CBSM and Scale, John Edwards Message Resonnating with Iowa Voters

There was a great article in the Journal Science recently on preferences and exploitation to extinction. The article's thesis was, even though it is in fishers' best interests to permit fish to repopulate themselves, since this brings the greatest long-term economic benefit to the fishers; fishermen prefer the short-term exploitation of the fish to extinction because it provides them with the most immediate returns. I think our society's exploitation of public goods (air, water, and related resources), regardless of where we live, falls into the same reasoning: Even though it is economically advantageous and profitable for most societies to protect their environment, most societies prefer exploitation toward extinction. Such remains the case with many species (take the North American swallow, for example) and is the case also with pre-Olympic Games China.

Nancy,

your question about motivating people through their children and grandchildren is a good thought. I have a few observations to add to the discussion.

1. Only about 10% of families have children at home...and after children leave home, the urgency of thinking about the next generation decreases...until grandchildren arrive. And we know that grandparents love to send the children home to Mom and Dad :-) ... how does that translate into grandparent action?

1b. I did read recently that research is showing that people over 40 are actually taking more "green" actions than younger people. Youth talk the green story, and older folks take action in their homes, etc. Don't have any details about the research though -- sorry.

2. I've observed (and there is certainly no scientific evidence that I know of) that parents and grandparents decrease their intense interest in children when they reach the 4th grade/ about age 9. That must be a threshold point for independence, or something like that.

3. People seem to be most interested/motivated to take actions regarding their own health. Cost of health care, lost work, pain and suffering...etc. appear to be #1 in our attention. Which I find interesting from a communications standpoint because survival is at the base of Maslow's hierarchy -- and it appears we're back to the basics. Hmmmm.... I think that is a comment about the success of our current societal systems. PS: Entertainment (R&R, stress reduction) seems to be the preferred action :-)

4. Systems. I'm finding that if a "good system" replaces a "bad system" people are quite willing to participate. But the system need to be "convenient". This applies to both public systems and business -- for instance, PUBLIC: recycling systems. Los Angeles just instituted a recycling program for multifamily housing. Our recycling tubs are now full within 2 days! We were just waiting for a system to be available!!!.

PRIVATE: Ikea has a program to take back live Christmas trees in January -- that brings people back to the store during a lull in business. .... I'd love to hear comments on how these kinds of societal realities are being addressed ... and which approaches work best in field applications.

Carolyn

Carolyn Allen,
Publisher
California Green Solutions
(310) 827-2510
7742 Redlands St. #3041 
Playa del Rey, CA 90293
CaliforniaGreenSolutions.com 
[email protected]

Hi Nancy, the message that really seems to have struck a cord is How Can You Face Your Children if you let the corporations destroy the middle class...destroy the environment...steal your childrens future, etc. I often thought this is a really strong message to get people to change their behavior and put the interest of the future, where their children and grandchildren will be living, ahead of momentary self-gratification. What do people think about these two thoughts? What you are discussing is along the same lines that I tried to examine on Dec. 22, when I argued that we need a two-pronged attack: from the bottom up (exercising the practices outlined in Doug's book) and from the top down (supporting and encouraging such practices widely through leadership if not downright legislation). This listserve is full of lovely ideas and reports about good practice, but their comparative isolation is a worry; if so efficient and so effective, why haven't they caught on more widely? Heinberg may be proving correct in that the cbsm movement cannot of itself achieve great and positive swings of behaviour, though equally Government and other leaders cannot achieve sustainable modifications to behaviour without the subtle influences of cbsm. It will be worth monitoring how many of those standing for upcoming elections are influenced by the Al Gore video, and whether the voting public is sympathetic. That may give an indication of where is an effective inlet into the thinking of people at large.

Elizabeth Griffin
(Victoria, Canada)

Hi,

Carolyn, Just a comment about your point #2. Some studies indicate that peer influence begins to outweigh parental influence at the age of 7, and the peer influence is huge by the age of 11. This is an average, but is part of natural child development. That means, however, that adults would need to get their "green" messages across by the age of 7, then hope that kids associate with "green" peers. I also find, though, that actions speak louder than words. Steady recycling, reusing of grocery bags, water conservation, replacement of incandescent bulbs with fluorescent ones, and replacement of appliances with more efficient ones create the "norm" in a family. It may appear to be lost during the teen years, but it seems to return to practice in the 20's. One comment about young people--in the US many are just trying to survive financially as the middle class disappears. Until the notion of "green"-equals-saving-money catches on, this trend will continue.

Thanks for your comments,
Holly

"Children" and "Future Generations" are highly persuasive rationales to offer anyone you want to adopt some sustainable behavior. It is even persuasive to people who are too young to have children of their own. One of the reasons for this is the perception of consequences. Many people report that they are not currently perceiving environmental degradation in their own lives. They've become accustomed to their own personal status quo. But those same people accept that pollution and other problems are real - so they believe that these problems might affect them or their children in the future. The age issue is another matter, and it's quite interesting to ponder. Research pretty clearly demonstrates that people in their late 30s to late 50s engage in many kinds of sustainable behavior at higher rates than people in their teens and 20s, even though youngsters report more "concern." There are several reasons for this: middle-aged adults have more money with which to purchase higher-priced green products or donate to green causes, they are more likely to own homes and have control over appliances and landscaping choices, they buy their own car instead of accepting a hand-me-down, and they have a more influential voice with their employer. The one exception to the above is volunteering. Teens and young adults are more likely to participate in one-time cleanups and other volunteer events. They have fewer responsibilities and are drawn to the social aspects of these activities. Retirees are more likely to become regular volunteers at the local nature center, etc. Social research convincingly demonstrates that middle aged and older adults are much more engaged in civics and politics than young people. Older adults vote, follow the news, and write their elected officials at much higher rates than younger adults. This is the case regardless of the issue.

Eric Eckl

Water Words That Work
P.O. Box 2182
Falls Church, VA 22042
(703) 822-4265
[email protected]
Skype/AIM: ericeckl
http://waterwordsthatwork.com

I just read this interesting "age related news item". This has significant ramifications for how our children interact with the real world. Kiddie Virtual World Is Exploding The New York Times "Get ready for a total inundation" of kiddie-oriented virtual worlds, says eMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson. Webkinz, Club Penguin and the like have been a smashing success where adult-oriented counterparts Second Life and There.com have not. According to comScore, Disney-owned Club Penguin attracts seven times the traffic of Second Life. Webkinz, a site where children create and care for virtual stuffed animals, has seen its traffic soar 342 percent in the last year. In all, eMarketer estimates that 20 million children will be part of a virtual world by 2011, up from 8.2 million today. Disney, for example, plans to follow Club Penguin's success with virtual worlds for "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Cars." 

The challenge for environmental social marketers is to make the abstract tangible - particularly when it comes to climate change. When health marketers enter into an exchange with their target audiences, they're often able to offer a tangible benefit in exchange for a particular behaviour (e.g. stop eating junk food/start exercising and you'll lose weight). Environmental social marketers often don't have this luxury, because both the issue and the incentive are abstract. To take the perspective of the "lay person": should I stop driving my car to work to stymie an environmental phenomenon that I don't even understand (climate change) in the hopes that it might help my grandkids if everyone else does the same thing? This is what, in my opinion, explains the ever-increasing gap between consumer concern for the environment and their static behaviour. While people seem to be more and more concerned, their behaviour is barely budging. To provide an example of the concrete being effective, I would point to the One-Tonne Challenge (OTC). Our experience with that program was that financial incentives were amoung the most popular of the program's "benefits". In fact, the "incentives database" was by far the most popular section of the OTC website. In sum: for those who can't be persuaded to change their behaviour on moral grounds, we need to somehow translate the abstract into the tangible. Homo Economicus might be a flawed model of human motivation, but it's not totally off.

Maurice Muise

Program Manager -
Online Marketing Outreach
Environment Canada
(819) 956-5643
www.ec.gc.ca/eco

On a similar thought, Club Penguin recently did something that I applaud. They had a "coins for change" promotion in which kids playing Club Penguin could donate a portion of their virtual-money to a cause that they support, and Disney would convert their virtual donations to a real-money donation to the organizations! My kids (ages 7 and 10) were thrilled to donate some of their "coins" to the World Wildlife Federation. You can read more about it here: http://www.clubpenguin.com/coins-for-change.htm

Hi-

Good point, but I wonder whether the underlying draw is not so much money as measuability. Feedback mechanisms that deliver real-time data such as miles per gallon traveled or kilowatts per hour burned may also be potent. I am thinking in particular of how the owners of cars, such as the Prius, which give real time mpg read-outs get very stoked about just how many miles to the gallon they can get. They begin to compete with themselves, just as serious athletes do. I've often wondered if having an in-home real-time readout of electric use wouldn't prompt people to conserve more, just to "get their numbers down," as they do with weight.

Liz Goldman
Dover Energy Advisory Board
Dover, NH

Carolyn and FSB,

Long term outcome research shows that it may be worthwhile to reach parents through kids rather than vice versa. Two long-term follow-up studies where the school-based interventions were able to lower smoking smoking prevalence at the 7th grade (12-13 year old level) showed that, while the long-term effects on the kids were transient, one solid long-term effect was that more parents stopped smoking in the intervention schools. The implication is that environmental education directed at age 12-13 might profitably include strategic messages for the parents and others in the household.

Fred Bass, MD, DSc
[email protected]
Www.communityclimatechange.ca

I second Liz's idea - I love showing people how the feedback in the Prius shows them what a "quick start" does to their gas milage. People hear the tip about "avoiding jack rabbit starts, but don't see the impact easily - the feedback is right in front of you in the Prius. We've just purchased a Kil-a-watt meter to get the feedback on our applicance use. I think we need more ways to give people understandable and immediate feedback on their behavior and how it impacts their wallet and the environment. In schools, I've worked with teachers that have had kids paint a mural of the number of trees saved based on the number of tons of paper they recycled. Growing a virtual forest gives them motivation that may impact later life habits.

Marta Keane,

Recycling Program Specialist
Will County Land Use -
Waste Services
58 E. Clinton Street,
Suite 500 Joliet, IL 60432
815-774-4343
[email protected]