Values Action Gap, with Gail Hochachka

07/01/24 • 53 min

Well you SAY you care about climate change, but you don't, do you? There's you, driving a car (!!!) or not putting that plastic bottle in the recycling (!!!!!). There's you, saying you value the planet, but acting like you JUST DON'T CARE.
You and me and everyone else. The gulf between our values and actions is large you could drive an SUV through it. This is the 'values action gap'. Closing it is the stated aim of just about all behavioural science and climate campaigns and all the rest of it. But it is evidently bloody hard. Because although most people say they care about the planet, the plastic and the carbon emissions and the dead stuff keeps on piling up. So what is the values action gap all about, and how do we actually leap it?
Joining Dave this week is Dr Gail Hochachka from the University of British Columbia in Canada. She explains her brilliant research which picks apart the values action gap in all its complexity, and gives us abundant reasons to be cheerful: perhaps the gap isn't as large as all that. Gail's paper on the gap (referenced throughout) is here.
Owl noises:
-- 12:28: This owl is a plug for Gail's paper, linked above.
-- 13:16: We've talked about hyperobjects on YBOC before, can't remember where. Read this.
-- 49:52: Gail has a fantastic new initiative, SALT.
Your Brain on Climate is a podcast about human psychology vs the climate crisis: what we think, why we think it, and how it all adds up to a planet-sized emergency. Contact the show: @brainclimate on Twitter, or [email protected].
Support the show on Patreon: www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate.
The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell, who you can find @powellds on Twitter. Original music by me too.
Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com.

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Recharge with David Ko is a 5-part limited podcast series premiering in May to...

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Recharge with David Ko
Recharge with David Ko is a 5-part limited podcast series premiering in May to...

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Previous Episode

Mindfulness, with Jamie Bristow

Mindfulness: a technique for training your brain to reflect on what it thinks and why. It can help us make smarter decisions, and can even get the House of Commons to stop shouting at each other quite so much. Magic! But can it save the planet?
Today's guest is Jamie Bristow, co-founder of the Mindfulness Initiative - an amazing organisation bringing the technique to the heart of policy and parliament. Jamie's trained MPs on skills of compassion and self-reflection, and thinks (as do I) that we could all benefit hugely from a bit more time spent thinking about thinking. He's also part of the team that's devised the Inner Development Goals.
We talk about Jamie's report - Reconnection: Meeting the Climate Crisis Inside Out - a compelling and comprehensive guide to how mindfulness can help society change how we live on planet Earth.
**EDIT: In introducing Jamie I wrongly say he started the mindfulness programme in the UK parliament. He didn't, he founded the associated institute. Jamie's asked me to correct that - happy to. ***
Owl noises:
-- 13:40: a short video in which Jon Kabat-Zinn talks about homo-sapiens-sapiens.
-- 18:12: the Reconnection... report is linked above.
-- 28:45: if you've never read The Unbearable Automaticity of Being, you should.
-- 37:55: the Apolitical Foundation's Mere Mortals report.
-- 41:58: A nice primer on Bob Kegan's levels of human development work.
-- 48:38: The excellent Common Cause is a good place to read about intrinsic v extrinsic values.
-- 51:55: I was going to link to some stuff I found on google about nature connectedness but you can google it yourself. Instead a plug for my chat with Lauren Hall Ruddell about this very thing. -- 53:16: Ian McGilchrist is a very clever man. I'm reading his The Master & His Emissary right now.
Your Brain on Climate is a podcast about human psychology vs the climate crisis: what we think, why we think it, and how it all adds up to a planet-sized emergency. Contact the show: @brainclimate on Twitter, or [email protected].
Support the show on Patreon: www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate.
The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell, who you can find @powellds on Twitter. Original music by me

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Recharge with David Ko is a 5-part limited podcast series premiering in May to...

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Next Episode

Luck, with Will Snell and Anita Sangha

You are so much more lucky than you think, even if you think you're not.
Most of us are dead proud of the good things we've done, and we tell ourselves how hard we have worked and how much we deserve it. But unfortunately we don't. This also works the other way round: we are never as much to blame for our 'failures' as we think.
Thing is most things in life are down to luck: not just whether you win the lottery or meet the perfect person, but deeper stuff. Like who your parents were and where (and when) you were born. That's a big idea to get your head around and it runs counter to most things our society tells us. And it's as true about climate change as anything else - what it means to us, and how important we think it is.
Joining Dave this episode are Will Snell and Anita Sangha from the Fairness Foundation. They talk all about their brilliant and challenging report, Rotten Luck. You'll never look the same way at someone down on their luck again.
Owl noises:
— 14:23 - Branko Milanovic says here “80% of your income can be explained by the two factors of your country of birth (60%) and your parents’ income position (20%)”.

— 19:38 - Just World Theory, courtesy of the excellent Decision Lab.

— 31:02 - Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ministry for the Future: “chilling yet hopeful”.

— 36:18 - The Welsh Well-being of Future Generations Act is here.

— 36:49 - all rise for the UN’s Summit of the Future, September 2024.

— 40:45 - Over to Wiki for more on luck egalitarianism (or read Will’s report).

Your Brain on Climate is a podcast about human psychology vs the climate crisis: what we think, why we think it, and how it all adds up to a planet-sized emergency. Contact the show: @brainclimate on Twitter, or [email protected].
Support the show on Patreon: www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate.
The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell, who you can find @powellds on Twitter. Original music by me too.
Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com.

Recharge with David Ko
Recharge with David Ko is a 5-part limited podcast series premiering in May to...

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify