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Can psychology save the planet?
21 August 2009
Next year I’ll be 50
I’ll be one of the 6.8 billion alive today. When I was born I was one of only 3 billion. By the time I reach 70 I’ll be one of 8 billion people inhabiting this planet. There are all kinds of models that tinker with possible population growth, but if my lifetime pattern is repeated then anyone born today will live in a world populated by more than 18 billion people by the time he or she gets to be 70. That has to make for a very different world. It’s already a very different world from that of my childhood. Our awareness in respect of limited resources has increased dramatically: We KNOW that the oil will run out; that sustainable energy is a must-do not a nice-to-do; and that existing food production levels won’t feed a growing world population (after all, it doesn’t feed everyone now). Change is therefore a must. But what will make the change happen?
It’s possible that the situation will be allowed to degenerate and become critical. At which point the self interest of every nation state will come to the fore and people will (literally) fight for survival. It’s already happening; what do you think terrorism is all about? It’s not just some bunch of feckless wannabe’s, gangs of modern day Robin Hood’s or rabid religious fanatics. Research suggests that the socialising of individuals to become suicide bombers is easiest when strong feelings of unjust treatment are prevalent across a whole group: In so many words; a fight for survival. When a nation fights for survival it becomes war. When they all start to fight it’s a world war; quite possibly a war that no one can win. Clearly this is a situation to be avoided. However short term vested interest groups focused on maintaining the status quo for as long as possible currently prevail. There are nay-sayers who accept no responsibility for climate change and cite ‘natural processes of change’ are missing the point. It doesn’t matter what caused (or is causing) the world to get warmer. These people are dangerous because all that really matters is that when it gets warmer it makes it even more difficult for a growing population to survive. That makes critical situations increasingly more possible, (and that’s definitely not a good thing).
Global Warming
The imperative is therefore to do whatever is necessary to slow down the rate of global warming; for no other reason than to give us longer to figure out how to manage an ever increasing burden on the resources of the planet. All of this of course requires action. The question remains; what will cause that action to take place? The answer has to be in the changing of the way people think. The starting point must be to address how the problem is evaluated; how it is thought about; how it is discussed; and how relevant it is made to feel to an individual. In other words, the answer is PSYCHOLOGY. There is plenty of psychological research to draw on (and it’s being added to every day in the field of ‘conservation psychology’). Lessons are slowly being learned but not as quickly or as effectively as they might be. Opportunities are lost on a daily basis; confusion reigns and counterproductive arguments are regularly put forward in naive but well intentioned attempts to generate positive change.
The answer to the problem lies in the question: what do we have to do to change behaviour? Answer: We have to get really good at managing behavioural change!
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