Advanced Lake Leaders Conference
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Transcript of Advanced Lake Leaders Conference
Advanced Lake Leaders ConferenceThomas A. Heberlein
Sometimes it is OK to judge book by its cover
Attitudes are like rocks in a river
Many are underwater and you cannot see them –perhaps the most dangerous
You don’t go down the river trying to move them out of the way (dynamite!)
But you must know their location and how to read the water to successfully navigate.
Attitudes and solving environmental problems: The Three Fixes
Technological FixCognitive FixStructural Fix
The environment doesn’t have problems, we as humans have problems When we have problems with the environment, there are three ways of trying to fix them
Problem of Flooding in the US•Huge Flood Loses 1920’s-30’s•The response was the change nature
▫By using technology (Hence the Technological Fix)
▫Massive Dam Building Program▫Billions of Dollars Spent
•Assessment of Flood Losses 30 years later▫Rivers were modified BUT...▫Flood Losses INCREASED!
•Why?
Dams changed the behavior of the river and the attitudes and behavior of people as well
•Rivers were “sort of” controlled▫Fewer “Floods”
•People thought they were safe▫Moved into Flood Plain
•The Technological Fix, seems to avoid people but it doesn’t.
The Cognitive Fix•Let’s Change Human Behavior
▫Get the people rather than the rivers out of the flood plain
•Chicago Geographers: “Educate the Public”▫(aka “Knowledge Deficiency Model”)▫Created Flood Plain Maps
•Tried them out in Kansas City▫They didn’t work
The Structural Fix•Who really owns houses? Asked the
Chicago geographers.▫Bankers
Smaller Group Easy to Target
▫More “Rational”•No Loans in the Flood Plain
▫Flood Insurance▫Flood Plain Zoning
The Three Fixes in StockholmHow do you reduce traffic in the Center of the City
Solving Auto Crowding in Stockholm•Technological Fix
▫Tear down buildings, build new roads and bridges (change the environment)
•Cognitive Fix▫Massive advertising campaign trying to
convince people to not drive down town•Structural Fix
▫Trängselskatt
Crowding Tax was implemented•And tested in an adaptive management
framework•Reduced travel in the
center of the city over 20 %•Passed the “inter-ocular
traumatic test” •Continues today to reduce crowding in the center
How the Three Fixes Works
Technological Cognitive Structural
What Changes Environment Human Behavior Human Behavior
How Change is Achieved
Technological change influences the
environment directly
Information changes human behavior
Organizational and/or technological change
influences human behavior
What Happens Environmental variation is modified
Attitudes change and behavior change
follows
Behaviors are changed. Attitude change may follow
Role of Attitudes Developments must be consistent with dominant public
attitudes and values
Effective change in attitude is necessary and attitudes must influence behavior
Structural changes must be consistent
with dominant public attitudes and values
Target Must change only key groups or key
individuals
Must change general public as individuals
Must change key decision makers and other gate keepers
Benefit Usually effective at modifying the
environment in predictable ways
Consistent with freedom and
responsibility values. Particularly
important in the USA
Likely to be effective with lower cost and with fewer negative
effects than the Technological Fix
Public Acceptability
High High Low
Problems High cost. Can fail to solve problem and can create other
problems
It is difficult to change public attitudes, and often these attitudes have little to do with what people actually
do
Low public acceptability in the US. Seen as social
engineering. Design problems because of political compromises
Other Examples of FixesThe Department Coffee RoomThe Merrimac River CrossingLead Free GasolineHeberlein’s 1974 Porsche
The Departmental Coffee RoomProblem--Using Styrofoam Cups
How to change behavior and save the “environment?”
Cognitive Fix
Put up a signStructural Fix
Provide only paper/ or China cups
Technological FixCoffee “fountains”
Lesson: Environmental Fixes must be consistent withattitudes and culture
The Merrimac River CrossingProblem--River Crossing
Solutions: Ferry, Bridge or None
Ferry doesn’t allow crossing in the winter
Other Technological Fixes
Use railroad bridge in the winter
Ice Road
Lesson: Technological Fixes must be consistent with attitudes and culture
Lead Free GasolineProblem: Reduce lead in the environment by providing Lead Free Gasoline--How do you get people to use it
Cognitive Fix--Educate the Public
Structural Fix
Converters RequiredSmaller nozzle requiredPassed Law Requiring
Technological Fix??
Build lead processor into cars--shell shot out put!
Heberlein’s 1974 PorscheProblem: How to get people to wear seat belts?
Cognitive Fix: Educate the Public
Structural Fix: Interlock Device
Car won’t start unless seat belts locked
Technological Fix?
Automatic Seat Belts
Air BagsLesson: Structural Fixes must be consistent with attitudes and culture
Attitudes and the Three Fixes•Technological
▫Developments must be consistent with broad Public Attitudes
•Cognitive▫Effective Attitude Change is Central and
Behaviors Must Follow Attitudes•Structural
▫Structural Changes must be consistent with broad Public Attitudes
Conclusion•No matter which Fix you try you must have scientific information on attitudes or ...
Reducing Algae in Lake Mendota
The Technological Fix—Change Nature
Food Web Management Project
• Goal was to reduce algae by increasing the number of planktivores
• By decreasing the number of little fish that ate planktivores
How?• By dumping in a lot of big fish (walleyes and
northerns) to eat the little fish• ONE PROBLEM
They Forgot the Top Predator!
Angler numbers increased by almost 600%
“At the ecosystem scale for lakes, this role of humans is insufficiently appreciated and poorly anticipated. This predator learns rapidly. It communicates quickly. A modest number of those most experienced and skilled can quickly undo a carefully planned food web manipulation.” James F. Kitchell and Stephen R. Carpenter,
Ice Fishermen
• Came to the limnology lab• To ask to use the phone– In the days before cell phones
• To order pizzas• And the scientists helped them out, which I guess is only reasonable in a
food chain experiment
We need as much knowledge
• of the humans outside the lake as we do of biology of the lake
• of the 33 authors of the summary book, not one was a social science
• IT WASN’T THE LIMNOLOGISTS’S FAULT– At all of UW and the WDNR there was nowhere
near the capacity to understand angler population dynamics
– Or farmer behavior (the current problem for the water quality)
Sociologists (namely me) don’t do any better
The sad story of cleaning up Delavan Lake
1986 Heberlein Directs WRM Masters
• 16 Students • Designed Lake Delavan Management Plan• Technological Fix—Changed NatureThe WRM curriculum integrates the biological and
physical sciences (which identify and measure problems) with engineering (which provides technological alternatives) and law and the social sciences (which assess needs and potential for institutional response).
By 1989, a comprehensive rehabilitation project began. The $7 million project was completed within three years and included:• Drawing down the lake's water level by 10 feet to facilitate the eradication of the entire fish population.• Building three ponds before the water entered the inlet and dredging a sediment control channel in the inlet.• Reconstructing the dam at the end of the outlet.• Treating the bottom of the lake to trap phosphorus sediments and prevent them from re-entering the lake.• Constructing a peninsula near Community Park to divert sediment-laden water by redirecting it toward the outlet.• Restocking game fish as the lake refilled to its normal level.
Does this sound like social science
to you??
The project was a success! 1991 water clarity was at 26 feet deep.
• Property values went up– Some sold theirs and walked with the profits
• People could swim and fish– Our CV surveys showed owners would pay $80-
100 annually for this improvement• But this money was never collected
• Anglers from around the state were attracted by the fisheries– They didn’t pay any clean water fees either
2005—lake is dirty again
• AND NO MONEY TO CLEAN UP!• We FORGOT social sustainability• We failed to build in institutional mechanisms to
promote sustainability• WHY?– Not enough social sciences
• 1 social psychologist (me)• 1 economist (visiting faculty)
• Of the 16 students only 3 had any real social science training
Use Enough Social
Science!
Failure at the Grand Canyon
The Direct Experience Principle
• One of four principles helpful for understanding attitudes– The Consistency Principle– The Identify Principle– The Specificity Principle
• Attitudes based on direct experience are stronger, less likely to change, and more likely to influence our actions. Many attitudes are not based on direct experience
Attitudes of Visitors (oar/motor)
• Satisfaction of visitors who take oar and motor powered trips is high and about the same.
• BUT . . . visitors take only one trip.– Few have Direct Experience with BOTH kinds of
trips.– So without this, how do they know?
• Anyone who has been on both types of trips knows there are vast differences.
Best of Both Experiment
• Worked with an outfitter who ran both motorized and oar powered trips– floated half of the canyon on oar or motor
powered trips– then switched to the opposite kind.
• Attitudes measured after both experiences• Experimental Design giving Direct Experience
Shelby, B. “Contrasting Recreational Experiences: Motors and Oars in the Grand Canyon.” Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 35 (1980): 129–31.
After taking BOTH trips
• Choose oars for next trip 87%• Recommend oars to friend 79%• Oars better 90%• Oars described as– quiet, relaxing, natural, friendly
• Motors described as– loud, big, noisy, crowded
Data pass the inter oculartraumatic test
So with such compelling data why are motors still on the river?
Blame Managers?
• Solution– National Park Service Managers on another Best Both
Trip• Bill Whalen—Director National Park Service• Howard Chapman—Western Region Director• Merle Stitt—Superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park• Staff of the Secretary of Interior’s office
• Based on their experience they strongly supported phasing out motors as part of the Inner Canyon Management Plan
Blame Politics?
• A first term senator Orrin Hatch from the State of Utah added an amendment to the NPS appropriations bill– “If the river management plan with the motorized
rafting phase-out was implemented funding for river management at GRCA would be stripped from the budget.”
• AND MOTORS STAYED ON THE RIVER.
Blame Science???
• And the scientist?
• Were the right studies done?• Enough social science? and in the right place?
All the science I recommended was done in the canyon
• Attitude surveys of visitors, careful measurement of contacts on the river at varying density levels
• No studies done of– the rafting industry– the community impacts of a ban on oars– demonstration projects to understand how
transition from motors to oars
Think Beyond the Rim
William Freudenburg
“Forty years ago, when a new trend called ‘environmentalism’ swept the county and much of the planet, respected professors were pretty sure they knew what needed to be done. In a nutshell, their ideas involved careful research on every single species on the planet except one—the one that was actually at the root of almost everything they called an ‘environmental’ problem. For that one species, they said that, instead, what we needed to do was ‘educate the public.”
Use Enough Social Science
Our current efforts are like shooting an elephant with a 22One Survey is Not Enough!We need teams of social scientists to join the natural scientists—to balance biocentrismSociologists (understanding communities)Political Scientists (governance)Social Psychologists (attitudes)Economists (consumer surplus, expenditures)Even Anthropologists