The Bridge Between Ecological Knowledge and Green Living

by James H. Wandersee and Renee M. Clary

Guest writers James H.Wandersee and Renee Clary discuss why having a green mentor can make a difference when you’re trying to bring about behaviour change.  And if you can’t find one, well, become one yourself!  You may well be on the way to “sprout” an entire movement!

For decades, science educators have focused their teaching on making the public scientifically literate. The underlying reasoning was that a scientifically literate citizenry can and will make sound personal and political decisions about scientific issues. The problem is that even when people are equipped to do so, they often do not! In other words, scientific literacy is necessary but not sufficient for environmental activism.

How do we know this is so? Researchers for the Yale Project on Climate Change and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication surveyed 1,001 US adults about their conservation behaviors (Sierra, July-August, 2010, p. 21). Here are some startling data drawn from that study.

In Environment 360, environmental journalist Doug Strunk argues that many of the environmental threats that people face today are not immediate sensory threats that trigger an emotional reaction of alarm (May, 2009; Beyond abstraction: Moving the public on climate action). He cites Columbia University psychologistElke Weber as saying that instead, “They are psychologically removed in space and time. So cognitively, we know something needs to be done about, [say], climate change, but we don’t have that emotional alarm bell going off.”

Through our own nation-wide research on people and plants, we have found that only when novices establish a working relationship with a green mentor do they take action and do what they already know is best for the planet.  We think green mentors are the bridge between the public’s ecological knowledge and actualized green living,

Two of the things that mentors provide are motivation and enthusiasm. You won’t get that from a book. To illustrate our point, take a look at this video on how to grow your own bean sprouts. The couple who made the video clearly are good mentors because they possess an infectious enthusiasm for green living, and motivate their viewers to take action and share the eco-joy they already have.

Read the full story at the-bridge-between