What is the history of the climate change movement as it relates to our awareness of human impacts?
Prior to the 1970’s there was little concern about climate change. “Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1962, Senator Gaylord Nelson, a Democrat from Wisconsin, was determined to convince the federal government that the planet was at risk.”(History) He came up with an idea he called Earth Day. “Nelson announced the Earth Day concept at a conference in Seattle in the fall of 1969 and invited the entire nation to get involved. He later recalled, “The wire services carried the story from coast to coast. The response was electric. It took off like gangbusters. Telegrams, letters and telephone inquiries poured in from all across the country. The American people finally had a forum to express its concern about what was happening to the land, rivers, lakes and air—and they did so with spectacular exuberance.” Nelson said, “Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level. We had neither the time nor resources to organize 20 million demonstrators and the thousands of schools and local communities that participated. That was the remarkable thing about Earth Day. It organized itself.” ……. “The first Earth Day was effective at raising awareness about environmental issues and transforming public attitudes. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, “Public opinion polls indicate that a permanent change in national priorities followed Earth Day 1970. When polled in May 1971, 25 percent of the U.S. public declared protecting the environment to be an important goal, a 2,500 percent increase over 1969.” Earth Day kicked off the “Environmental decade with a bang,” as Senator Nelson later put it. During the 1970s, a number of important pieces of environmental legislation were passed, among them the Clean Air Act, the Water Quality Improvement Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act and the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. Another key development was the establishment in December 1970 of the Environmental Protection Agency, which was tasked with protecting human health and safeguarding the natural environment—air, water and land.” (History)
What is the psychology of climate change and what causes people to be climate change deniers?
The psychology of climate change regards people's conscious or subconscious response to climate change. Looking at this psychology allows experts to understand how to best combat climate change and shift the social norm towards being strongly concerned about climate issues. People usually deny climate change when they don’t live in a place that is immediately affected, when their source of income requires them to contribute towards climate change, when the majority around them is in denial and for other reasons.
What is environmental psychology and how might people’s relationship to PLACE/ENVIRONMENT affect their beliefs about climate change?
“Environmental psychology is an interdisciplinary field that focuses on the interplay between individuals and their surroundings. It examines the way in which the natural environment and our built environments shape us as individuals. The field defines the term environment broadly, encompassing natural environments, social settings, built environments, learning environments, and informational environments.” (Wikipedia) Having relationships with certain places and environments can affect ones beliefs about climate change through multiple factors. “First, people are generally more responsive to personal experience than to abstract analysis. This can be a problem because climate change is typically described in very abstract, statistical terms — we see the numbers and figures, but we rarely recognize the effects of climate change it in our own, everyday experience.” (Lombrozo)
What are the most effective ways to get people to take action or to care about climate change or believe in it? Motivating people through establishing social norms regarding pro-environmental behavior as well as showing society the effects of climate change that are currently happening will make this issue more relatable and allow people to feel comfortable in a pro-environmental society. “Finally, research suggests that motivating behavior with extrinsic rewards — such as monetary incentives for conserving energy — could be more effective when paired with appeals to people's intrinsic motivation to improve others' wellbeing and to care for the environment.” (Lombrozo) “When intrinsically motivated, pro-environmental behavior is more likely to be maintained after extrinsic incentives are removed, and extrinsic rewards can actually undermine people's intrinsic motivation to change.” (Lombrozo) “Sometimes climate change communicators need to go beyond presenting to a general audience to brokering an environmental decision within a group setting. Many environmental decisions are group decisions, so it is vitally important for communicators to understand how people participate in group settings, whether public or “closed door.” Some of the variables include: the relationships that exist among the individuals and groups involved; the participants’ individual and group goals; the different ways people participate in groups; and norms concerning how the meeting should be run.” (page 7. Encourage Group Participation)
Bibliography:
Prior to the 1970’s there was little concern about climate change. “Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1962, Senator Gaylord Nelson, a Democrat from Wisconsin, was determined to convince the federal government that the planet was at risk.”(History) He came up with an idea he called Earth Day. “Nelson announced the Earth Day concept at a conference in Seattle in the fall of 1969 and invited the entire nation to get involved. He later recalled, “The wire services carried the story from coast to coast. The response was electric. It took off like gangbusters. Telegrams, letters and telephone inquiries poured in from all across the country. The American people finally had a forum to express its concern about what was happening to the land, rivers, lakes and air—and they did so with spectacular exuberance.” Nelson said, “Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level. We had neither the time nor resources to organize 20 million demonstrators and the thousands of schools and local communities that participated. That was the remarkable thing about Earth Day. It organized itself.” ……. “The first Earth Day was effective at raising awareness about environmental issues and transforming public attitudes. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, “Public opinion polls indicate that a permanent change in national priorities followed Earth Day 1970. When polled in May 1971, 25 percent of the U.S. public declared protecting the environment to be an important goal, a 2,500 percent increase over 1969.” Earth Day kicked off the “Environmental decade with a bang,” as Senator Nelson later put it. During the 1970s, a number of important pieces of environmental legislation were passed, among them the Clean Air Act, the Water Quality Improvement Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act and the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. Another key development was the establishment in December 1970 of the Environmental Protection Agency, which was tasked with protecting human health and safeguarding the natural environment—air, water and land.” (History)
What is the psychology of climate change and what causes people to be climate change deniers?
The psychology of climate change regards people's conscious or subconscious response to climate change. Looking at this psychology allows experts to understand how to best combat climate change and shift the social norm towards being strongly concerned about climate issues. People usually deny climate change when they don’t live in a place that is immediately affected, when their source of income requires them to contribute towards climate change, when the majority around them is in denial and for other reasons.
What is environmental psychology and how might people’s relationship to PLACE/ENVIRONMENT affect their beliefs about climate change?
“Environmental psychology is an interdisciplinary field that focuses on the interplay between individuals and their surroundings. It examines the way in which the natural environment and our built environments shape us as individuals. The field defines the term environment broadly, encompassing natural environments, social settings, built environments, learning environments, and informational environments.” (Wikipedia) Having relationships with certain places and environments can affect ones beliefs about climate change through multiple factors. “First, people are generally more responsive to personal experience than to abstract analysis. This can be a problem because climate change is typically described in very abstract, statistical terms — we see the numbers and figures, but we rarely recognize the effects of climate change it in our own, everyday experience.” (Lombrozo)
What are the most effective ways to get people to take action or to care about climate change or believe in it? Motivating people through establishing social norms regarding pro-environmental behavior as well as showing society the effects of climate change that are currently happening will make this issue more relatable and allow people to feel comfortable in a pro-environmental society. “Finally, research suggests that motivating behavior with extrinsic rewards — such as monetary incentives for conserving energy — could be more effective when paired with appeals to people's intrinsic motivation to improve others' wellbeing and to care for the environment.” (Lombrozo) “When intrinsically motivated, pro-environmental behavior is more likely to be maintained after extrinsic incentives are removed, and extrinsic rewards can actually undermine people's intrinsic motivation to change.” (Lombrozo) “Sometimes climate change communicators need to go beyond presenting to a general audience to brokering an environmental decision within a group setting. Many environmental decisions are group decisions, so it is vitally important for communicators to understand how people participate in group settings, whether public or “closed door.” Some of the variables include: the relationships that exist among the individuals and groups involved; the participants’ individual and group goals; the different ways people participate in groups; and norms concerning how the meeting should be run.” (page 7. Encourage Group Participation)
Bibliography:
- Lombrozo, Tania. “How Psychology Can Save The World From Climate Change.” NPR, 30 Nov. 2015, www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2015/11/30/457835780/how-psychology-can-save-the-world-from-climate-change.
- History.com Editors. “Earth Day 2019.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 27 Oct. 2009, www.history.com/topics/holidays/earth-day.
- “Environmental Psychology.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Sept. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_psychology.
- “7. Encourage Group Participation.” CRED Guide | The Psychology of Climate Change Communication, http://guide.cred.columbia.edu/guide/sec7.html.