Marita Prandoni has a passion for exploring different cultures and worldviews. She draws inspiration from her family, tutoring extraordinary youth, meeting unexpected heroes and from the stunning natural beauty of her home turf in and around Santa Fe, NM.
| How Do We Convince People to Care About the Planet? |
| Friday, 22 January 2010 | Marita Prandoni | Blog Entry |
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It’s distressing to learn that concern for our imperiled life-support system, other species and social justice is considered marginal or even criminal behavior. Why don’t people connect the dots between the state of our ecosystems and our future survival? For many people, staying fed, sheltered and protected from attack by predators is more important, even in modern times. Our brains have evolved to care more about averting immediate threats. The same goes for more fortunate people. The threat of climate change is not immediate enough. If hurricanes aren’t bearing down upon us, floodwaters aren’t lapping at our foundations, or wildfires aren’t licking our front doors, it’s hard to get too worked up, especially if there’s something good on TV. In a recent article in TimesOnline, Dr Robert Cialdini, a social psychologist and the author of Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, describes that getting people to care about an issue depends on how they believe they measure up against their peers. “Birds flock together, fish school together, cattle herd together… just perceiving norms is enough to cause people to deflect their behavior in the direction of the crowd.” Cialdini recommends, “Instead of normalizing the undesirable behavior, the message needs to marginalize it. Make it the province of the outlier, for example, [by stating that] if even one person buys yet another SUV, it reduces our ability to be energy-independent.” Yet as Canadian environmentalist, scientist and broadcaster David Suzuki explains, “What’s happened in the last 40-some odd years… is… the scientific and technological experts are becoming more and more entrenched with their knowledge and far less understood by the general public.” Change-makers like Suzuki are using popular media as a tool to inspire people to protect the balance of nature. Other such creative activists who come to mind are Sofía Quintero and John Marks:
Drawing people in through a local story is a clever strategy for convincing people to care about the planet and one another. It also helps if the message is transmitted with charisma, humor and humility. As for associating progressive activism with criminal behavior, I defer to Howard Zinn: “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.” Additional resources: Comments
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Written by Brian G , January 22, 2010
Linz, I'm not sure where you are coming from. Of course people will continue to buy SUVs if the vehicles are priced as they are--lower than their real cost in terms of pollution, depleted unrenewable resources, climate change, illness, etc. That is why we need to include the externalities in the cost through taxes.
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Why would you not care about the planet? It is the MOST important thing to care about; it sustains us. Many other civilizations have been wiped out when they failed to act in sustainable ways. Contrary to what you said, I think the key to surviving IS being less selfish--either through self discipline, which most humans lack, or laws and taxes to influence behavior.
Written by MP , January 22, 2010
Hmmm, I agree that we need energy for the future to meet the needs of billions who deserve a higher standard of living, and that education underlies all progress. But one reason that is not happening is that people with more carbon-intensive lifestyles demand cheap energy. On a finite planet, we need to come to terms with the hidden costs of what we call cheap energy. History has shown that we've bankrupted most of the global south as well as future generations by not reining in our voracious wants and not paying the true costs with regard to human rights and environmental destruction. An economy based on conserving resources would be a step in the right direction.
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Written by linz , January 22, 2010
How do we convince people to care about the planet? I think the more interesting question is why we think it is important to do so.
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Given the scale of the energy challenge, I don't think it's all that important whether we're driving SUVs. People will continue to drive SUVs as long as they are available and practical. If another vehicle could match the SUV in convenience, efficiency, and price, only then would people leave behind their SUVs. The biggest challenges we face today are not about being less selfish and more environmentalist, but about meeting the rising needs for energy in a world with billions of people moving from abject poverty to a slightly more comfortable existence. The real question needs to be: how can we innovate fast, clean, and cheap forms of energy for the future? The rallying cry should be to invest more in education, research, development, and deployment. |
When I discuss the issues I am passionate about, I get responses ranging from, “Oh, my daughter would love you,” to “Progressives have been largely responsible for the undermining of our criminal justice system and the resulting anarchy.”
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Not that I see us doing so anytime soon--I believe it would be politically unfeasible. If we try to mandate our way to fewer emissions too quickly, the price of energy will rise abruptly, triggering political backlash from consumers and industry. But if we limit emissions too slowly, clean energy alternatives will not become cost-competitive with fossil fuels in time to prevent catastrophic global warming. That's why I think the carbon cap/taxation paradigms are at best a sideshow to what we really need to focus on: major, long-term federal investment to rapidly drive down the price of clean energy.