How Understanding the Human Mind Might Save the World

An article today by Annie Jia in ClimateWire and reporting from the recently-concluded third annual Behavior, Energy and Climate Change Conference, nicely summarizes what we need to stay focused on to create a culture change, and a better, healthier planet for all.

Understanding people is the key, and it's why The Ocean Project invests so much in market research and making the findings and implications widely known for our Partner network and the wider conservation community, to take advantage of to become most effective.

As the article states, "Thinking does not equal doing" and it discusses how critical it is to move beyond thinking that helping people understand the issues and changing people's attitudes will translate into action. Because it doesn't.

Doug McKenzie-Mohr, a guru in community focused social marketing, discusses how effective programs are designed to change behavior surrounding climate change and other issues, by first understanding and addressing the barriers to action. Knowing the exact barriers can help you tailor programs to address them.

One critical barrier is people not knowing what actions to take in order to help. This is also a key finding from our recent market research: It is clear that, zoos, aquariums, and museums (ZAMs) are trusted messengers for information on issues and increasingly the public is looking to our Partner ZAMs to provide solutions to the issues that people can incorporate into their daily lives.

The article also discusses how social networks are powerfully effective ways to affect people's behaviors.

You can read the whole article, reprinted here in the New York Times.

Results Available from First Ocean and Climate Change Tracking Survey

The results from our first tracking survey are now available online. Also on our website are a couple of recent presentations from AZA that explain the findings, including America and the Ocean v2.0 — A Summary of Findings Developed by The Ocean Project, by the lead researcher for this initiative, Scott Corwon, with IMPACTS.

The Ocean Project is conducting ocean and climate tracking surveys every six months, to measure changes and test messaging. These tracking surveys nicely complement the comprehensive research that we completed in 2008 on public awareness, attitudes, and behaviors concerning the ocean, climate change, and related issues. This national survey is the largest ever on any environmental issue, with 22,000 American adults surveyed. We also have some data on youth, as well as Canadian adults.

To access the latest survey findings, click here.

Leadership on climate change from most vulnerable nations

Earlier this week, and just a few weeks before talks in Copenhagen, President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives, a nation facing the very real threat of being overwhelmed by rising seas due to climate change, gave an impassioned speech at the Climate Vulnerable Forum. In it he challenged the nations most vulnerable to climate change to demonstrate moral leadership, and join a "global survival pact" by committing to carbon neutral development. Read the speech via link above and/or watch some of it here.

International Day of Climate Action on October 24

Hopefully by now you have heard about 350.org's efforts around the world this weekend and are planning to join an action to draw attention to climate change. As of today there are over 4,000 events planned in 170 countries.

The reason for the group's name? Scientists say that 350 parts per million CO2 in the atmosphere is the safe limit for humanity. Many believe it needs to be even lower. Regardless, we are currently at 387 ppm and we need to move faster on lowering that number.

Join an activity where you live (or start one) and take action this weekend!

Learn more about why 350 ppm is so important for coral reefs and our world's ocean.

Sigourney Weaver Takes on Ocean Acidification

ACID TEST, a film produced by NRDC, was made to raise awareness about the largely unknown problem of ocean acidification, which poses a fundamental challenge to life in the seas and the health of the entire planet. Like global warming, ocean acidification stems from the increase of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere since the start of the Industrial Revolution.

View the film (22 minutes) and learn more about "the other CO2 problem."

Watch Sigourney Weaver deftly steer an interview on Fox News toward this important topic and film, rather than focusing on her upcoming (blockbuster-to-be, Avatar).

Then do more to help: Seas the Day!

A Blueprint for Restoring the World’s Oceans to Health

Sylvia Earle - also known as "Her Deepness" and featured earlier this year in this blog when she won a coveted TED Prize - has written a book, The World is Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean's Are One, published earlier this year and in which she discusses the huge changes in the world's ocean she has witnessed over the decades and offers her hopeful thoughts on how we can restore the health of our shared world ocean.

In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Earle provides her wise take on the state of our world ocean and what can be done, summarized nicely here: “We get to choose. We either get to choose by conscious action or by default because we are complacent... thinking somebody else will look after this. But nobody else will take care of these issues.”

Read the interview with Sylvia Earle, watch her on Colbert Nation (after the :30 commercial, you'll get a 5:47 interview by Stephen Colbert with Sylvia Earle) , and then remember to take action to help our world's ocean: Seas the Day!

NOAA Announces Ocean Education Grants to Aquariums

On October 5, NOAA announced 11 grants totaling more than $9 million that will create new education projects in aquariums across the nation. The projects will educate visitors about the ocean and encourage better stewardship of the marine environment.

Read NOAA's full news posting.

Act now to improve environmental literacy

The Ocean Project is working with a diverse coalition to secure broad bipartisan in Congress to help advance ocean conservation by improving environmental literacy and, as a result, American competitiveness in the global economy.

Representative Lois Capps (Democrat from California’s 23rd congressional district) recently introduced a bill, HR. 3644, the Bay-Watershed Education and Training Regional Program and National Environmental Literacy Grant Program Act. This bill authorizes and strengthens NOAA’s (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) existing Bay-Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) and Environmental Literacy Grants (ELG) programs.

These two programs - B-WET and ELG - have funded many valuable activities including The Ocean Project’s recent public opinion research – America, the Ocean, and Climate Change – made possible with support from the ELG program. Without NOAA funding, our Partners and other friends would not be receiving the latest - and ongoing - market research providing insights into how to more effectively reach and engage Americans for conservation.

How to Help:

We are collaborating with others to help secure more support for this bill by getting additional co-sponsors. The bill has been referred to the House Natural Resources Committee and on October 15, the relevant subcommittee, the Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oceans, Wildlife, and Insular Affairs, is holding an important hearing.

Anyone in the United States - Ocean Project Partners and individuals - can help by letting your congressional representative know you care about this issue, and, ideally, asking them to co-sponsor the bill. Action in the Senate will be forthcoming and we will inform you of opportunities as they arise but certainly let your Senator know of your interest now to get it on their radar screen.

You can see a list of co-sponsors, learn more about this bill, and track its progress at the govtrack.us. The website has lots of valuable information and resources to improve civic involvement, including finding out whom your congressional representatives are in case you are not sure.

More info:

This effort is about how informal science can significantly supplement science education beyond what is being provided for in our schools.

As recommended by many, including the National Academy of Sciences, investments like these can greatly help to turn around America’s relative decline in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) when compared to other nations that are generously funding these types of educational programs.

It is important to now establish these programs – B-WET and ELG – in law, consistent with the education mandates provided to NOAA in both the America COMPETES Act (PL 110-69, Sec.4002) and the Omnibus Public Land Management Act (PL 111-11, Sec. 12304).

By passing this legislation with broad bipartisan support we can significantly improve STEM education and environmental literacy, will help enhance American competitiveness, and help create healthier communities and watersheds around our country. Ultimately, all this will improve the health and abundance of our shared world ocean.

The Ocean Picture Of the Day

Due to the overwhelming success of both the Earth Science Picture of the Day (ESPOD) and Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) daily picture sites, The Ocean Project has rolled out the Ocean Picture of the Day (OPOD), available to you since September 1, 2009. While the ESPOD and APOD sites connect us to scientific principles that indirectly bring out the awe in our respect for planet Earth and space, the OPOD is a place for world citizens to proclaim love for our world's shared ocean. Why don't you submit an ocean-related (or Great Lakes related) photo and tag the emotion that came along with participating in that photo shoot. The Ocean Project staff will contact you via the e-mail address you provide to let you know when your picture has been selected. We can all be mindful of the ocean so we can consider its conservation more often in our day-to-day lives. Images have amazing power to stir individuals to action and by participating in the OPOD service, you can tell part of your story. Share your favorite ocean image to help remind everyone of why it's important to protect and conserve our oceans and coasts.

Once in a Lifetime Opportunity for our Oceans, Coasts, and Great Lakes

Earlier this month The Ocean Project submitted comments to President Obama and the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force in order to help them develop the most effective national policy to protect and conserve our oceans, coasts, and Great Lakes. The Ocean Project’s letter focused on how it is critical to include a comprehensive federal strategy and plan for ocean and climate literacy in developing a national ocean policy and management and stewardship framework. We strongly urge the Administration to integrate environmental literacy (including ocean and climate literacy) as a critical component and goal of all agencies, departments, and strategies related to ocean stewardship and conservation.

Please contact The Ocean Project if you would like to read our comments.

During this important opportunity we urge all Partners and friends in the US to weigh in by submitting your own comments and attending the public hearings if possible. Turning up in person is best but you can also connect via live webcasts or call in to the listen-only pone line. Find out more on how to participate at their website.

In addition, the Task Force has just released an interim report that you can access and comment on here.

The Obama Administration is providing us with a great chance to help shape the future health of our oceans, coasts, and Great Lakes. Please take advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity!

American Psychological Association Task Force on Psychology and Climate Change

Why do people continually say that issues such as climate change are important but people don’t feel a sense of urgency? Perhaps psychologists can help get people to act.

A recent press release from the American Psychological Association opens by saying:

While most Americans think climate change is an important issue, they don't see it as an immediate threat, so getting people to "go green" requires policymakers, scientists and marketers to look at psychological barriers to change and what leads people to action, according to a task force of the American Psychological Association.

The chair of APA’s Task Force on the Interface Between Psychology and Global Climate Change, Janet Swim, PhD, of Pennsylvania State University, says “What is unique about current global climate change is the role of human behavior. We must look at the reasons people are not acting in order to understand how to get people to act.”

The task force last month released a report with the primary aim of engaging members of the psychology community (teachers, researchers, those in practice, and students) in the issue of climate change. The task force examined decades of psychological research and practice that have been specifically applied and tested in the arena of climate change, such as environmental and conservation psychology. The report also provides research recommendations and proposes policies for APA to assist psychologists’ engagement with this critical issue.

The task force outlined numerous psychological barriers that are to blame (such as uncertainty, mistrust, denial, lack of control, and habit). They also highlighted some ways that psychology is already working to limit these barriers (such as getting immediate feedback from various devices that show people how much energy and money they're conserving; combining strong financial incentives, convenience, quality assurance, and strong social marketing is another way to spur action). The task force identified other areas where psychology can help limit the effects of climate change, such as developing environmental regulations, economic incentives, better energy-efficient technology and communication methods.

Some Ocean Project Partners and friends may be interested in reviewing their information:

Executive Summary (PDF)
Full Report (PDF)
Policy Recommendations (PDF)

A final version of the report, including images and formatted as a booklet, will be available in the fall of 2009 on the APA website.