In public health sometimes the term environmental strategies is used. In a behavioral context, it is not about protecting water purity or restaurant sanitation. Instead, it is about designing circumstances where good health is more likely to occur. For example, in many places, we try to encourage people to climb stairs rather than taking elevators. How? By improving stairwell lighting, by adding art work, perhaps piped in music, and by posting motivational messages to encourage people doing something good for their health. Another example can be found in urban areas, where cities will provide bicycles for people making short trips from one location to another. Rather than using taxis or their own cars, if there are loaner bicycles available, people will use them. Neither of these examples guarantees healthy choices, but creates a circumstance to increase the odds.
Sometimes environmental strategies are trying to make it easier for a health impulse to win the day over conflicting attitudes and values. At other times, environmental strategies are more directive, taking away peoples’ free choices. For example, more and more jurisdictions are banning the use of cell phones by drivers. These initiatives will not prevent people from speeding or tailgating, from being drowsy, or otherwise being reckless, but are designed to increase the likelihood that people are focusing on the driving task, creating safer conditions for all vehicles and pedestrians.
As with most Americans I've been thinking about 9/11 the last few days. It is striking how that day has changed so much about our world and our world view. To me it feels like the left book end to a lot of episodes and events, all of which add up to a national funk. Since then we've been mired in two wars and the never ending war on terror. Following the go-go real estate period, our financial system and employment marketplace have crashed, with no quick return on the horizon. We've become more and more persuaded that climate change is real and threatening, though there are still some (a dwindling number) claiming is it only a special interest boogey man. Not least, our politics and governments have become fractured and dysfunctional, seeming to be unable to fulfill their missions of making our lives better through public works of all kinds. According to an analysis published by Newsweek magazine, not only are we not #1, we are #11 among most prosperous and successful nations. I am anxious to see the right bookend fit into place so we can move away from this dark shelf: one with more fresh air and light streaming on it.
So, let's put an optimistic spin on our circumstances. Maybe this is an environmental strategy occuring naturally, without our intentional design. American ingenuity will find ways to adapt to energy conservation in unobtrusive ways. For example, most people have become accustomed to the compact fluorescent bulbs. I don't hear a lot of grousing about smaller, more energy efficient autos. There is a movement to rethink our living spaces: McMansions are becoming less the ideal for the upwardly mobile. In fact the symbolism of upward mobility may be changing. Society is changing, so that more people will walk or ride bikes. We are a long way from the European habits of transportation, but our society is moving in that direction. Housing in the future will not follow the pattern of suburban sprawl, but instead will be in village clusters, better for naturally occuring exercise and neighbor to neighbor interaction. Some of these changes will be uncomfortable, but in the long run there is an upside: more healthy lifestyles, more simplicity, and a gentler impact on planet earth.
Perhaps in the future, life will focus more on being, less on getting. Not all bad.
As with most Americans I've been thinking about 9/11 the last few days. It is striking how that day has changed so much about our world and our world view. To me it feels like the left book end to a lot of episodes and events, all of which add up to a national funk. Since then we've been mired in two wars and the never ending war on terror. Following the go-go real estate period, our financial system and employment marketplace have crashed, with no quick return on the horizon. We've become more and more persuaded that climate change is real and threatening, though there are still some (a dwindling number) claiming is it only a special interest boogey man. Not least, our politics and governments have become fractured and dysfunctional, seeming to be unable to fulfill their missions of making our lives better through public works of all kinds. According to an analysis published by Newsweek magazine, not only are we not #1, we are #11 among most prosperous and successful nations. I am anxious to see the right bookend fit into place so we can move away from this dark shelf: one with more fresh air and light streaming on it.
So, let's put an optimistic spin on our circumstances. Maybe this is an environmental strategy occuring naturally, without our intentional design. American ingenuity will find ways to adapt to energy conservation in unobtrusive ways. For example, most people have become accustomed to the compact fluorescent bulbs. I don't hear a lot of grousing about smaller, more energy efficient autos. There is a movement to rethink our living spaces: McMansions are becoming less the ideal for the upwardly mobile. In fact the symbolism of upward mobility may be changing. Society is changing, so that more people will walk or ride bikes. We are a long way from the European habits of transportation, but our society is moving in that direction. Housing in the future will not follow the pattern of suburban sprawl, but instead will be in village clusters, better for naturally occuring exercise and neighbor to neighbor interaction. Some of these changes will be uncomfortable, but in the long run there is an upside: more healthy lifestyles, more simplicity, and a gentler impact on planet earth.
Perhaps in the future, life will focus more on being, less on getting. Not all bad.
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