Rogat+-+sustp+-+matrix+collages

Michelle Rogat Sustainability Problems Matrix Collages & Captions

__**I**____**ssues Involving Gender Differences (569 words)**__ I got the idea to write about the sustainability issues involving the fact that America is a patriarchal society from Naomi Klein's TEDTalk, Addicted to Risk. In her talk she mentions how being a patriarchal society has a major influence on how we are collectively addicted to risk (Klein 2010). I dug further and found a study, Gender Differences in Risk Taking: A Meta-Analysis, that researched into how men and women make decisions around risk differently, and the study concluded that men do indeed take more risks than women, even when they know it's a bad idea. The study discussed theories as to why men take more risk such as Zuckerman's "risk as value" theory which states that risk taking is highly valued male tendency and motivates high levels of risk taking across contexts in men. "Arnett's theory suggests that men would take more risks than women in most cultures because sensation seeking is found more often in men than women." (Byrnes 1999)

This interesting NPR clip discusses issues with the gender gap in the economies and politics throughout the world, highlighting issues with gender gaps in the workforce. Men, who in our society are automatically paid more and are more likely to be in positions of power and decision making, takes more risks and affect the country collectively by not airing on the side of precaution, our country all but ignores the Precautionary Principle. Byrnes states that resisting a risk requires a certain level of self-regulation, humbleness, and the ability to learn from one's mistakes, which sounds like not worrying about your own ego and being more transparent with decision making.

Since the majority of men in business make more money and hold the majority of the power positions, they can afford a wealthy lifestyle that distances them from others in their environment.Paul Piff discusses in his TEDTalk, Does Money Make You Mean, about how a wealthier income allows you to move into a nicer house that allows everyone their own rooms, the house has it's own yard set away from neighbors, you can drive a car to work instead of taking mass transit, you have your own office at work instead of a shared cubicle, and you even are an overseer instead of a team player (Piff 2013). This distancing of oneself makes you less compassionate and understanding of the plight of others, while at work you are required to hold yourself accountable and make yourself be transparent with your decisions. This distancing adds to a male's already risk addicted behavior and makes it harder for environmental decisions, especially about the future, to be made. Piff's research does suggest that reminders, such as holding collaborative meetings or sending around memos does bring that compassion level back up and makes the person more considerate.

This collage shows this by pointing out the gender gap differences at work, including not just income, but the fact that women who work hard are treated differently than men who work hard. Then there are images to show that men take more risks than women and are dominant in the work place, allowing risk-taking to dominate in business. The image of the two scientists working on a chemical is classic gender differences influencing the use of the Precautionary Principle because while the man says to prove that it's NOT safe before using it, the woman says to first prove that it IS safe.



__**Language Affecting Our Time**__ **__Perspectives (526 words)__** This TEDTalk, "Could Your Language Affect Your Ability to Save Money?" by Keith Chen, sticks with the theme of issues caused by distancing oneself from others. He wondered why some countries were horrible at saving and others great at it. In his research Chen found that countries that spoke grammatically different in reference to time had vastly different saving abilities, a direct connection between the way you save and the language you speak. Languages that where you speak of the past,present, and future identically is known as weak future-time-reference (FTR), and languages that distance and separate the time spectrum are known as strong-FTR and uses different tenses such as 'did, does or doing, and will do'. "Overall, my findings are largely consistent with the hypothesis that languages with obligatory future-time reference lead their speakers to engage in less future-oriented behavior. On savings, the evidence is consistent on multiple levels: at an individual’s propensity to save, to long-run effects on retirement wealth, and in national savings rates. These findings extend to health behaviors ranging from smoking to condom use, as well as to measures of long-run health." (Chen 2013) In other words, cultures that speak "future-less" languages that do not distance the future from the reality of now are able to make better decisions and take less risks concerning the future. This effect can be seen in savings, national health, and return-on-investment.

When we distance the future and treat it differently than right now, we are discounting. Discounting means to take future risk less seriously and account for those risks less right now. Discount theory is based on the concept that society will have more wealth and technology in the future to deal with problems and therefore the issue in consideration poses less of a risk (Gattig 2007). Environmental consequences are on a long delay and will come to surface in the future when the next generations will have to deal with them, so we must take future generations into consideration. This time lapse in information is one of the leveraging points Donnella Meadows discusses as important to consider for tackling sustainability issues (Meadows 2008).

To bring discounting and people's decisions in line with environmental concerns, Gattig et. al suggests that policymakers should point out the ethics involved such as human responsibility in the risk, discrepancies between the cause and the victims, and more. Subjects in their study were able to identify that because environmental risks involve longer delays, victims other than the decision maker, and ethical concerns, they decided environmental risks are to be considered different than other risks (Gattig 2007). This suggests that a level of empathy and understanding that is needed in order to take environmental decisions correctly into account.

The collage above is meant to bring together concepts of health and savings decisions to a scale that included global cultures and future generations. Both issues above involve trains of thought and behaviors conducive to risk taking that is detrimental to the environment. However, the use of empathy focused on sustainability, through simply reminding the people of the ethical situations and issues at stake, is a possible solution for preventing these bad decisions.

Links included in caption:
 * Naomi Klein - Addicted to Risk
 * This RSA Animate video, The Secret Powers of Time, is very in sync with what K Chen was saying about language and pace of life in different cultures affecting their ability to plan for the future. It then goes more deeply into the hedonistic culture of the US, how this affects our time perspective, and how that affects our life and relations with others in the world.
 * TEDTalk, "Could Your Language Affect Your Ability to Save Money?" by Keith Chen
 * This interesting NPR clip discusses issues with the gender gap in the economies and politics throughout the world, highlighting issues with gender gaps in the workforce.
 * Paul Piff - Does Money Make You Mean

Bibliography
 * 1) Byrnes, J. P., Miller, D. C., & Schafer, W. D. (1999). Gender differences in risk taking: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 125(3), 367–383. doi:10.1037//0033-2909.125.3.367
 * 2) Chen, M. (2013). The effect of language on economic behavior: Evidence from savings rates, health behaviors, and retirement assets. The American Economic Review. Retrieved from http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/aea/aer/2013/00000103/00000002/art00005
 * 3) Gattig, A., & Hendrickx, L. (2007). Judgmental Discounting and Environmental Risk Perception: Dimensional Similarities, Domain Differences, and Implications for Sustainability. Journal of Social Issues, 63(1), 21–39. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4560.2007.00494.x
 * 4) Klein, N. (2010). Naomi Klein: Addicted to risk | Talk Video | TED. Dec. Retrieved April 07, 2014, from http://www.ted.com/talks/naomi_klein_addicted_to_risk/transcript
 * 5) Meadows, D. (2008). Leverage points: places to intervene in a system. 1999. Available from:[2003 Nov 24]. Retrieved from http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&btnG=Search&q=intitle:Leverage+Points+Places+to+Intervene+in+a+System#4
 * 6) Piff, P. (2013). Paul Piff: Does money make you mean? | Talk Video | TED. Oct. Retrieved April 07, 2014, from http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_piff_does_money_make_you_mean