Concluding his article from last month, Dr. Holmgren details parallels of behaviour change in other social areas.
The best examples of sustainable changes of large population groups come from grass-roots movements. These have often used all available channels, such as the power of small groups and peer pressure to convince people about the value of behaviour change.
This was certainly true in Sweden in the temperance movements of the mid-19th century, where whole communities were being destroyed by an unparalleled level of alcoholism. It is estimated that in Stockholm at this time, the consumption of alcohol was equivalent to 50 litres of brandy per person per year, with each man drinking one third of a litre per day on average! The medical effects of alcoholism were horrifying.
