5 ms·

Call me a pessimist, but I don't think people will "change behavior" just because somebody told them to. They won't change even if they begin to suffer for it.

by kijin 10y ago

Call me a pessimist, but I don't think people will "change behavior" just because somebody told them to. They won't change even if they begin to suffer for it. Homes in parts of Southern Florida are already getting flooded on a regular basis, even in clear weather. Are those homeowners burning less gas because of it? Not really. The high oil prices of the early 2010s did little to curb CO2 production worldwide. People really don't want to change unless they're too poor to afford fossil fuels, and making everyone poor is probably not a good solution, either. Calling for abstinence doesn't work in energy consumption any more than it does in sex education. To hope otherwise is wishful thinking. More depressing is the fact that even if a lot of us drastically reduced our carbon footprint right now, what's going to happen is going to happen anyway. The amount of CO2 that's already in the atmosphere is enough to cause catastrophe over the next few decades. So I think the scientific and engineering prowess of the world would be better spent trying to help people cope with the consequences of global warming than trying to persuade them to change their habits. This Titanic is going down no matter how hard you try to steer it away from that iceberg. Stop wasting time trying to argue with people who think the ship is okay. Use that time to build more lifeboats instead, because we barely have any time to do even that. Use nuclear power to sequester massive amounts of CO2 someplace deep. Bulld walls around major coastal cities. Relocate people in vulnerable areas to higher ground. Start planting crops that tolerate heat better, and move current crops further north -- there's gonna be a lot of newly arable land in Canada and Russia. Use desalination and new agricultural techniques to fight against drought. Put more research into malaria prevention, or better yet, exterminate mosquitoes altogether. (A very large portion of projected loss of life associated with global warming is due to 1. drought and 2. increased mosquito activity.)

spodek 10y ago
> I don't think people will "change behavior" just because somebody told them to Telling people what to do isn't leadership. Confusing telling people what to do and other ineffective techniques with actually, effectively leading them is part of why we have been ineffective at changing people's behavior, illustrating my point. > I think the scientific and engineering prowess of the world would be better spent trying to help people cope with the consequences of global warming than trying to persuade them to change their habits. Black-and-white false dichotomies are another problem. Believing since we've already done so much that the cause is lost is another. A better life doesn't require releasing more CO2. In fact, it can often come with less. Effective leaders don't lose their cool in difficult times. Many shine then. Instead of throwing in the towel on prevention, we can improve the future relative to what it would be if we just say since we didn't succeed yet we never will.
- mlinksva 10y ago
  > I moved from science to leadership. ... > Confusing telling people what to do and other ineffective techniques with actually, effectively leading them is part of why we have been ineffective at changing people's behavior, illustrating my point. ... > Effective leaders don't lose their cool in difficult times. Many shine then. Instead of throwing in the towel on prevention, we can improve the future relative to what it would be if we just say since we didn't succeed yet we never will. Please tell us what you are doing. Thanks in advance for whatever it is.
  - spodek 10y ago
    My profile has the link to my blog, but it's joshuaspodek.com. My bio is at joshuaspodek.com/bio and my courses at joshuaspodek.com/courses.
    - mlinksva 10y ago
      I meant regarding climate change. Searched your blog and best I could find is: > I talk a lot about how I try to avoid flying because the pollution it causes hurts people. Good for you! (I don't mean this sarcastically. Me too.) I expected to find some things you've done that were _effective at changing people's behavior_, given your comments above.
      - spodek 10y ago
        Changing my behavior to pollute less is easy and rewarding. Changing others' behavior unrelated to polluting less is easy and rewarding. Changing others' behavior to pollute less is hard and punishing. People get angry and defensive about it. It's one of the main areas I'm trying to develop. (Other things I do myself include not owning a car, using subways or walking nearly everywhere, not eating meat, avoiding packaged food, not using air conditioning at least at home, and a few things like that, although after doing them long enough, I generally do them because I prefer them to their polluting alternatives. I like walking, eating fresh fruits and vegetables, and so on).

by kijin 10y ago

spodek 10y ago

> I don't think people will "change behavior" just because somebody told them to Telling people what to do isn't leadership. Confusing telling people what to do and other ineffective techniques with actually, effectively leading them is part of why we have been ineffective at changing people's behavior, illustrating my point. > I think the scientific and engineering prowess of the world would be better spent trying to help people cope with the consequences of global warming than trying to persuade them to change their habits. Black-and-white false dichotomies are another problem. Believing since we've already done so much that the cause is lost is another. A better life doesn't require releasing more CO2. In fact, it can often come with less. Effective leaders don't lose their cool in difficult times. Many shine then. Instead of throwing in the towel on prevention, we can improve the future relative to what it would be if we just say since we didn't succeed yet we never will.

mlinksva 10y ago
> I moved from science to leadership. ... > Confusing telling people what to do and other ineffective techniques with actually, effectively leading them is part of why we have been ineffective at changing people's behavior, illustrating my point. ... > Effective leaders don't lose their cool in difficult times. Many shine then. Instead of throwing in the towel on prevention, we can improve the future relative to what it would be if we just say since we didn't succeed yet we never will. Please tell us what you are doing. Thanks in advance for whatever it is.
- spodek 10y ago
  My profile has the link to my blog, but it's joshuaspodek.com. My bio is at joshuaspodek.com/bio and my courses at joshuaspodek.com/courses.
  - mlinksva 10y ago
    I meant regarding climate change. Searched your blog and best I could find is: > I talk a lot about how I try to avoid flying because the pollution it causes hurts people. Good for you! (I don't mean this sarcastically. Me too.) I expected to find some things you've done that were _effective at changing people's behavior_, given your comments above.
    - spodek 10y ago
      Changing my behavior to pollute less is easy and rewarding. Changing others' behavior unrelated to polluting less is easy and rewarding. Changing others' behavior to pollute less is hard and punishing. People get angry and defensive about it. It's one of the main areas I'm trying to develop. (Other things I do myself include not owning a car, using subways or walking nearly everywhere, not eating meat, avoiding packaged food, not using air conditioning at least at home, and a few things like that, although after doing them long enough, I generally do them because I prefer them to their polluting alternatives. I like walking, eating fresh fruits and vegetables, and so on).