Transcript "moral call to action" on climate change?

July 23, 2012
Bob Doppelt
Executive Director, The Resource Innovation Group
(www.theresourceinnovationgroup.org)
Coordinator, National Climate Ethics Campaign
(www.climateethicscampaign.org)
541-744-7072
[email protected]
What does it mean to make "moral call to action" on climate change?
Many people get uncomfortable talking about morality because they think it is about preachy,
sanctimonious stuff. It's not. Morality is about age old questions each human deals with all
the time regarding what is right and wrong and fair and unfair about our actions, and what our
duties and responsibilities are to others.
Thus, morality is not the same as religion. Religion has been one of the dominant purveyors of
morality throughout time, but morality and religion are not the same.
Morality is a basic human instinct. If people were not interested in morality and ethics---in
caring for other people, being fair, altruistic and selfless, there would be no public parks, no
health clinics, social safety nets, community centers, philanthropy, or even non-profits.
In fact, even though you might not think it this way, I'll wager that most of you on the phone
today got into your line of work or avocations because you want to act on your moral and
ethical values to avoid harming others and to do good for others or environment.
This shows that most humans are driven by moral and ethical concerns, but they are often not
conscious of it, or don't feel they have an opportunity to act on it given the nature of our
society. Many Americans are desperately looking for ways to act on their moral and ethical
values, but they don't know how.
Thus, there is a opportunity to mobilize a huge secular moral movement on climate as well as
a religious and spiritual moral movement.
A moral call to action on climate change taps into these pent-up deep-seated desires.
As defined by the National Climate Ethics Campaign, it is a call to each individual,
household, organization, government, and public official to realize that climate change
is a profound moral and ethical issue because:
1. It is already injuring and killing people here and abroad with much more coming in
the future without prompt action, it is causing grave social injustices, and it is
destroying the ecological basis of life that humans and all other life depend on.
2. And most importantly we humans are the cause—due to our energy use,
consumption, etc. It's not a natural phenomena.
All these points are important for making a moral call to action---especially the last:
people must see that it is their action that contribute to the morally unjust impacts.
The Climate Ethics Campaign calls on each of us to live up to three long-standing
universal principles of morality and justice:
• Prevent unjustifiable human suffering and death
• Act in a just and equitable matter to other people here and abroad
• Protect the ecological systems that support all life, including human.
People can abide by these moral principles by: aggressively reducing their energy use
and emissions, preparing for climate impacts, and supporting policies for both ends.
Making a Moral Call To Action is Important for 3 Critical Reasons:
1. It is reality---It is morally wrong to allow business-as-usual to injure & kill millions,
perpetuate great injustices, & disrupt the basis of all life on earth.
2. It's the most powerful motivator of behavioral change – It taps into intrinsic values
and creates the strong emotional reactions needed for change because most people
want to live up to their deeply held values to avoid doing harm and to do good. This is
very different from a focus on economics and science which tap extrinsic value which
are not great motivators of change.
3. It forces people to take personal responsibility and choose sides which is essential
for progress on this issue- By calling out resistance to reduce emissions what it is—
the gravest moral failure in human history—we draw clear lines in the sand about what
is right and wrong and fair and unfair. In fact, from women’s suffrage to civil rights,
history shows engrained harmful beliefs, practices, and policies can only be overcome
when they care declared to be morally wrong and unjust and when people are inspired
to right that wrong by working toward a higher moral purpose.
In short, we must create a moral movement—which is what the CEC is striving to do.
No single policy can solve the climate crisis. We are striving to change the entire
economy which is a long term issue. We need succeed only by creating a moral
movement and making action a moral obligation.
By continually priming the human internal moral judgment system by clearly defining
right and wrong regarding the use of fossil fuels, excess energy use, excess
consumption, development that damages the environment or people. This taps into
our intrinsic values, and separates the issue from science or economics which focus on
extrinsic issues. It also forces people to take personal responsibility and make a choice.
How can we frame communications to engage our moral judgment system?
• Draw clear connections between our use of fossil fuels, our consumption, &
damaging development, the emissions that are disrupting the climate, and the
morally wrong and unjust human suffering and death, injustices, & environmental
damage that results today. We must link the impacts of climate disruption to our
actions so people see both the cause and the solutions are their personal
responsibility.
• Emphasize the opportunity to avoid the psychic burden of engaging in serious
moral transgressions. People don't want to feel that they have participating in
morally wrong or unjust behavior. Make it clear that they can avoid these burdens
by cutting their emissions, using clean renewable energy, cutting unneeded
consumption, and preparing for the impacts of climate change.
•
Link those messages with messages that inspire a positive emotional response such
those that engage the complete range of moral values people hold—such as taking
pride in helping their neighbors & community, reducing emissions out of respect
for other people, or acting out of sense of loyalty to our children or community.
•
Another important positive message is offer gratitude for what our use of fossil
fuels provided us in the past and the capacity they have given us to chose
clean and renewable alternatives now, all of which provides us hope for better
personal health & better life for our children. The point here to not to condemn the
actions of the past but instead to give gratitude to it and emphasize the need to
update our moral framework to respond to today's conditions.
•
Emphasize positive universal social norms. For example, greater energy efficiency
is ethically good--wasting energy or using more than your fair share is ethically bad;
Helping others by cutting emissions is the responsible thing to do—using fossil
fuels
is uncaring and irresponsible; Or, trigger the 'Golden Rule' of do unto others as you
would like them to do unto you through frames such as 'We are all in it together
now' because of the internet, global nature of the economy, and the global nature
of climate change and ocean acidification, so only by helping others can we help
ourselves.
All of these approaches help prime the human moral judgment system.
In summary, one way to think about these points is to say that when communicating
always emphasize the 3 keys to personal and organizational change: 'dissonance',
efficacy' & 'benefits':
• Dissonance is tension between a deeply desired way of being and current
conditions;
• Efficacy is belief that we have the capacity to solve the problem;
• Benefits is the sense that the advantages of addressing climate change far outweigh
the downsides (2 to 1 ratio needed).
Closing comments:
We will not succeed in addressing climate disruption unless it becomes a moral
obligation to do so. We must make it everyone's moral and ethical responsibility to
dramatically increase energy efficiency and conservation, to use clean sources of
renewable energy, to significantly cut unneeded energy and unnecessary consumption
etc etc, and make it morally unacceptable to behave otherwise.
I invite everyone to join the National Climate Ethics Campaign, which is attempting to
create a moral movement to do just that: www.climateethicscampaign.org