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Challenging Climate Change: The Denial Countermovement
... Pro-environmental behaviours can be financially and socially costly, and involve varying degrees of effort; they are markedly influenced by the availability of supportive infrastructure, such as recycling facilities and good public transport (Steg and Vlek, 2009). In addition, there are misinformation campaigns that generate confusion and controversy around the issue (Dunlap and McCright, 2015), which may thwart environmental action. ACT could help individuals to allow difficult feelings such as frustration, and to focus on the value-consistent actions available to them within a given social and structural context. ...
Climate distress describes a complex array of emotional responses to climate change, which may include anxiety, despair, anger and grief. This paper presents a conceptual analysis of how acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is relevant to supporting those with climate distress. ACT aims to increase psychological flexibility, consisting of an open and aware orientation to one’s experiences, and an engaged approach to living, guided by personal values. We discuss the pertinence of each of these processes for adapting to the challenging reality of climate change. By embracing climate distress as a natural human experience and promoting value-guided action, ACT offers a promising approach that brings co-benefits to individuals and wider society.
Key learning aims
(1) To understand the concept of climate distress and its various emotional responses.
(2) To explore the relevance of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) in addressing climate distress and promoting psychological well-being.
(3) To examine the importance of psychological flexibility in coping with climate change.
(4) To analyse the role of ACT in embracing climate distress as a natural human experience.
(5) To investigate how ACT can encourage pro-environmental behaviours and climate change mitigation efforts.
... The Environmental Justice (EJ) paradigm, developed by Robert Bullard and other scholars, examines how marginalized communities disproportionately bear the burden of environmental degradation due to unequal laws, regulations, and policies. Environmental justice seeks equitable treatment for all people, regardless of race, ethnicity, income, or geography, in the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental policies [58][59][60][61][62] No. ...
This paper reexamines climate justice through the framework of environmental sociology, offering fresh perspectives on the intersection of social and ecological systems in the face of escalating global climate crises. It emphasizes that inequality lies at the heart of global climate politics, often obstructing pathways toward achieving true climate justice. Drawing from established traditions within environmental sociology—such as the new ecological paradigm, the post-growth society, and the environmental justice paradigm—the paper advocates for profound systemic and structural reforms in political and economic systems to tackle entrenched inequalities. By integrating these frameworks, the paper proposes a comprehensive model of climate justice, encompassing material, procedural, compensatory, and transformative justice. This holistic approach not only addresses environmental sustainability but also prioritizes social equity, ensuring that marginalized communities are included in the global response to climate change. The paper thus positions climate justice as a critical component of broader environmental and social transformation.
... This human-centered world view stems from Judeo-Christian beliefs that nature was created for man's use. In this paradigm, science and technology are used to leverage natural resources to improve standards of living (Dunlap & McCright, 2015). These views conflict with the environmental movement that emerged in the 1960's inspired by Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (Carson, 1962) and the Club of Rome's Limits to Growth (Meadows et al., 1972) government intervention and regulation as threats to their paradigm (Jacques et al., 2008;McCright & Dunlap, 2000). ...
Objective of the study: This study seeks to investigate psychological processes driving consumers to engage in home energy efficiency investment behaviors and the potentially inhibiting role climate change conspiracy beliefs play in those processes. Methodology/approach: Our conceptual model offers a set of hypotheses that we test through structural equation modeling. Main results: Our model offers strong support for the values-beliefs-norms (VBN) model and the inhibiting role of climate change conspiracy beliefs in consumer energy investment behaviors. Theoretical/methodological contributions: Our research utilizes value-belief-norm (VBN) theory to test our hypotheses. Additionally, we utilized conspiracy theory and specifically, conspiracy ideation, to demonstrate the role conspiracy beliefs play in decisions to engage in energy investment behaviors. Relevance/originality: Conspiracy theory and climate change are two important topics affecting society. This is the first research that investigates both of these topics within the framework of VBN theory. Hence, our results have significant theoretical, management and social implications. Management or social implications: Results suggest that those investigating decisions to adopt environmental products or engage in pro-environmental behaviors should consider the inhibiting role of conspiracies and using the VBN model as a key foundation. Moreover, these results indicate that how managers promote pro-environmental behaviors to customers and society must consider conspiracy ideation in developing their marketing strategies.
... D'altra parte, negli Stati Uniti, uno studio del Yale Program on Climate Change Communication ha rilevato che, nonostante il 69% degli americani creda che il riscaldamento globale stia avvenendo, solo il 57% attribuisce questo fenomeno principalmente alle attività umane [83]. Questo scetticismoè spesso alimentato da disinformazione e polarizzazione politica, come evidenziato dalle posizioni pubbliche di figure politiche influenti che minimizzano o negano l'esistenza del cambiamento climatico [84]. Questi dati dimostrano l'importanza di una comunicazione scientifica efficace e di iniziative educative per migliorare la comprensione pubblica del cambiamento climatico e promuovere l'adozione di comportamenti sostenibili. ...
With the increase in extreme weather events and environmental disasters, attention towards climate-related issues is growing, highlighting the importance of understanding public opinion and the discursive dynamics associated with this now crucial topic. This study aims to examine opinions related to climate change through text-mining techniques applied to texts from social media platforms such as Reddit and Twitter.
The first phase of the analysis involves identifying and collecting available online data, selecting datasets and texts pertinent to the research objective. Once collected, the texts are processed and prepared for analysis through cleaning and normalization procedures. This is followed by a Topic Modeling phase aimed at uncovering the main topics discussed and the keywords associated with them. Finally, sentiment analysis contextualizes the emotions associated with the texts and the opinions expressed.
Understanding the topics discussed and public perceptions regarding climate change thus helps provide a clearer and deeper informational framework, contributing to awareness and the development of potential strategies to address this increasingly global challenge.
Amidst increasing polarization on climate policy, Pope Francis’ exhortation Laudate Deum (October 2023) is a contribution to keep the planetary emergency up on the global agenda. In contrast with his previous encyclical Laudato si’, the Pontiff unequivocally states the anthropic origin of climate change. Justifying his plea with the lack of progress of multilateralism without formal mechanisms of enforcement, the Pontiff explicitly calls for new governance arrangements and binding instruments for the enforcement of climate protection agreements. With no legal character for the Church, the document has had no strong effect in the short run. However, in line with recent pronouncements of other religious leaders, it is a vigorous moral challenge to climate scepticism and inertia, restating the engagement of religion as an agent for change in promoting climate action.
The world's understanding of the climate and ecological crises rests on science. However, scientists' conventional methods of engagement, such as producing ever more data and findings, writing papers and giving advice to governments, have not been sufficiently effective at persuading politicians to act on the climate and ecological emergency. To date, governments’ decisions (such as continuing with vast subsidies for fossil fuels) clearly show that powerful vested interests have been much more influential than the amassed scientific knowledge and advice. We argue that in the face of this inaction, scientists can have the maximum amount of influence by lending their support to social movements pressing for action, joining as active participants and considering civil disobedience. Scientists seeking to halt continued environmental destruction also need to work through our institutions. Too many scientific organizations, from national academies of science to learned societies and universities, have not taken practical action on climate; for example, many still partner with fossil fuel and other compromised interests. We therefore also outline a vision for how scientists can reform our scientific institutions to become powerful agents for change.
A network of organizations working to oppose climate action, called the climate change countermovement (CCCM), has long been a critical yet highly opaque subject of study for social scientists concerned with climate politics. We leverage a new combined dataset of boards of directors, financial contributions, and texts produced by CCCM members to characterize its sources of support and social structure. We show that foundations tend to make more frequent and larger donations to CCCM nonprofits when they are linked through a board member. We also show that CCCM nonprofits which are more distant from each other in the social network of board members produce different climate change discourses. Community detection methods robustly detect three communities within the CCCM: conservative think tanks (CTT), oil and gas trade associations, and utility, coal, and manufacturing trade associations, each with unique goals within the countermovement. The findings suggest that the climate countermovement is an interface among these communities which together ensure that climate action obstruction is achieved on different but complementary fronts, through both discursive and more concrete policy efforts. This paper also introduces a new way of understanding organized climate obstruction and makes significant methodological contributions in the study of social movements and countermovements.
Previous research on climate-relevant knowledge distinguishes between two types: belief-linked (facts which can be guessed based on general climate beliefs) and belief-neutral (facts which require specific knowledge). To better understand these differences, we used data from nationwide US 2016 and 2021 surveys to develop composite indicators of the two types of knowledge. We analyzed demographic predictors of each type, as well as their effect on climate change belief. Further, we examined the issue of trust in science. The findings point to some novel insights. One, not all knowledge is equal; specific, belief-neutral knowledge in particular is less necessary for climate change belief. And two, trust in science is more relevant for fostering climate change belief than either knowledge type. Although this poses certain challenges, given the ideological divide when it comes to scientific trust, it is also useful information for policymakers and science communicators about where to direct energy and resources when engaging with the public.
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