Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
8
CHAPTER EIGHT
Greening the brain
Understanding and changing
human behaviour
While most homes have an electricity meter, which
keeps a record of energy consumption prac-
tices, these devices are usually tucked away in
dusty cupboards underneath stairs and are rarely
consulted. But even if we were made constantly
aware of our domestic energy consumption
levels (and, more importantly, what these levels
meant for greenhouse gas production), the worst
environmental consequences of our actions would
still remain hidden from us. If we take climate
change as an example, the fact that contemporary
patterns of greenhouse gas production tend to only
change climates over relatively long time periods,
and often in distant places, means that the feedback
we receive on the consequences of our action is
further restricted.
Feedback is an important prompt to rational
human responses to the consequences of our
behaviour: we make a mistake, we observe the
consequences of that mistake and we correct our
behaviour to ensure that we don't make that
mistake again. At the Centre for Research on
Environmental Decisions' gathering at Columbia
University, however, other, more emotional,
prompts to human behaviours were discussed.
It appears that while we often like to think of
ourselves as rational decision-makers (care-
fully weighing up our options in order to guide
our conduct), a significant portion of human
behaviour is driven by more irrational prompts to
action (see Damasio, 1995). We discuss the nature
8.1 INTRODUCTION: HUMAN
PSYCHOLOGY IN THE
ANTHROPOCENE
In early 2009 experts from the Centre for Research
on Environmental Decisions gathered at Columbia
University to discuss why the human brain is not
green in its orientation (Gertner, 2009). This
meeting, which drew together social scientists,
psychologists and economists, reflects a broader
search for more sophisticated ways of under-
standing humans' environmental behaviours.
Those gathered at Columbia University appeared
to agree that there were identifiable, and signifi-
cant, barriers to developing more environment-
ally sustainable patterns of human behaviour.
At one level, experts argued that individuals tend
to receive very poor feedback on the consequences
of their environmental actions. If we focus on
domestic energy consumption (most people's
single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions)
as an example, we can identify why we often
remain blissfully unaware of the environmental
consequences of everyday behaviours. Within
the home, energy use, and its environmental
side effects, have an intangible quality. The ease
with which we can switch a light on, boot-up a
computer or reset a thermostat means that we
often remain blissfully unaware of how much
energy we are actually consuming as it makes
its invisible way around our home (Jackson, 2005).
