Social Science & Sustainability

Ernest Thoughts

Social Science & Sustainability

By Ernest ⋅ January 29, 2009 ⋅

Tags: behavior, climate change, culture, sustainability

When SSAP (Sustainable Society Action Project, Inc.) convened its first conference in 1990, the theme was developed in cooperation with the late Dr. Donald Campbell. A former president of the American Psychological Society, and an expert on testing, he realized that an entity that evaluates the effect of its actions, and changes its actions in light of this data, is a significantly different entity than one which doesn’t. Engineers have known about feedback for a long time. A building heating system with a thermostat is quite different than a similar one without. However, the concept was new to social scientists. As Martin Rees, the British Astronomer Royal, writes in Science (Volume 323, page 309), “… on at least one planet, Darwinian selection led to the emergence of creatures able to ponder their origins.”

I had thought of this independently, from a slightly different point of view. I realized that genetic evolution was slow, but humans were rapidly evolving in a different way. The new way was the cultural channel. The pace of evolution in the cultural channel was speeding up. We humans had the power to actually change the whole world. At that time, the major sustainability problem was seen to be the availability of fossil fuels. Climate scientists started warning us about global climate change a few years later. Scientists have now identified a whole host of ways in which human civilization is profoundly changing the Planet. In addition to climate change, these include habitat destruction (deforestation), biologically active substances (drugs and fertilizer) in water, changing the acidity of the oceans, human-triggered earth quakes (A Human Trigger for the Great Quake of Sichuan?, Science Volume 323, page 322), drying up of lakes (Aral Sea and Lake Chad), over-fishing, and anti-biotic resistant bacteria.

A very recent development is that many Americans have become aware of global climate change, and want to do something to prevent it. (Note that I use the term “climate change”, rather than “global warming”. It involves redistribution of precipitation patterns, increased storm damage, and other matters, in addition to melting ice floes and less snow to shovel.) This is feedback in the social system. Now that there is support for sustainability action, how should we proceed.

The key word is “we”. We are many individual consumers, we are producers, we are voters, we are parts of larger organizations, such as government, business, academia, we are members of religious congregations, we are educators, we are members of ethnic groups, we belong to voluntary organizations, including environmental ones, and we are parts of families. We are all of the above, and in each of these roles, we have to do the appropriate thing to build a sustainable future social-economy for the future.

As individuals, we can reduce our own carbon footprint, and act more sustainably in other ways. Using the concept of “social marketing”, if we do the above conspicuously, others may emulate us, and also reduce their carbon footprints. That’s influencing general culture. Now, as Bob Edgar, former congressional representative from Delaware County, used to say, “Congress is made up of 535 ordinary folk, neither the best nor the worst. They reflect ordinary American values.” If we, the people, really want a sustainable America, Congress will do such things as increasing fuel taxes, subsidizing rail and electric transportation, and funding research into renewable energy. As individuals, we can’t build our own transit system, but we can influence the government, and other large organizations, to build them for us.

There are other levels of culture in between an individual’s behavior and large organization or government action. These include family, ethnic groups, age cohorts (particularly in schools), and religion. The role of religion and other emotionally connected activities has been largely overlooked. However, an important part in the union movement of the mid-twentieth century was played by Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and other folk singers, who used familiar melodies, such as hymns, with new words, to get ordinary working people to join unions. As noted above, memes (culture elements) are transmitted from person to person. Based on the original work of Everett Rogers (Diffusion of Innovations, New York, The Free Press), social marketing has been rediscovered in recent years. Canadian social-psychologist, Douglas McKenzie-Mohr, has applied these concepts, as well as other Social Psychology techniques, to help change people’s behavior (Fostering Sustainable Behavior: An Introduction to Community-Based Social Marketing, Douglas Mckenzie-Mohr and William Smith, þ 1999, New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, BC, Canada). An interesting example is that when children learn about sustainabilty in school, they often get their parents to change behavior patterns, such as using public transportation or practicing recycling.

Spirituality, religion, and music seem to be built into human beings, and are closely related. As some psychologists argue, these aspects of our brains must have survival advantages, in a Darwinian sense (The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature, Daniel J. Levitan, þ 2008, New York, Dutton). Cult leaders, in their evil way, seem to know how to use these tools to recruit members, and make them follow the cults ways, even when this leads to group suicide.

If we really want to evolve a sustainable future society, gracefully, and not as a recovery from a world-wide collapse, we must find ways to utilize these aspects of human nature. Like most innovations, this involves starting with some ideas, testing them out in a “bench model”, and using that experience, build better models. How can this be done with changing American culture to sustainability?

Elaine and I have been working on aspects of this for decades, albeit on a small scale. Since religion is one of the most human of activities, we have developed sustainability rituals. Obviously, being Jewish, these rituals utilize Jewish motifs, but the concept of building sustainability on existing religious motifs can be realized in any religion. If I were to do this as a Catholic, I would portray St. Francis of Assisi holding a polar bear cub, with a melting ice floe in the background.

How to do it will require an integration of theory with practical experience. Attached to this column are two invitations. The first is to participate in the Tu B’Shevat ceremony on Sunday evening, February 8, 2009. The second is to come to the SSAP (Sustainable Society Action Project, Inc.) meeting at our home on February 3, 2009, and discuss how we can be part of changing American culture to make it more sustainable. We expect to have some interesting participants at both events. If you live reasonably close to Delaware County, please come. Both events are on SEPTA lines, so you don’t have to drive. Your presence will be greatly appreciated. If you need more information, send us an email or phone: 610-352-2689.

Ernest B. Cohen, PE & Ph. D. & Elaine H. Cohen
ernest.cohen@ieee.org

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