I’ve been pondering the different stages of greenery. As a starting point, here’s a list of stages ranked in order of awareness and sense of action:
Depletist – see WorldChanging for the derivation.
On-looker – in denial and probably focuses on news/research which de-emphasises anthropomorphic climate change.
Interested by-stander – accepts we need to change but hasn’t taken any real steps to do so – someone else’s problem
Dabbler – starting to implement some lifestyle changes and talks a good game…
Hobbyist – at risk of being self-satisfied as per Ed Begley Jr in The Simpsons ” I prefer a vehicle that doesn’t hurt Mother Earth. It’s a go-kart, powered by my own sense of self-satisfaction. “. Otherwise, probably techy-practical type.
Self-sacrificer – possibly self-agrandiser, hair-shirted? Willing to make changes that at least initially damage them (reduced income, life is harder etc.).
Initiate – lives the good life of a Carbon[and-every-thing-else]-neutral proto-pagan. The only way we can all attain such exalted status is if the human population crashes…
One of my pet political topics (as discussed in skeleton form on my website, in the philosophy section) is the divide between selfish and social/altruistic behaviour. There are echoes of this in the above list and it makes me wonder if there shouldn’t be two parallel lists, geared towards different basic types of people. The aim would be to
a) work out how best to change behaviour, given the different world outlooks of selfish or altruistic people.
b) find the best (either/or most green/realistic) level for people to reach.
johnkazer said
I’d like to be able to link this list to a similar one for social vs selfish because in practical terms they tend to be distinct more often than not. However, that would pull the blog away from it’s core topic… perhaps I’ll expand on this on my website at some point (www.johnkazer.com).
All I will say at this point is that I don’t make any moral judgements about where you are on a social scale – there are pros and cons to all levels.