Seite - 302 - in Biodiversity and Health in the Face of Climate Change

302 Few, if any, constraints are to be placed on their decision-making, and their con- sumer choice, once made, is self-justifying and neither to be challenged nor judged. Furthermore, the behaviours promoted must be easily reversible thus preserving the individual’s autonomy (Thaler and Sunstein 2008). Green consumerism is also a comfortable approach because it is not a complicated set of behaviours, does not require mentally draining decision-making and it contains the unspoken promise that after achieving an environmentally sustainable state, most of the benefits of modernity will remain. Unfortunately, green consumerism has proven ineffective in curbing collective rates of consumption. Despite greatly improved efficiencies and clever behavioural interventions, society’s aggregate energy usage and emissions continue to climb (Dietz et  al. 2007; Jackson 2009; Monbiot 2015; Rees 2010). In contrast, green citizenship is an approach that promotes behaviours based on different motivations and a longer-term time horizon. Recent work suggests that green citizens identify alternate paths of engaging with environmental stewardship that are not limited to the consumptive, product-centric actions defined by green consumerism (Alexander 2011). By moving beyond a consumption focus, green citizens enjoy a broad set of benefits embedded within alternative life patterns. Empirical research reveals that individuals find the pursuit of competence (e.g. developing new skills), frugality (e.g. pursuing resourcefulness), community par- ticipation and opportunities for meaningful action to be intrinsically satisfying and durable motivators of long-term environmental stewardship (De Young 1996; Ryan and Grese 2005; Ryan et  al. 2001). Furthermore, and most relevant to the issue at hand, green citizens are revealed to be explorers and problem-solvers (Hamilton et  al. 2018). These citizens are engaged in anticipatory adaptation (Lyles 2015; Ryan 2016), a pro-active form of pre-familiarisation,  planning and capacity- building (Wamsler et  al. 2018). The emerging profile of green citizens suggests a need for interventions that dramatically differ from those aimed at promoting green consum- erism (Guckian et  al. 2017). However, green citizenship may involve more mentally taxing reflection and planning, an issue returned to shortly. 13.4.1 Small Experiments The new behavioural context includes the stressful  conditions of great and pro- longed uncertainty, and grave stakes. These are circumstances where we would be advised to start with small steps. As Scott (1998: 345) advises, “Prefer wherever possible to take a small step, stand back, observe, and then plan the next small move”. Scott’s (1998) idea follows, in part, the ‘small experiment’ approach to envi- ronmental problem solving outlined by Kaplan (1996; see also Irvine and Kaplan 2001; Kaplan et  al. 1998). Small experiments are a framework for supporting problem-solving that is based on people’s natural tendency to explore and understand (Kaplan and Kaplan 2003, R. De  Young