Addressing the go green debate: Initiatives that encourage small green behaviors and their political spillover effects

While there are numerous supporters of initiatives that promote small green behaviors, there are also critics who debate the effectiveness of these actions in addressing global climate change. The critics claim that people often choose to perform easy green behaviors to rationalize their inaction in other ways, which is detrimental to garnering support for political action. The supporters emphasize the cumulative effects of small green behaviors, including the likelihood of these actions spilling over into further green behaviors as well as greater political concern about climate change. The relationship between green behaviors and political attitudes should be considered more closely, since increased political engagement and support for large-scale sustainability policies is the ultimate goal of both the critics and the supporters ... To best achieve the link between green behaviors and political support for climate-related issues, initiatives should (1) identify behaviors that are both effective at reducing emissions and present the fewest barriers to change, (2) clearly express the environmental benefits of the behavior above all other incentives, and (3) explicitly link performance of this behavior with being a “green” person