Scientific Foundations for Commitment and Consistency

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Scientific Foundations forCommitment and
Consistency

• Arthur Lyon Dahl
• International Environment Forum
• www.bcca.org/ief
• Consumer Citizenship Network
• Third CCN International Conference
• Hamar, Norway, 16 May 2006

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Communications challenge of the science of
sustainability

• Long time lag between damage to environmental
  systems and changed behaviour/lost services
• Crying wolf or playing Cassandra
• Short-term perspectives in politics and economics
• Lack of adequate public education

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Motivating individual consumers

• Commitment to new forms of behaviour
• Building commitments into more sustainable
  lifestyles
• Consistency of beliefs and actions
• For commitment to be lasting, in must be based
  on
• Intellectual understanding
• Ethical, emotional or spiritual motivation
• Each reinforcing the other

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CONSUMER SOCIETY

• We are encouraged to consume without limit

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Sustainability requires

• Fundamental changes in lifestyles
• Making choices
• Refusing temptations
• Voluntarily sacrificing some things to preserve
  other values or possibilities
• This is a goal of consumer citizenship

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Motivating change based oncommitment and
consistencyrequires two kinds of knowledge

• Scientific
• Ethical/religious/spiritual

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Scientific Knowledge

• - Understanding the world around us
• - Defining the limits to development
• - Estimating risks to health/well-being

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Place of science in society

• Specialization bordering on elitism
• Inaccessible language
• Selective entry/peer review
• By and for experts
• Scientific knowledge requires translation for
  public consumption
• Beyond the reach of normal people
• Prevents science from influencing values and
  behaviour

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Traditional Knowledge

• An alternative model
• Part of family/tribal heritage

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Traditional knowledge

• Accumulated wisdom based on observation, like
  science
• Tribal "experts", master fisherman, healer
• Interpreted in alternative cultural framework
• Rejected as "magic" or "superstition"
• Transmission interrupted

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The diversity of environments requires adaptive
management

• "Expert" approach to science cannot meet all
  present needs. Benefits restricted to the
  wealthy.

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We need to change our approach to science and its
role in education

• - Remove unnecessary detail
• - Make the scientific method
• available to everyone

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The basics of science

• Understanding experimentation
• Cause and effect
• Thinking in terms of process and systems
• Evaluating evidence objectively
• Questioning hypotheses and assumptions
• Investigating truth rationally and independently

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Example

• Local environmental monitoring
• Observation of changes
• Assistance with interpretation of results
• Immediate changes in behaviour
• Correction of problems, reinforcement of good
  practices
• Coral reefs www.reefcheck.org
• Water quality www.streamwatch.org.au
  www.waterwatch.nsw.gov.au

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Giving people a direct experience of scientific
reality

• - Better understanding of science
• - Basis for science to impact values
• and behaviour

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Access to science requires new kinds of
institutions

• In every country and region
• Community based
• Supporting participatory science
• Providing access to scientific information
• Open to everyone

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The challenge is to structure scientific
knowledge in new ways that make it more
accessible and useful
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Environmental observing systems and
indicatorssupport the communication of science

• Integrated Global Observing Strategy Partnership
  www.igospartners.org
• Global Earth Observation System of Systems
  earthobservations.org
• Deliver graphic data on the state of the planet
  and the multiple dimensions of sustainability

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Indicators of Sustainabilityare important
educational tools

• Ecological footprint http//www.globalfootprint.or
  g/
• Environmental Vulnerability Index
  http//www.vulnerabilityindex.net/
• Environmental Sustainability Index
  http//www.yale.edu/esi/
• Environmental Performance Index
  http//www.yale.edu/epi/
• Compendium of Indicators of Sustainability
  http//www.iisd.org/measure/
• Indicators communicate scientific information
  quickly, widely and effectively

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Goal of scientific education and information
delivery

• Provide all consumers with objective scientific
  representation of world environmental situation
• Dynamic interactions with human society and
  economy
• Enable communities to determine local situation
  and sustainability
• Reinforce local sense of responsibility for
  environmental management

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Provide scientific information on linkages
between

• Consumption patterns
• Lifestyles
• Consumer choices
• Social justice and cohesion
• Environmental sustainability

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Support capacity to think globally and act
locally

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Empowering consumerswith science

• Essential component of commitment
• Shows necessity for action in objective terms
• Reinforced through participation in science
• Combined with emotional commitment from
  ethical/spiritual framework of values

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Will make people into effectivechange agents
forsustainability

• Thank you