Mind and Matter

There is a tendency for people to think that we can solve global warming simply by changing our technologies. Not true, We have to also change our behavior and learn to live with limitations, and less wastefulness. Unfortunately, people have grown so accustomed to convenience and to acting on impulse that living sustainably may prove to be a very large challenge. At CRED, researchers are talking about decision making and the environment --- what will influence people's abilities to choose things like water management or land use policies that are good for them in the long term but require changes or sacrifice in the short term. One recurrent finding is that people need maps, strategies and cognitive plans that they can easily follow. I'm thinking about what sustainable maps of the mind might look like.

On Peoples' minds: "I've been trying to make notes on my carbon footprint, to keep a waste inventory. It's staggering! My life is organized in a way that depends on being able to throw things away - from coffee at Starbucks to packaged foods to all the energy I use just by watching TV. This ecology thing is much bigger than people think. For me, it would be like a personal revolution --- and I'm not sure I would even know how."

"If we can design our way into difficulty, we can design our way out . . . [but] to do things differently, we must perceive things differently" John Thackara.

In the News: You are what you spend, and consumption is spreading faster than ever. Good for prosperity, bad for the environment. Time to look at economic models that don't require all this excess to hold together a nation's financial health.