behavior
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The frog and the polar bear: The real reasons Americans aren’t buying climate change
As international leaders trek home from Durban, South Africa, after a week of plotting the world’s response to global warming, the debate rages here at home — over whether Americans even care. The New York Times ran a story in October headlined, “Where did global warming go?” that cited polls suggesting that Americans had lost […]
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Change hurts: Influencing our energy behavior is messy business
Want to save the planet? Better not leave it up to the humans.
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Win-win situation: Using competition to change behavior
Ready, set … change!Photo: Jon MarshallA couple of weeks back, I went to a conference at the Garrison Institute, located in a former monastery in the Hudson River Valley of New York. The presenters included municipal officials from around the country, many of them somewhat weary veterans of battles to motivate citizens to recycle, or […]
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Thinking ‘like an Avon Lady’ to get suburban workers on transit
Making a greener office park.Photo: Keith CuddebackFascinating case study in The Atlantic about getting people out of their cars and onto transit for their commute. Lisa Margonelli writes about a program at a suburban California office park that has had huge success in encouraging workers to leave the car at home — by emphasizing the […]
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Behavior change: we’re already doing it [VIDEO]
Last week, my enormous head and I did a video interview with the energy-focused cable news show EnergyNow! (which incidentally just got a national distribution deal through Bloomberg TV). The topic was behavior change. They’ve split the video in two. Here’s the first bit: And the second bit: As always, I find my performance on […]
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The Egyptian people tend to the streets that are now their own [VIDEO]
Among the throngs of protesters in the streets of Cairo, some work to pick up trash. Because this is their place now, not the government's.
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If you're so happy in your car, why are you so mad at the people walking?
Next time you're driving, remember that pedestrians aren't trying to annoy you. They're trying to get across the street without getting killed -- and a lot of the time, the street isn't designed for them.
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China's biggest cities grow its greenest citizens
People in large Chinese cities are more environmentally aware -- and more likely to act on that awareness -- than those in smaller cities.
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What's the real potential for behavior-change programs?
We haven't yet seen even a fraction of the potential for electric utility programs designed to influence customers to use less energy.