at a time when we need urgent and ambitious changes.

The Natural Change Project – WWF UK 21 July 2009 – The Natural Change Project was developed by WWF Scotland as a new and innovative response to the challenge of sustainability and to the growing evidence that current environmental campaigns are not resulting in the depth of behaviour change necessary to address this challenge.

Weathercocks and signposts – WWF UK – Strategies, change, weathercock 1 April 2008 – WWF’s Strategies for Change Project is a new work stream which contributes to the growing debate about how best to effect environmentally-friendly behavioural change. In particular, the project examines the importance of our collective social values in driving behavioural change, and the ways in which such values are shaped.

I came across this fascinating podcast about climate change and the psyche earlier this week. It was originally aired on ABC Radio’s All In The Mind programme on 21st November 2009, shortly before COP-15.

It features interviews with two speakers, climate scientist Mike Hulme (author of Why We Disagree About Climate Change) and anthropologist Jonathan Marshall (editor of the new book Depth Psychology; Disorder and Climate Change, a provocative collection of Jungian perspectives on the topic. They join host Natasha Mitchell to discuss mythology, mental ecology and a changing climate.

INTERVIEWEES
Jonathan Marshall
Anthropologist, and research fellow
University of Technology Sydney
Sydney, Australia

Mike Hulme
Former and founding director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
Professor of Climate Change
School of Environmental Sciences
University of East Anglia UK

PUBLICATIONS
Why We Disagree About Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity
Author: Mike Hulme
Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2009
ISBN 978-0-521-89869-0

Depth Psychology; Disorder and Climate Change
Author: Edited by Jonathan Marshall
Publisher: Jung Downunder Books, 2009
ISBN 978-0-9806752-0-7

Psychology and Global Climate Change: Addressing a Multi-faceted Phenomenon and Set of Challenges
Author: A Report by the American Psychological Association’s Task Force on the Interface between psychology and Global Climate Change
Publisher: American Psychological Association, 2009

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise – with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country”.

-Abraham Lincoln 1862

Lincoln made this statement during his country’s civil war, at a time when he was advocating compensated emancipation for the South’s slaves.

Abraham Lincoln - "As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew."

What he was hinting at is of supreme relevance to us now – that we are currently in the midst of a situation that we have never encountered before. And because that is where we find ourselves, our thinking may not be up to the task. Why not you might ask? Because many of us have developed our beliefs, habitual thinking patterns and view of ourselves in the world at a time when the (environmental / climate) issues were different to what they are now (even if that was only 20 or 30 years ago).

So what is our new situation? For the first time in recorded human history, we are approaching or already beyond the absolute carrying capacity of our planet. The climate system’s decreasing ability to buffer changes in atmospheric gas concentrations is paralleled by the decreasing availability of arable land, fresh water and food production.

For many people that is a new concept, and one that is difficult to comprehend if one has always believed that this planet’s bounty was infinite. Why might we think that way? When there were fewer of us, and living standards were generally lower, it did seem like we lived on an infinite planet. There was more than enough to go around. But unfortunately not any more. Anthropogenic climate change is just one of the symptoms. But one that most of us are poorly equipped intellectually to deal with.

Image credit: Wikimedia.

Recent US research (also quoted here) shows that less people believe that climate change is real compared to last year.

Less people now "believe" that climate change is real

Over the same period, there has been a comparable decline in the proportion of Americans who say global temperatures are rising as a result of human activity, such as burning fossil fuels. Just 36% say that currently, down from 47% last year.

Research in the UK and Canada shows similar trends.

Less people believe it but the effects of global waming are accelerating

So what do we have to do to convince people that we need to cut GHG emissions? It reminds me of the smoking debate. Both invoke public health issues. Both have solid science behind them. And for both, BELIEF was everything.

I know that many people have written about this before, but changing people’s attitudes and behaviour probably needs to be done using a behaviour-change model such as that used in health promotion and medicine.

For instance see these two abstracts:

The dynamics of belief in climate change and its risks in business organisations.

Climate change: Motivation for taking measure to adapt

Unfortunately the science alone is not enough. It may SEEM that way to scientists but it is not enough for the general public. We have to MARKET climate change and SELL it to the masses.

We have to if we are going to achieve meaningful change.

The anti-climate change lobby is crafting messages to achieve an emotional outcome – we have to as well.

So this conference is trying to do just that – and strangely enough it’s on next week: BEHAVIOR, ENERGY & CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE. Looks like it’s too late to register to attend but you can download the program and all the abstracts (which together forms a sort of topic / study guide) plus there is limited webinar registration available until tomorrow.

New conference on climate change and behaviour

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