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being developed that attend to the differences between actions having immediate
effects versus reductions that only occur over a decadal time-scale (Wolske and
Stern 2018). We are also learning to design interventions that are durable (i.e. the
behaviour is maintained long after the intervention has ended; Moore and Boldero
2017) and generalisable (i.e. the effect of an intervention spills over to other con-
texts and behaviours; Nilsson et al. 2017) both useful features for promoting and
sustaining multiple behaviours.
13.3.3 Cannot Know the Behaviours Needed
Dietz et
al. (2009) highlighted the importance of simultaneously changing multiple
behaviours, each selected for their high short-term impact. However, they also pre-
dicted that “lifestyle changes may become necessary in the out-years under con-
strained energy supply or economic growth scenarios” (2009: 18455). This identifies
an important concern. Embedded in our current approach is the assumption that we
can know, well in advance, the appropriate environmental stewardship behaviours
to promote. This prior-knowledge would be essential for the development of the
policies, incentives or nudges (Thaler and Sunstein 2008) necessary to direct behav-
iour. Such knowledge might also be needed for a new behavioural change approach,
that of developing boosts that enhance old, or create new, competencies (Hertwig
and Grüne-Yanoff 2017). Yet, under the new context posited here, this assumption
is not met. There exists only a general outline of required future behaviours, not
their details. Indeed, it is nearly impossible to imagine what everyday life might
involve after a drastic reduction in surplus energy coupled with accelerating climate
disruption.
This behavioural predicament is twofold. We cannot prescribe the specific behav-
iours that will need adopting decades hence, other than to suggest that they may be
very different from what is now familiar. Furthermore, there will be an urgency to
respond, which will necessitate the adoption of whole clusters of behaviours; incre-
mental and serial change will no longer suffice.
13.4 New Form of Intervention
There is a great difference between green consumerism and a newly emerging pat-
tern of behaviours labeled green citizenship. This difference will become increas-
ingly important as we confront the new behavioural context. Much of our current
attention focuses on encouraging green consumerism. It is assumed that by modify-
ing consumer choices it is possible to sustain a techno-industrial society. Green
consumerism is fully compatible with efforts to make only incremental changes to
techno-industrial society. Within this framework, consumers are treated as fully
independent, self-determining and sovereign (Princen 2010; Princen et al. 2002).
13 Supporting Behavioural Entrepreneurs: Using the Biodiversity-Health Relationship…
Biodiversity and Health in the Face of Climate Change
- Titel
- Biodiversity and Health in the Face of Climate Change
- Autoren
- Melissa Marselle
- Jutta Stadler
- Horst Korn
- Katherine Irvine
- Aletta Bonn
- Verlag
- Springer Open
- Datum
- 2019
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-030-02318-8
- Abmessungen
- 15.5 x 24.0 cm
- Seiten
- 508
- Schlagwörter
- Environment, Environmental health, Applied ecology, Climate change, Biodiversity, Public health, Regional planning, Urban planning
- Kategorien
- Naturwissenschaften Umwelt und Klima