Posts Tagged: Mark Lubell

Human behavior patterns influence water conservation

Getting Californians to conserve water is more complex than simply asking for voluntary cuts or making reduced water use mandatory, said UC Davis professor Mark Lubell during a Capitol Public Radio interview with Beth Ruyak. Lubell is affiliated with the UC Agricultural Experiment Station, a part of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources.

"There is a lot of collective action involved in getting individuals and farmers and water districts to come together to reduce water use," said Lubell, who is also Director of the Center for Environmental Policy and Behavior at UC Davis.

Lubell, whose research focuses on human behavior and the role of governance institutions in solving environmental collective action problems and facilitating cooperation, is particularly interested in watching the conservation efforts prompted by the California drought unfold. "It is definitely a good lab to study cooperation problems or observe them in action," he said.

The difficulty for California is akin to the classic "tragedy of the commons," in which people behave in their own self-interest even when contrary to the best interests of a whole group.

"People are being asked to make an individual sacrifice, but the costs and benefits are experienced by a lot of other people," Lubell said. "People tend to not do the behaviors that make everybody collectively better off."

The solution, Lubell said, is taking a multifaceted approach to encouraging water conservation, including water prices, penalties for not conserving, and influencing social norms. He said social norms are crucial, but they are not established overnight. And the norms can change again when conditions change.

"There will be some behaviors that stick. Some people might put in some irrigation changes where they won't go back and put lawn back in right away," Lubell said. "But short term changes will unstick once it starts raining again. We know the psychology of water use, and people very quickly forget the drier years."

UC scientist weighs in on climate change on VOA Russia

Common ground in the climate change debate can be found in agreement over the need to adapt to warmer temperatures, said Mark Lubell, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Environmental Science and Policy, during an interview with Rob Sachs of Voice of America Russia edition.

Lubell said there is a wide consensus among scientists that longterm climate models show a warming trend. There is less agreement about the cause of the warming temperatures, but most everyone would support the effort to make communities more resilient to the probable affects of a warmer planet.

Lubell said people need to be ready to adapt to more heat waves, a rising sea level and more fires in arid areas. He also discussed the potential repercussions of climate change on California agriculture.

"Climate change is likely to have a pretty big impact on water availability and the productivity of different types of crops," Lubell said "A farmer who says I'm just going to do what I've always done, 10 years from now might find himself with a much less profitable agricultural enterprise. If they try to change crops and the ways they manage their crop to be more in sync with climate change, they may be able to maintain their enterprise and profitability at the levels that they want."

Adapting to climate change is critical whether one believes it's human caused or not.

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