Horses for Future

In this week in which we are marking the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, I invited Susan Schneider to join me for an afternoon's conversation. Susan is a tireless and very thorough researcher. She presents us with a wealth of information, resources and ideas across a wide range of subjects. Her annotated book list on sustainability and climate change is available on the sequestercarbon.com web site.

Horses for Future Episode 19: Planning for the Future - A Conversation with Reid Prinzo

When I recorded this podcast at the beginning of April, in New York State where I live we were very much caught up in the planning for the peak of the corvid-19 hospitalizations. Today as I publish this, it is beginning to look as though the curve may be plateauing out. That’s good news indeed. It still doesn’t tell us what lies ahead. How long will this pause in our lives continue. How much time do we have to build new habits, to make choices about how we want to continue on? Do we really want to go back to what we were doing as a community or can we use this time to plan for a better future.

Planning for the future is what this podcast is about. I’ve asked Reid Prinzo to talk to us about investing in our values. Reid is a financial advisor. He’s a member of Bryant Asset Management. One of the areas he’s particularly interested in is ESG and sustainable investing. In this podcast I ask him what that means. This may seem like an odd topic when we’re in the midst of the corona crisis. People are out of work. Businesses are struggling. In March the stock market went on a wild roller coaster ride. For many of us our income has dropped off a steep cliff and we’re talking about investments!

It actually seems like a good time to talk about investments. There are lots of reasons why people may be thinking about what they should be doing with their savings. If they can hold on through this current crisis, what changes, if any, should they be making? All that cash someone may have been stuffing into a mattress - are people ever going to want to touch cash again! Maybe they should be investing it somewhere instead.

There are all kinds of reasons why you might be looking at making some changes in your savings. If that’s the case, you can invest in companies that are aligned with your personal ethics. You can invest in your values through sustainable investing. The podcast will explain what that means.

The world is in crisis. I don’t need to tell anyone that all our lives are being impacted by the corona virus. Schools are closed, businesses shuttered. Many of us have lost our incomes. People are getting sick. People are dying. This is not news to any of us. We are hunkered down, keeping physical distance from one another, washing our hands, waiting, worrying.

When Manda and I got together for a catch-up we weren’t focused on climate change (though that sits always in the background). We talked about the corona virus. How will this experience change us? We’re all experiencing an abrupt transformation in our lives. What can we do to influence the change for the better?

Dr. Joe Layng gave two talks at this year’s Art and Science of Animal Training conference. The first talk was on degrees of freedom. He followed that up with an expansion of the concept that was profoundly disturbing, horrifying and hopeful all at once. He basically explained how someone becomes a terrorist. After the talks, I asked him if would be willing to share these presentations with the “Horses for Future” audience.

Dr. Joe Layng gave two talks at this year’s Art and Science of Animal Training conference. The first talk was on degrees of freedom. He followed that up with an expansion of the concept that was profoundly disturbing, horrifying and hopeful all at once. He basically explained how someone becomes a terrorist. After the talks, I asked him if would be willing to share these presentations with the “Horses for Future” audience.

If you want to expand a field, you don’t do it from within. You do it by bringing in ideas from the outside. I want to expand our thinking around climate change and how we can work with one another to come up with solutions. That’s why I want to share Joe’s talk on degrees of freedom.

As you listen to the podcast, you may be thinking: “This is fascinating, but I don’t understand the connection to climate change.” Be patient. Joe will get us there in Part 2, and it will be well worth the journey.

I’m publishing this at a time when everything is being shut down because of the corona virus. We are living the experience of having our degrees of freedom reduced. Let’s hope by summer, this crisis will have passed, and we will be returning to a more stable normal. But let’s also hope we learn from this experience because it is just a preview of what may happen as the effects of climate change become more pronounced. The concepts Joe is sharing with us become all the more relevant as climate change adds more pressure to our lives.

How do we talk to one another so we can connect around common interests? That was the main focus of Part 2 of our conversation. The norm these days seems to be we're splitting further and further apart into separate camps. We're very much living in "us versus them" times. This intense tribalism doesn't really help anyone so what can be done? How do we shift our focus so we become constructive in our actions? Once again, horses give us the model.

I’ve been thinking a lot about language and the role it plays in behavior change. That was the launching point for an afternoon’s conversation with Manda Scott. Manda surprised me with an unexpected discussion of oxytocin and the role that it plays in creating strong feelings of tribal loyalty. I promise, this is relevant to the discussion of climate change. This week’s podcast explains the connection.

This concludes our three part discussion of the work of George Lakoff. If you’re a regular listener to this podcast, I think it would be fair to say you believe that the climate change crisis is real. And you also want to take actions that can help mitigate the effects. Some of those actions won't involve other people, but if we really want to make a difference we need to let others know what we're doing.

One of the many reasons that horse people can make a difference is horses are everywhere. We keep horses in the country. We keep horses squeezed into suburbia and on the edges of cities. As we learn more about pasture management and the impact that has on sequestering more carbon in the soil, we’re going to want to share what we’re learning.

That's where these podcasts come in. Lakoff's work presents a great lesson in how to be heard.

In last week’s podcast I introduced you to the work of George Layoff. Layoff is a cognitive linguist who has been studying the use of metaphors and the effect they have on our behavior. Metaphors are formed early in life. The associations between physical experiences and emotional responses are formed so early we aren’t even aware of the links. We talk about warm-hearted people and relationships that are hot and cold because as an infant when our mothers held us we experienced warmth and affection linked together.

What has this got to do with climate change? It turns out quite a lot. We are a very divided country and the divisions are becoming ever greater. If we’re going to find effective solutions to the climate change crisis, we need to find ways to talk to one another. Lakoff’s work offers a great structure for framing conversations so we can hear one another.

Here we are again - at the start of another Presidential election year. Please don’t stop reading. This isn’t about politics - not directly anyway. In the US we are becoming a divided nation. If you step outside your echo chamber, you are immediately treading on dangerous ground. What do you talk about that won’t raise someone else’s hackles? We can’t even talk about the weather anymore. It used to be the safe, go-to subject. But any talk of weather leads straight to the climate crisis and now we’re on dangerous ground again.

So how do we talk to one another? And most especially how do we talk to people whose world view is different from our own? That’s what this current episode is exploring.

It begins with a summary of the work of cognitive linguist, George Layoff. That’s a good launching point for developing communication skills that open doors instead of slamming them shut. If you have read this description through to this point, I have at least managed to keep the door cracked open. Hopefully, you’ll be curious enough to step inside and hear the connection between George Lakoff’s work and climate change.

You can listen to the podcast at sequester carbon.com or subscribe to it using your favorite podcast provider.

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