What this world needs most to save us from climate change disaster is behavioral psychologists to work on helping us to enact change.
I'm not talking about climate deniers. Well, I'm not just talking about the deniers and how to change their minds. I'm talking about those of us who believe that climate change is happening and haven't yet changed our actions accordingly.
Think about it.
Eco-anxiety gets in the way. We know it's happening but we try to avoid looking at it too closely for fear of facing the truth.
The other day, I was listening to NPR and Shankar Vedantam interviewed two behavioral psychologists about their research grant to understand more fully how New Year's Resolutions don't work. I couldn't find the interview, but he has a new podcast called The Hidden Brain. When asked how successful these scientists thought they could be ultimately, one said 21% and the other said 25%. That's not promising.
And that's talking about changing the behavior of one individual, like me, who truly believes she needs to do something different every day to help save the planet. What about all of us together I want to ask those psychologists.
Have you ever tried to get fourteen people moving when you've decided to go somewhere fun? When there are just two of you, it's fairly easy. You talk about going. You decide to go. You get ready to go. And you go.
Add a couple and you can feel the molasses of humanity slowing you down. It's harder to get out the door even after you decided what you want to do. Add another ten people and there are sub-conversations and people who get ready but get bored waiting and get started doing something else. Then, there are the people who do nothing to get ready until the moment you think you're about to go out the door.
"I still need a shower. Give me five minutes," one procrastinator will say.
"I need lunch and a water bottle," says the one who showered first because she forgot about some of the things she needed to do to really get ready.
Then, you get the ones who actively resist going anywhere. These people are like the climate deniers or the guy I have to fight every single time I buy groceries at a particular store who gives me a new plastic bag out of spite. We think these people are the worst at holding you back, but they're not. If they were, you could leave those two behind and still take twelve people out to the trail head to hike Mailbox peak.
No, it's not them. It's us, the ones who really want to go sweat under our bras until we reach a place with a view.
Think about Puerto Rico. It was a fad on Twitter to push Congress to send them more aid for a few weeks, but after a while, the news went on to different track and we got back to our normal lives. Puerto Rico still struggles as I write this. They've begun to add some suicides to the lists of the dead on account of the hurricane. Think about that. If you were one of the people leading that charge, what have you done lately? The problem still exists but the excitement of the fad of helping has passed. The only people still pushing for relief there are the ones with loved ones there.
Am I right?
So, I'm actually going to try to have a New Year's Resolution that involves some climate change changes, some extra things I can do to keep the spotlight on that problem, some actual things I can do differently to have a positive impact on the environment.
Wish me luck. I hope I do better than a 21% success rate.
Thank you for listening, jules
I'm not talking about climate deniers. Well, I'm not just talking about the deniers and how to change their minds. I'm talking about those of us who believe that climate change is happening and haven't yet changed our actions accordingly.
Think about it.
Eco-anxiety gets in the way. We know it's happening but we try to avoid looking at it too closely for fear of facing the truth.
The other day, I was listening to NPR and Shankar Vedantam interviewed two behavioral psychologists about their research grant to understand more fully how New Year's Resolutions don't work. I couldn't find the interview, but he has a new podcast called The Hidden Brain. When asked how successful these scientists thought they could be ultimately, one said 21% and the other said 25%. That's not promising.
And that's talking about changing the behavior of one individual, like me, who truly believes she needs to do something different every day to help save the planet. What about all of us together I want to ask those psychologists.
Have you ever tried to get fourteen people moving when you've decided to go somewhere fun? When there are just two of you, it's fairly easy. You talk about going. You decide to go. You get ready to go. And you go.
Add a couple and you can feel the molasses of humanity slowing you down. It's harder to get out the door even after you decided what you want to do. Add another ten people and there are sub-conversations and people who get ready but get bored waiting and get started doing something else. Then, there are the people who do nothing to get ready until the moment you think you're about to go out the door.
"I still need a shower. Give me five minutes," one procrastinator will say.
"I need lunch and a water bottle," says the one who showered first because she forgot about some of the things she needed to do to really get ready.
Then, you get the ones who actively resist going anywhere. These people are like the climate deniers or the guy I have to fight every single time I buy groceries at a particular store who gives me a new plastic bag out of spite. We think these people are the worst at holding you back, but they're not. If they were, you could leave those two behind and still take twelve people out to the trail head to hike Mailbox peak.
No, it's not them. It's us, the ones who really want to go sweat under our bras until we reach a place with a view.
Think about Puerto Rico. It was a fad on Twitter to push Congress to send them more aid for a few weeks, but after a while, the news went on to different track and we got back to our normal lives. Puerto Rico still struggles as I write this. They've begun to add some suicides to the lists of the dead on account of the hurricane. Think about that. If you were one of the people leading that charge, what have you done lately? The problem still exists but the excitement of the fad of helping has passed. The only people still pushing for relief there are the ones with loved ones there.
Am I right?
So, I'm actually going to try to have a New Year's Resolution that involves some climate change changes, some extra things I can do to keep the spotlight on that problem, some actual things I can do differently to have a positive impact on the environment.
Wish me luck. I hope I do better than a 21% success rate.
Thank you for listening, jules
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