The Environment: What Do One Person's Actions Matter?

Psychology Today's Editor at Large, Hara Estroff Marano, and I continue our conversations on challenging topics.

Today we continue with the environment:

• What do one person's actions matter?
• How do you influence someone who disagrees, like a hardcore Trump supporter?

Our disagreement and fireworks come after we talk about the strong Trump supporter. We both take issue with people of many political views.

Here's the recording, with notes below.

I suggest a more important question than what difference something makes is if you should do it anyway. In this case I consider this question more important because when you actually act—not out of coercion or the smallest thing you can to but for a meaningful reason: You learn it improves your life with no loss. If you gain with no loss, why not do it?

We all can do more. If you measure the life change Hara describes early in the conversation by impact, you're looking at the y-intercept. I look at the slope. I read that she's starting, not ending or leveling off, but listen for yourself.

Anyone can start acting any time. I recommend watching my first TEDx talk to learn the technique from me that got her started and episodes of my podcast to hear it in practice in hundreds of conversations.

Notes

1. Hara shares about acting environmentally becoming a part of her life, raising awareness and consciousness at no cost.
2. My motivation for environmental action's basis in the U.S. Constitution
3. My interaction on the environment with a strong Trump supporter.
4. Our mutual annoyance at what we saw as self-righteousness from many environmental people, making acting adversarial, ending up counterproductive.
5. The talking over and past each other came on defining what a fact is and how to engage and influence people we disagree with.

We don't solve all the world's problems, but I haven't heard this conversation anyplace else.