People

Hi
I think PEOPLE are our greatest vulnerability because of the many difficulties intrinsic to just “engaging society”. The disparity between the enormity of climate change and small individual actions has to be admitted and tackled directly. In their excellent 2006 report “Warm Words” the Institute for Public Policy Research propose:
– Targeting behaviours that ‘feel like what my people do’;
– Exploiting ‘esteem-driven’ choices - encouraging people in what they CAN do or buy, not what they cannot;
– Recognising that people trust other people much more than us (governments, business leaders and academics); and
– Using non-rational approaches, like metaphor, to engage folks emotionally and make desired behaviours attractive.