Page - 305 - in Biodiversity and Health in the Face of Climate Change

305 13.5.1 Needed Future Capacities Applied here, this approach involves identifying the capacities that would be needed in order for citizens to plan, self-initiate and regulate their behaviour. A complete list of such capacities and their functional relationships would be long, drawing from the full range of social science research. For the purpose here, we can bound the list by considering only those features needed for conducting the mental work of envisioning, crafting and implementing behaviours in a future context. Hertwig and Grüne-Yanoff (2017), in their explanation of the advantage of using boosting rather than nudging to change behaviour, mention creating competencies that are useful across a range of situations including, presumably, those for which we cannot in advance know the details. Their discussion of these capacities includes improving people’s competencies to exercise their own agency. One example is the authors distinguishing between short- and long-term boosts with the latter focused on creating generic problem-solving capacities that would be useful in future situa- tions (Sunstein 2016). Wamsler et  al. (2018) are more specific in their discussion of the relationship between mindfulness and sustainability. They highlight such individual capacities as being able to maintain an adaptive and flexible response to events, the minimising of impulsive and habitual reactions and similar self-regulation skills. Analogous capabilities were uncovered in the study of green citizenship (Hamilton et  al. 2018) where participants identified the importance of a capacity for openness in approach- ing a situation so as to avoid habitual response. Green citizens also seek opportuni- ties to learn new skills while simultaneously deriving intrinsic satisfaction from these same opportunities (Guckian et  al. 2017; Hamilton et  al. 2018). These ideas suggest a preliminary set of three capacities necessary for effectively responding to the new biophysical and behavioural context. Mental Clarity Clear-headedness would be necessary for envisioning desired future states. Conscious deliberation and reflection are needed to plan the interme- diate and long-term goals, and relevant behaviours, needed for achieving those future states. Building Competencies Given that future behaviours are unknowable in their details there is the need for a motivation to continuously develop new competencies rather than merely the training of specific skills. Particularly important is the ability to understand diverse and complex social and natural systems in order to be able to identify intended and unintended consequences of future actions. Emotional Regulation The premise of this chapter cannot help but be unsettling. Nonetheless, given the likely need for social coordination, it will be necessary to maintain pro-social inclinations under the stress of difficult biophysical circum- stances. Maintaining a positive emotional state will help to build and maintain  social and behavioural resources. 13 Supporting Behavioural Entrepreneurs: Using the  Biodiversity-Health Relationship…