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The Wages of Fear?: Toward Fearing Well About Climate ChangeToward Fearing Well About Climate Change

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Abstract

What role, if any, should appeals to fear play in climate change communication? Moral and practical worries about fear appeals in the climate change debate have caused some to turn toward hope appeals. This chapter argues that fear can be a rational and motivationally powerful response to climate change. While there are good reasons to worry about the use of fear in politics, climate change fear appeals can be protected against the standard criticisms of political fear. Hope appeals, by contrast, seem vulnerable to serious motivational drawbacks in the case of climate change. We should not therefore abandon fear appeals in favor of hope appeals. Instead, we should take our bearings from Aristotle in an effort to cultivate fear more responsibly. Aristotle offers an appealing model of “civic fear” that preserves the best aspects of hope, elicits rather than extinguishes our sense of agency, and invites rather than forecloses deliberation.

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... The very few studies about the question have not yet provided a clear answer (Meijnders, Midden, & Wilke, 2001;Scharks, 2016), and the normative recommendations are in conflict (McQueen, 2021;Reser & Bradley, 2017). In addition, the literature of the effects of threat appeals on behavior, in general, and on health related behavior, in particular, has not reached a consensus after 70 years of research (Peters, Ruiter, ten Hoor, Kessels, & Kok, 2018). ...
... Current threat appeal models mostly concern individual healthrelated behaviors rather than political or collective action. All models, however, incorporate the basic ideas of Aristotle who wrote about the usefulness of threat appeals to motivate political action against distant threats (McQueen, 2021). Climate change is such a threat: although potentially catastrophic, climate change tends to appear abstract and distant which can lead to a lack of action via a lack of fear (Wiener, 2016). ...
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Despite 70 years of research, there is no consensus about the effects of threat messages on behavior, partly because of publication bias. The lack of consensus concerns situations such as climate change where people tend to believe that they cannot easily make a major difference. Using a 2 × 2, (threat, neutral) × (efficacy, no efficacy) between-subjects design, we tested four hypotheses: the effect of threat stimuli on (1) mitigation of climate change and (2) experienced fear depends on efficacy information, (3) threat stimuli increase monetary donations to mitigation regardless of efficacy information, and (4) the effect of the threat stimuli depends on political identity. The threat stimuli were climate change related pictures and a prompt to write either about one's knowledge of or about the threat of climate change. The efficacy stimuli were an efficacy related picture and written information about the efficacy of a climate change mitigating organization. We collected a representative online sample of 1517 U.S. citizens. The manipulations affected experienced fear and self-efficacy, but there was no statistically significant main effect of threat on donations nor a statistically significant interaction between threat and efficacy or between threat and political identity. It is concluded that threat appeals do not increase climate change mitigation behavior by more than a very small amount compared to making people think about the subject.
... The various phenomena related to the crisis cause various emotions in people and many contextual factors have an effect on them. Climate emotions have been found to be related to for example behavioral reactions (e.g., Nabi et al., 2018), psychological well-being and health (e.g., Berry et al., 2018), and to moral issues (e.g., McQueen, 2021). These kind of dynamics have been much discussed in general emotion research (see Barrett et al., 2016), and while research on climate emotions has started to draw from that research, more integration would be needed. ...
... Some of these studies focus on several climate emotions, some only on one. -Scholarship in various disciplines about people's affective responses to climate crisis, such as environmental psychology (e.g., van der Linden, 2017; Nabi et al., 2018;Wang et al., 2018); human geography (e.g., Head, 2016;Head and Harada, 2017;Kemkes and Akerman, 2019), psychosocial studies (e.g., Weintrobe, 2013;Lertzman, 2015;Hoggett, 2019), environmental communication and adaptation studies (e.g., Moser, 2013), education or youth studies (e.g., Nairn, 2019;Jones and Davison, 2021), affect research (Bladow and Ladino, 2018a;Bristow, 2019), environmental philosophy (e.g., Antadze, 2020;McQueen, 2021), and environmental education (e.g., Ojala, 2013Ojala, , 2016Bryan, 2020;Pihkala, 2020b;Verlie, 2022). General studies about emotions related to environmental issues were also consulted (Böhm, 2003;Kals and Müller, 2012;Gonzáles-Hidalgo and Zografos, 2020). ...
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There is a growing evidence that emotions shape people's reactions to the climate crisis in profound but complex ways. Climate emotions are related to resilience, climate action, and psychological well-being and health. However, there is currently a lack of research about the array of various climate emotions. There is also a need for more integration with general research about emotions. This article conducts a preliminary exploration of the taxonomy of climate emotions, based on literature reviews and philosophical discussion. The term emotion is used here in a broad sense, as is common in climate emotion research. Because of the urgency of the climate crisis and the lack of previous research, this kind of exploration is aimed to be helpful for both practical climate work and for future research which would include more systematic reviews of the topic. Research items which discuss at least five different climate emotions, based on empirical observations, are used as major sources and a table about them is provided. Climate emotions are discussed on the basis of interdisciplinary research. The article considers many aspects of the phenomena of climate anxiety and climate grief.
... To ascertain cut-off scores, Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) analyses were conducted using SPSS v28 (data available from the authors upon reasonable request). To date, there remains a lack of consensus as to whether climate change anxiety represents a disorder or is a normative response (e.g., [39][40][41]). Thus, there is not an agreed upon diagnosis of climate anxiety against which to identify cut-off scores. ...
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Background Climate change anxiety, that is worry and fear in relation to the awareness of the impacts of climate change, is widely observed around the world. Some evidence suggests that while climate change anxiety can, at times, be adaptive, a growing body of research has reported that climate change anxiety is also related to a range of negative mental health outcomes and psychological distress. Currently, however, there is limited ability to assess for elevated levels of climate change anxiety and to identify those who may need support. The present study, therefore, aimed to develop clinical cut-off scores on a measure of climate change anxiety. Methods A largely representative sample of Australian young adults (aged 16–25 years) completed measures of psychological distress (Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21) and the Climate Change Anxiety Scale. Markers of clinically meaningful psychological distress – elevated depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms—were used to classify cases. Receiver Operating Characteristics analyses were performed to assess the predictive ability of the indicators of psychological distress (mild, moderate, severe, and extremely severe thresholds of anxiety, depression, and stress symptoms) for detecting climate change anxiety and to ascertain optimal cut-off scores. Results The Area Under the Curve was acceptable to moderate for detecting climate change anxiety across all analyses. Across symptom severity thresholds and markers of psychological distress, based on consideration of balancing sensitivity and specificity, results consistently suggested that a cut-score of 21 was indicative of mild-moderate climate change anxiety, with a cut-off score of 23 indicating severe-extremely severe climate change anxiety. Conclusions The proposed cut-offs can feasibly be used to identify those with elevated climate change anxiety. Use of these cut-off scores can inform research as well as be used to guide screening, assessment, and inform clinical practice. Results also highlight a high rate of climate change anxiety in young adults.
... This increasing prevalence of eco-anxiety underscores the need to explore its relationship with mental health outcomes [9,13]. While reports from clinical practice e.g., [14,15] and mental healthcare professionals e.g., [16,17] indicate that distress is occurring in relation to climate change, others argue that the threats of climate change are real and thus eco-anxiety is rational, rather than potentially pathological [18][19][20]. A review and synthesis on contemporary understandings of the extent to which anxiety around climate change can impact mental health is therefore urgent to guide policy makers and healthcare providers [21]. ...
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Background and objectives The adverse impacts of climate change on mental health is a burgeoning area, although findings are inconsistent. The emerging concept of eco-anxiety represents distress in relation to climate change and may be related to mental health. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between eco-anxiety with validated mental health outcomes, specifically psychological distress and symptoms of major affective disorders. Design Systematic review. Methods EBSCO, ProQuest, and Web of Science databases were searched to February 2024 for studies of adult samples quantifying eco-anxiety (exposure, i.e. fear, worry or anxiety in relation to climate change) and symptoms of psychological distress and major affective disorders (outcomes), as assessed by validated measures. Results Full text review of 83 studies was performed, and k = 35 studies were included in the review (N = 45 667, 61% female, Mage 31.2 years). Consistently, eco-anxiety showed small to large positive correlations with mental health outcomes of psychological distress, depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and stress symptoms. However, results regarding post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and pathological worry were mixed. Stronger associations were observed where eco-anxiety was operationalised as ‘anxiety’ rather than ‘worry’. Conclusions Findings underscore that eco-anxiety is related to psychological burden. Greater consideration of eco-anxiety in assessment and treatment is needed in clinical practice and further policy development is warranted at the intersection of climate and health to address the mental health challenges posed by climate change.
... Climate change anxiety, broadly defined as negative cognitive, emotional, functional, and behavioural responses to concerns about climate change, is beneficial in the short term because, like any other practical anxiety, it provokes humans to reassess and readjust their behaviours in an attempt to counter the causes of the anxiety (Pihkala, 2020). Climate change anxiety, for example, is associated with emotional feelings such as grief, worry, depression, and, in some situations, hope McQueen, 2021;Stanley et al., 2021). These emotional feelings are adaptive in the short term because they provoke a person to perceive and understand climate change events and respond appropriately, thus improving survival odds (El Zoghbi & El Ansari, 2004;Schwartz et al., 2022). ...
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Climate change anxiety refers to negative cognitive, emotional, behavioural, and functional responses to experiences of climate change and has implications on mental health. The current study sought to determine how climate change anxiety relates to cognitive-emotional and functional impairments as well as with experience of climate change and behavioural engagement in youths. The study surveyed 388 youths (aged 13-24 years) in high schools in Kwale County, Kenya. Data were analysed in XLSTAT software using Pearson's correlation and considered significant for values of p ≤ 0.05. Over 60 % of the youths had more than "Sometimes" suffered cognitive-emotional impairment, while 63 % were more than "Sometimes" inflicted with functional impairment. Additionally, 61 % of the respondents more than "Sometimes" reported having had a climate change experience. However, 71 % of the youths were more than "Sometimes" engaged in climate change behavioural activities. There were no significant gender differences in the scores. Cognitive-emotional impairment (M = 2.507, SD = 1.267) was significantly (P = 0.0048) associated with behavioural engagement in climate change (M = 3.019, SD = 1.403). Youths attending day schools scored significantly (P = 0.022) higher in functional impairment (M = 2.897, SD = 1.182) than students in boarding schools (M = 2.535, SD = 1.395). Youths aged 13-17 years were substantially more affected by climate change anxiety than those aged 18-24 years. This study identifies a population at risk with high exposure and vulnerability to the health impacts of climate change. The study suggests the need for policies to address climate change anxiety in youths in schools and the use of the youths' pro-environmental behavioural engagements in climate change to improve their adaptive capacity.
... Так называемая климатическая тревога (см.: Ibid.) может быть связана со многими негативными эмоциями, включая беспокойство (Stewart, 2021), страх (Hickman et al., 2021;McQueen, 2021), гнев (Stanley et al., 2021), горе и отчаяние (Fritze et al., 2008), вину и стыд (Jensen, 2019). Недавнее крупное международное исследование показало, что чаще всего респонденты, обеспокоенные изменением климата, испытывают следующие эмоции: печаль, тревогу, гнев, бессилие, беспомощность и вину (Hickman et al., 2021). ...
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Current research suggests that the relationship between negative emotions and pro-environmental behaviour is not consistent across contexts, and that different negative emotions can both increase and decrease motivation to act. This paper is a post hoc analysis of the role of negative emotions in supporting climate change policy in the context of Russia, also examining the role of sociodemographic factors. Based on a randomized controlled experimental design with a total sample size of N = 246, we assess the expression of six negative emotions in relation to perceptions of climate change, and their role in increasing support for a set of key climate policies. The results show that the overall expression of negative emotions is positively associated with support for the full set of climate policies, but the effect varies significantly across policies. In terms of sociodemographic factors, taking into account the factor structure of the climate policy support, support for policies that relate to taxes is more strongly determined by education; support for policies that relate to energy infrastructure and business, as well as forest and water protection, is determined by gender; the latter is also negatively associated with respondents' income level. In practical terms, the results indicate the need to develop a balanced communication strategy to attract the attention of Russian society to climate change, to familiarize population with the short- and long-term effects of the introduction of various policies to counteract climate change, and to create an information flow that promotes an emotional attitude to the problem, which is as effective as possible for supporting policies developed by the state and the scientific community.
... Similar to the aforementioned first phase of the coronavirus crisis, there has been much worry and indifference to ecological problems and the climate crisis. Often there has been unfounded optimism and wishful thinking (McQueen 2021;Foster 2015). The major difference with the coronavirus crisis is that this "phase" related to ecological problems has lasted for decades. ...
Article
In recent decades, as environmental destruction has become more extreme and prevalent around the planet, the way that humans experience the natural world has also changed, giving rise to more frequent and intense experiences of eco-anxiety. Not simply personal or social, eco-anxiety is distributed across the relationships that humans have with the life, land, air, and water of Earth. This anthology presents international and interdisciplinary perspectives on eco-anxiety, with attention to two of the most prominent sources of eco-anxiety today: the COVID pandemic and the climate crisis. From the microscopic scale of viruses to the macroscopic scale of Earth’s atmosphere, instability in natural systems is causing unprecedented forms of psychological distress, including anxiety and related emotional or affective states like grief, anger, guilt, and depression. To tackle crises of such unprecedented scope and impact, we need to expand beyond mainstream behavioral research approaches to include also rigorous methods from the human sciences. This book both builds upon and moves beyond the latest research in environmental psychology, conservation psychology, and clinical psychology. Dominant research paradigms in these areas rely primarily on experimental and observational methodologies that analyze quantitative data. In contrast, this book focuses on sophisticated traditions of social and cultural psychology in dialogue with other disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. The result is a nuanced understanding of the human experience of confronting eco-anxiety, offering critical insights into the subjective worlds of individuals as they grapple with the intertwined existential threats of the climate crisis and pandemics.
... Similar to the aforementioned first phase of the coronavirus crisis, there has been much worry and indifference to ecological problems and the climate crisis. Often there has been unfounded optimism and wishful thinking (McQueen 2021;Foster 2015). The major difference with the coronavirus crisis is that this "phase" related to ecological problems has lasted for decades. ...
Chapter
This chapter introduces the overall aim and scope of this anthology, providing a survey of recent research into various expressions of eco-anxiety and other ecological emotions, particularly as they pertain to climate change and the coronavirus pandemic. Several possible frameworks are discussed, including “global anxieties” and “macrosocial worries”. The author points out that eco-anxiety can manifest both in adaptive and maladaptive forms. The phases of how societies reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic are compared with the phases of societal reaction to climate change. The impacts of COVID-19 on people who experience climate anxiety are discussed. Various forms of coping and resilience are briefly explored. The chapter also includes summaries of the chapters in this book, which include international and interdisciplinary perspectives on the challenges that the climate crisis and the pandemic pose to mental and environmental health.
... Indeed, hope is suggested to be a key emotion in relation to climate crisis: without hope it can be difficult to find a reason to act (Bury et al., 2020;Ojala, 2012a). However, also the role of hope has been debated, as it could also suppress the sense of urgency and motivation to act (McQueen, 2021). ...
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Climate anxiety is a phenomenon which raises growing attention. Based on a national survey of climate-related feelings and behaviors (N =2070) in Finland, we analyzed and discussed the concept of climate anxiety and its relationship with hope and action. We found that all our measures for climate anxiety (including worry and some stronger manifestations of anxiety) and hope (including efficacy beliefs) correlated positively with each other and climate action. Furthermore, climate anxiety and hope explained unique parts of variance in self-reported climate action. We propose that, in line with the Extended Parallel Process model (EPPM) that was used as a framework, the interplay of emotions needs to be considered when studying and explaining their effect on climate action. In conclusion, the results provide support for seeing climate anxiety and hope as intertwined and adaptive feelings, which could be needed to motivate humankind in finding solutions to climate change.
... However, because the climate crisis is so complex and lacks a clear solution, anxiety can easily become too intense and even overwhelming. [5][6][7] Climate anxiety can be connected to many emotions, including worry, 8 fear, 9 anger, 10 grief, despair, guilt, and shame, 11 as well as hope, 12 although the presence of these vary between individuals. As research in this field emerges, certain emotions have received more attention, especially climate grief, worry, and fear, tied to current and anticipated losses. ...
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Background Climate change has important implications for the health and futures of children and young people, yet they have little power to limit its harm, making them vulnerable to climate anxiety. This is the first large-scale investigation of climate anxiety in children and young people globally and its relationship with perceived government response. Methods We surveyed 10 000 children and young people (aged 16–25 years) in ten countries (Australia, Brazil, Finland, France, India, Nigeria, Philippines, Portugal, the UK, and the USA; 1000 participants per country). Invitations to complete the survey were sent via the platform Kantar between May 18 and June 7, 2021. Data were collected on participants’ thoughts and feelings about climate change, and government responses to climate change. Descriptive statistics were calculated for each aspect of climate anxiety, and Pearson's correlation analysis was done to evaluate whether climate-related distress, functioning, and negative beliefs about climate change were linked to thoughts and feelings about government response. Findings Respondents across all countries were worried about climate change (59% were very or extremely worried and 84% were at least moderately worried). More than 50% reported each of the following emotions: sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless, and guilty. More than 45% of respondents said their feelings about climate change negatively affected their daily life and functioning, and many reported a high number of negative thoughts about climate change (eg, 75% said that they think the future is frightening and 83% said that they think people have failed to take care of the planet). Respondents rated governmental responses to climate change negatively and reported greater feelings of betrayal than of reassurance. Climate anxiety and distress were correlated with perceived inadequate government response and associated feelings of betrayal. Interpretation Climate anxiety and dissatisfaction with government responses are widespread in children and young people in countries across the world and impact their daily functioning. A perceived failure by governments to respond to the climate crisis is associated with increased distress. There is an urgent need for further research into the emotional impact of climate change on children and young people and for governments to validate their distress by taking urgent action on climate change. Funding AVAAZ.
... However, because the climate crisis is so complex and lacks a clear solution, anxiety can easily become too intense and even overwhelming. [5][6][7] Climate anxiety can be connected to many emotions, including worry, 8 fear, 9 anger, 10 grief, despair, guilt, and shame, 11 as well as hope, 12 although the presence of these vary between individuals. As research in this field emerges, certain emotions have received more attention, especially climate grief, worry, and fear, tied to current and anticipated losses. ...
Article
Judeo-Christian eschatological time has re-emerged in scholarly and popular discussions of climate apocalypse in the last decades, also in attempts to mobilise action against climate change. I argue that speaking about climate change as the eschatological endpoint in linear time undermines the call for action, understood as the contingent capacity for new beginnings. When the severity of climate change is made sense of by introducing an end to linear Chronos time, the result is a confusion in the direction and contingency of temporal politics, which effectively undermines action through speech. Eschatological, linear time frames the time for action as too narrow: first, by casting the end of time as inevitable, and second, by upsetting the chronology and direction of time as a prerequisite for politics. The conclusion is that climate eschatology is disempowering in Chronos time and that another temporal frame is needed to address climate change politically.
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We argue that the evaluation of multimodal arguments needs to take into account the semiotic resources used to communicate them as well as the context in which they are produced and interpreted. Thus, in addition to the critical questions pertaining to the scheme that help assess the internal cogency of the argument and thereby its reasonableness, we propose asking questions regarding the cognitive and rhetorical dimensions of the argument in order to assess how effectively the semiotic design helps the addressee to process it and how effectively it is adjusted to the audience and context. To illustrate our proposal for a three-dimensional evaluation of multimodal argumentation, we analyze comparatively three environmental campaign posters that present in varying degrees of semiotic complexity the negative consequences of not taking action regarding the protection of the environment.
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This article deals with fear appeals in the Remain campaign during the 2016 Brexit referendum, as a prime case of exploitation of anticipative fear in political campaigning. It explores the topic uniquely through the discursive lens, highlighting the need for a more nuanced reading of fear-based discourse in the Remain campaign beyond the broad-brush image often offered in the extant literature. It identifies the patterns of the discursive construction of fear appeals by analysing and interpreting both its macro-discoursal and micro-linguistic content and strategies. To do so, the inquiry works with a dataset of public addresses by nine leading Remain campaigners (Cameron, Osborne, Hammond, May, Truss, Corbyn, Alan Johnson, Sturgeon and Clegg) and employs a mixed-methods approach, combining systematic qualitative content analysis with the discourse-historical approach to critical discourse analysis. At the same time, the article has a broader relevance beyond the Brexit case. Fear-based discourse continues to persist (especially in the context of Covid-19 pandemic or climate change). Consequently, the study also critically discusses the practical implications of political elite-driven fear messaging.
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The Brazilian Legal Amazon, crucial for ecosystem services such as biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and climate regulation, has declined over time in its capacity to absorb carbon dioxide. In response, global policies are being developed to mitigate climate change, which has emerged as a central issue in the planetary health approach. The objective of this study was to investigate how elementary school students in a rural school in the Southern Amazonas state perceive climate change and understand its implications for the health of the planet. Understanding the phenomenon’s complexity, we conducted research with students from riverside communities in the Southern Amazon region. The data were analyzed using relative, absolute and percentage frequency tables, with a Fisher’s test applied at a 5% significance level. A significant finding was the predominant difficulty students had in accurately conceptualizing climate change, highlighting notable gaps in their understanding of these wide-ranging issues. In the context of the global climate crisis we are experiencing, the integration of concepts related to climate change in basic education becomes indispensable. This study emphasizes not only the existing knowledge gap but also the urgency of educational approaches that prepare children and young people for the challenges of mitigation, adaptation, and understanding the complexities of climate change and its planetary implications.
Article
How should political leaders address the emerging climate crisis if citizens are reluctant to accept costly but necessary climate action? In this article, I address this question by harnessing insights from the realist tradition in political theory. I propose that the realist legitimacy framework provides action guidance by offering two broadly applicable heuristics for political agents: responsibility and responsiveness. These heuristics collide if citizens are unwilling to accept policies designed to secure a nation's long-term stability. Faced with this problem, some authors make the supposedly realist argument that policymakers in liberal democracies should prioritise responsibility over responsiveness and embrace eco-authoritarianism to address the climate emergency. Against this line of argument, I maintain that the realist legitimacy framework entails no such commitment. Instead, realists must emphasise that responsible climate action entails a sufficient degree of responsiveness. I conclude by sketching how this insight may guide democratic leaders and climate activists in the future.
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The main objective of this paper is to assess pro-environmental behavior, climate change anxiety, perception, hope, and despair in different political orientations. Our specific aims included to assess the validity of all the instruments used; to assess whether the factor structure of the scales were valid across political orientations; to evaluate their reliability; to assess differences concerning age, gender, and political orientation; to learn the variables that explain pro-environmental behavior; and to evaluate the moderating role of climate change perception, despair, and hope in the relationship between climate change anxiety and pro-environmental behavior. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs), multi-group CFAs (to calculate measurement invariance), multiple linear regressions, and moderations were performed. Results showed that pro-environmental behavior and climate change hope achieved the four assessed levels of invariance across different political orientations; climate change anxiety achieved the first three levels of invariance; and climate change perception and climate change despair achieved configural invariance. Climate change anxiety, personal experience with climate change, and climate change perception (total, reality, and consequences) presented higher values for the left political orientation than for the right or the center. Climate change anxiety variables contributed most to explaining pro-environmental behaviors. Hope, despair, and climate change perception (consequences) moderated the relationship between climate change anxiety and pro-environmental behavior. These results open up new avenues for investigation, specifically to understand why high levels of anxiety lead to more pro-environmental behaviors.
Chapter
The “Anthropocene” is a term used to mark a period of history where humans have become the dominant force in the transformation of the Earth system. Humans are fundamentally altering the Earth system through processes with potentially catastrophic consequences, such as anthropogenic climate change, ocean acidification, biodiversity loss, mass extinction, and environmental degradation. Thus, the Anthropocene is often employed as an ethical and critical concept, in order to prompt critical reflection on the relationship that humans have to their environment. Three sites of critical reflection are examined in this entry: the Anthropocene as a diagnosis and prognosis of our ecological predicament; ethics and politics in the Anthropocene; and the Anthropocene and the “End of Nature.”
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Mikä on paras tapa viestiä kestävyyskysymyksistä? Tässä katsauksessa tarkastellaan kestävyysmurrokseen liittyvää viestintää erityisesti ilmastoviestinnän näkökulmasta. Ilmastoviestintää on arvosteltu ihmisiä liikaa tai tarpeettomasti pelottelevaksi ja syyllistäväksi. Katsauksessa perustellaan viimeaikaisesta kotimaisesta ilmastokeskustelusta otettujen esimerkkien avulla, miksi tällainen arvostelu on pääosin perusteetonta. Katsauksen päätelmänä on, että syyllisyys on hyödyllinen tunne, jota ei ole syytä karttaa, vaan jota tulee rakentavasti hyödyntää ilmasto- ja kestävyysviestinnässä.
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Alison McQueen’s study of the historical role of apocalyptic ideas in realist political theory cautiously proposes the ‘redirection’ of apocalyptic thought as a plausible alternative to its rejection. Apocalyptic redirection, so understood, uses apocalyptic language to describe potential future catastrophes in order to inspire drastic action to prevent them. Although McQueen acknowledges that apocalyptic redirection may have certain risks, she suggests it may be an appropriate response to the crisis of climate change. In this article, I aim to show that this use of the discourse of apocalyptic redirection is ideologically problematic. I argue that it involves conflating the interests of those who are at least moderately materially comfortable with the interests of humanity as a whole. I will also draw on the 2019 ‘Stop Adani Convoy’ in Australia as a case study to show how the ideological character of this discourse renders it ill-suited to generating popular support for action on climate change, and liable to reproduce existing power relations.
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A prevailing understanding of realism, chiefly among its critics, casts realists as those who seek a ‘distinctively political normativity’, where this is interpreted as meaning nonmoral in kind. Moralists, on this account, are those who reject this and believe that political normativity remains moral. Critics have then focused much of their attention on demonstrating that the search for a nonmoral political normativity is doomed to fail which, if right, would then seem to fatally undermine the realist endeavour. This paper makes the case that casting the difference between realism and moralism in these terms is a mistake, one which overlooks the substantial body of realist work which is clear that it has no such aspirations to develop a nonmoral political normativity. The hope is that in drawing attention to this mistake a line can be drawn under these unhelpful debates, and we can move on to more fruitful constructive and critical discussions between realists and their critics.
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Ympäristöahdistus on kasvussa oleva ilmiö, joka on herättänyt sekä julkista keskustelua että eri alojen tutkijoiden kiinnostusta. Ympäristöahdistus voidaan laveasti määritellä erilaisiksi vaikeiksi tunteiksi, jotka liittyvät merkittävästi ympäristökriisiin. Ympäristötunteita on käsitelty kasvavassa määrin erilaisten rituaalien ja rituaalisuutta sisältävien tapahtumien, kuten performanssien, kautta. Näiden rituaalien ja tapahtumien skaala ulottuu julkisessa tilassa toteutettavista mielenosoituksista yksityisiin hengellisiin rituaaleihin. Tällaisia ympäristöahdistuksen käsittelytapoja on kuitenkin tutkittu vasta erittäin rajoitetusti. Tämä artikkeli tarkastelee ympäristöahdistuksen käsittelyä erilaisten rituaalien kautta. Lähestymistapa on monitieteellinen. Aineistona ovat eri alojen tutkimukset aihepiiristä. Aluksi esitellään ympäristöahdistuksen ilmiö ja keskustellaan eräistä keskeisistä ympäristötunteista. Tämän jälkeen kartoitetaan teoreettisesti erilaisia liittymäkohtia ympäristöahdistuksen ja rituaalitutkimuksen välillä. Koska monenlaiset ympäristötunteet liittyvät ympäristöahdistukseen, näiden erilaisten tunteiden rituaalinen käsittely on olennainen osa aihepiiriä. Etenkin ympäristösurun ja -syyllisyyden käsittely vaikuttaa olevan tärkeässä osassa ympäristöahdistuksen rituaaleissa. Artikkelissa esitellään ja analysoidaan eräiden merkittävien ympäristöahdistusrituaalien kehittäjien, etenkin Joanna Macyn ja Francis Wellerin, näkemyksiä. Esimerkkinä taideperustaisesta ympäristöahdistusrituaalista esitellään eräs Remembrance Day for Lost Species -tapahtumapäivä tutkimuksen valossa. Artikkelin lopuksi keskustellaan ympäristöahdistusrituaaleihin liittyvästä dekolonialistisesta ja posthumanistisesta kritiikistä sekä eettisistä kysymyksistä. Rituaalit piirtyvät tärkeänä ympäristöahdistuksen käsittelykeinona, mutta niiden tarkkojen vaikutusten mittaaminen on vaikeaa.
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