Are most people unwilling to change our lifestyles?
Surveys seem to show growing public support for action on climate change but most people seem unwilling to change their own lifestyles. Does the focus of campaigning need to change?So far, most campaigning on climate change has focussed on convincing people that human greenhouse gas emissions are the main cause of climate change. There is plenty of evidence that this message, in its simplest form, is now spreading into the main media areas of informed opinion across a great many countries. Now we have evidence that although even where a majority of some groups of people say that they support action on climate change, this support is very shallow. Most of these supporters show very little willingness to accept that their own individual lifestyles must change significantly, and it seems that very few are doing more than change a few light bulbs.
Should our campaigning change to tackle this problem of shallow support?
Why is support so shallow when the message should be compelling?
What can we do to build commitment commensurate with the crisis we face?
If you are interested in this discussion there are two ways you can take part. Either send your ideas by e-mail to Morris Bradley at [email protected] and I will try to reflect them in this posting and/or e-mail me that you would like to be invited to a discussion (on this topic) with not more than five people so that the issues can be tackled in depth. The discussion will be arranged on a weekday from 6.0 pm to 7.30pm or on a Saturday from 2.0 to 3.30pm in central Edinburgh. You need to give me a list of several possible dates so that I can coordinate a suitable group of people. Click More for references -
Book list -Rough Guide, Henson page 240.
Webarticle - 4/11/06 Chaotic world of climate truth.
News list - 13/9/2007 Have we trivialised climate change/ 15/8/07 Too much effort to adopt a greener lifestyle/ 13/8/07 We won’t stop flying/ 9/8/07 We back green measures but won’t pay more/ 18/7/07 Survey reveals nature of armchair ecologists/ 3/7/ 07 Skepticism over climate claims/ 15/5/07 Climate messages are off target/ 18/3/07 Don’t exaggerate climate dangers/ 3/2/07 Semantics of climate change/ 4/12/06 Youth poll offers contradictions/ 16/1/06 Make green message cool.