Reorienting Climate Change, Article Review Example

This article discusses the association between attitudinal change and behavior change in regards to communication efforts regarding climate change.From this article I learned that while it may seem that people’s refusal to adopt green technology or green solutions to help with climate change is due to lack of knowledge or attitude, that when you change people beliefs through communication strategies this does not correlate with changes in behavior.  I have always believed that this was the idea that public service announcements were based on such that when the general public saw announcements that educated them to a potential danger or threat and provided instructions as to how to avoid or decrease danger or threat that people would alter the way they acted.  Given that it has been known for some time that greenhouse gas emissions are leading to climate change and environmental destruction that this would be a big enough threat to make people want to do something about the problem.

A quote that I found interesting was as follows:

Currently, action is only taken by a minority and often not for environmental reasons.  Other people are unwillingto take action because they find it too difficult or costlyor because they consider it a waste of time when the majority is doing nothing (the so called “free rider effect”. Often, individuals blame businesses and othercountries for climate change. They look to government to take responsibilityfor tackling it, to make being green easier and more attractive for the public (pg. 311).

The reason I found this quote interesting is that it seems that while social psychological processes are frequently at play in life that people would recognize when they are refusing to do something that would help the whole world just because they do not want others who do not do anything to get a “free ride”.  This seems like cutting off your nose to spite your face.  I hope that this does not describe the majority of people because this would suggest everyone is only motivated to do the least amount of work to receive the greatest amount of reward and that they do not want anyone else benefitting from their efforts.  This does not seem to bode well either for the future of the environment or that of the world as a whole.

One thing I still wonder about after reading this article is how it is that people want governmental involvement in the form of legislative actions that require people to adopt green strategies and use sustainable energy. This seems like it might be related to the last point where people feel like if they want to do something but others might benefit from their actions while doing nothing on their own that is like doing the work for others. Somehow it appears like if people are forced to go green then people who want to already will not have to refrain to avoid others taking advantage of their efforts since everyone is being forced to follow the same rule and put in the same effort.

This article related to business, Government and society in an unusual way.  As opposed to society being an equal player, the idea of major social change is so daunting that communities seem to prefer leaving active measure up to the Government regulations and the actions of big business.  This means that society is more willing to have their behavior dictated to them by government and pay whatever rates are necessary to allow big business to make significant and expensive changes to production and services rather than to determine the proper route to social change themselves and to personally hold members accountable. At the same time society seems to be taking it for granted that Government will underwrite at least some of the cost for residential and business related conversion to green technology and that businesses will absorb some of the increased costs instead of passing it on to consumers. From this article, it appears that society as a whole wants to be a free or cheap rider, while Government and business take on associated financial risks, decision making and guidance efforts without taking on a similar level of responsibility.