The green worm theory: Making environmental progress easier.

摘要

Creating environmental change causes a degree of frustration because we underestimate how formidable that task really is. This paper discusses three potential reasons: the existence of skeptical segments of society, the wide gap between thoughtfulness and action, and the sheer difficulty of changing behavior. I propose a theory with which environmental leaders might encourage people to build their own sustainable futures by raising critical questions, allowing people to change their own world view, and then supporting them as they come to terms with it. Paying close attention to developing self-efficacy and adjusting our leadership methods to model the desired behavior might be the single biggest chance we have in creating human enablement and altering our current environmental trajectory.;Key Words: Sustainability; Self-efficacy; Community development; Capacity building; Environmental opposition; Behavior change; Environmental compliance