Make a difference again this week with your Changeletter!

Got this from a friend? Get your own copy of Soapbox Project's Changeletter here to overcome your climate anxiety while taking meaningful action in 3 minutes or less each week.

October 2023: does changing your behavior matter to the scale of the climate crisis?

Each month, we break down our topic into four weekly modules. Catch up on previous editions here.​

This week's module: READ

• 🎯READ: What you should know about the science of behavior change
• ✅WATCH | Is your carbon footprint B.S.?
• ✅ACT | Actions YOU can take that actually matter, according to science
• ✅CELEBRATE: Report back on what you implemented in your life and we will celebrate together

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Notice anything change above?

Here's what we'll learn today Reader

One note: enable images in your email provider, since we've got a bunch of important ones today.

Today marks the kickoff of our FOURTH year sending Changeletters to the world! 🎉🎉🎉 and it would mean a lot if you replied and wished us happy birthday + shared some thoughts on why you love Changeletter!

If you look through the past three years of Changeletter topics, which have been converted into easy-to-use action packs on our website, you might notice that when I started writing these, I strongly favored individual action.

We covered topics like fast fashion, food waste, and energy in our first year or so. Then, I was like ABSOLUTELY HELL NO, CORPORATIONS SUCK, and we transitioned into talking about policy, politics, Big Oil, Big Plastic, and stuff like that.

And now, we’re back to the topic of individual action.

This month, we’ll be examining the question: Does individual behavior change even matter?! because it comes up so often in our work and our movements.

Before we officially get started with our READ module today, I want to get into the habit of celebrating regularly with you Reader

​

📢 Here are some wins and updates from the Soapbox 📢

• 💐 My wedding—and the MANY thoughtful, joy-centered sustainability decisions that went into it—was officially featured in Business Insider! Check it out!​
• We published our Q&A with Daniel Hill, who started #OpenDoorClimate. If you’re looking for a job or career change into climate, this article is a great resource ✅
• One of our members, Augustus Christensen is working on a fun approach to stakeholder capitalism (basically, you get to have a say in companies’ decisions). His company just got featured in Finance Magazine! More here.​

​

Take a second to celebrate out loud or in your own head something YOU did this week for yourself, your community, or the planet Reader🌏

​

And now, onto our READ module for the question does individual behavior change even matter?

​

✅ Reply to this email with q's/concerns on individual action or a lil pick-me-up on why you love receiving Changeletters!

Your bite-sized action plan Reader

✅ Pick one resource to READ. As a bonus, discuss it with a friend by sharing the link to this Changeletter with them.

Before we get you a yes-or-no answer to the question of the month, we need to first understand what behavior change actually means and how it works.

This READ module is a lil intro to behavioral psychology! You’re getting 3 recs on articles and books to explore.

• Behavior change generally doesn’t happen in the way we think.
  ​
  ​The Heath brothers’ book Switch: How to change things when change is hard summarizes behavioral scientists’ work by saying most people think change happens in this order: ANALYZE-THINK-CHANGE. “But big change situations don’t look like that. In most change situations, the parameters aren’t well understood, and the future is fuzzy.”
  ​
  They say “in almost all successful change efforts, the sequence of change is not ANALYZE-THINK-CHANGE but rather SEE-FEEL-CHANGE.”
  ​
  💡 Can you think of a fuzzy, confusing problem we’re dealing with right now where facts simply aren’t doing it for us? 😉

​
​

• For large interventions (like changing our gas guzzling ways, for example), we can look at the COM-B model.
  ​
  ​The Decision Lab explains that a person’s capability, opportunity, and motivation are the three factors to changing the target behavior. In this reference guide, they show us three case studies on how to increase each of those levers.
  ​
  ​
  🤔 Here’s a question for you to think about: which of the three COM letters do you feel is the biggest obstacle in your life?

​

• Peer pressure is a powerful force.
  ​
  ​Humans crave acceptance by our peers. THAT is one of the “real” reasons that behavior change absolutely does matter. The graph below shows why climate education is not enough. Not only is it helpful to change our behaviors, it’s helpful to model them to others.
  ​
  When you read this Scientific American article on “What makes people act on climate change, according to behavioral science” you’ll see that some behaviors are also easier to influence than others. Wahoo! 🥂

In conclusion, our efforts convincing people with facts that we need to “do more” on climate change probably isn’t working that well.

​

This is great news!

​

You don’t have to be a researcher to make a difference—it looks like you just have to make your own behavior changes and highlight them to others so they can SEE your example (from SEE-FEEL-CHANGE) and increase their own awareness of the OPPORTUNITY to do the same (from COM-B).

​

📩 Reply to this email with questions or thoughts you have. I know this is a biiiiiiigggg topic, and I want to hear what’s coming up for you Reader