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Psychology and Climate Change
A Position Statement prepared for The Australian Psychological Society
with input from Susie Burke,
Margot Prior, Karen Spehr, and
members of the APS Climate Change
Reference Group and Public Interest Team
• August, 2010
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APS Position Statement on Psychology and Climate Change
Table of Contents
1.
Definitions
3
2.
Introduction
4
3.
Climate science underpinning the position statement
5
4.
Climate change as a serious global health threat
5
5.
Psychology’s unique contribution to dealing with climate change
6
6.
People’s risk appraisals and understanding of climate change
6
7.
Psychological contributions to how people change behaviour
7
8.
Adaptation to, and coping with, climate change impacts and threats
8
9.
The APS position
9
10 Recommendations
10
11.
References
11
Psychology and Climate Change
A Position Statement prepared for the Australian Psychological Society
2
1.
Definitions used in this position statement
1.1 Climate- the composite or generalisation of weather conditions of a region, as temperature,
pressure, humidity, precipitation, sunshine, cloudiness, and winds, throughout the year,
averaged over a series of years (Macquarie Dictionary Online, 2009).
1.2
Climate change – ‘Any changes in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as
a result of human activity’ (IPCC, 2007). This includes changes in temperature, precipitation,
wind, atmosphere, oceans and natural water supplies, snow and ice, land surface and
biosphere.
1.3 Other environmental threats – In addition to climate change, other areas of concern where the
national and global environment is threatened include: air, land and water pollution,
deforestation, diminishing fossil fuel reserves, imminent exhaustion of fisheries, salination,
habitat and biodiversity loss, population growth and pressures, natural disasters.
1.4 Mitigation - reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other efforts to address and decrease the
severity of impending natural and human disasters associated with escalating climate change
and other environmental threats.
1.5 Adaptation - Adaptation is often used in the climate science context to refer to structural
changes that people and communities may need to make to address the physical impacts of
climate change. But adaptation also refers to psychological responses that people make
to climate change threats, including how they appraise and understand risks, how they feel
about situations, and how they behave and respond to the threats.
1.6
Social responsibility - a responsibility to current and future society at large. Social responsibility
is one of the four key principles of the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) (Canadian
Psychological Association, 2000). The CPA argue that “Two of the legitimate expectations of
psychology as a science and a profession are that it will increase knowledge and that it will
conduct its affairs in such ways that it will promote the welfare of all human beings” (p.28).
Psychology and Climate Change
A Position Statement prepared for the Australian Psychological Society
3
2.
Introduction
2.1 The aim of this position statement is to emphasise the urgency of climate change as a global
problem with significant psychosocial and health implications, to advocate for government,
businesses, and organisations to develop effective strategies to minimise climate change
impacts, and to position psychologists as a professional group with expert knowledge, skills and
resources that can help in climate change science, including mitigation and adaptation.
2.2
The APS has played a key role in stimulating a number of national initiatives by Psychological
Associations around the world (e.g., APA, BPS, CPA) to communicate their deep concern at the
gravity and urgency of the climate change crisis, and the need for psychology’s active
involvement and commitment in ongoing collaborative work at national and international
levels to address the human causes and consequences of climate change. An important aspect
of this concern and commitment is the drafting and endorsing of a clear statement of our
position and concern about this profoundly important environmental and social issue.
2.3.
The position statement notes the contributions of psychological research to an understanding
of the psychological dimensions of global climate change, including the human behaviour
contributions to climate change, how people understand the risks of climate change, how they
adapt to and cope with environmental threats, and how psychologists can assist in limiting
climate change.
2.4.
The recommendations are to assist and encourage psychologists’ engagements with climate
change issues as researchers, academics, practitioners and students, and to foster the
development of national and international collaborations with other individuals and associations
inside and outside of psychology.
Psychology and Climate Change
A Position Statement prepared for the Australian Psychological Society
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3.
Climate science underpinning the position statement
3.1.
The last few years have seen a dramatic increase in information and debate about climate
change causes, impacts and future projections. Important sources of information on the
scientific understanding of human-induced climate change that inform and underpin this
position statement are: IPPC 2007, Copenhagen Climate Congress – Synthesis Report (2009);
Australian Government Department of Climate Change 2009; CSIRO, 2010, CSIRO, 2009).
3.2 Consistent with the position of the Victorian Government as stated in their Victorian Climate
Change Green Paper (2009), this APS position statement:
accepts the consensus of the Australian and international scientific communities that human
activities have resulted in substantial global warming over the last 60 years and that the
continued growth in greenhouse gas concentrations by these activities is generating a high
risk of dangerous climate change (p.18).
3.3
Consequences include rising global average temperatures, rising sea levels, increased frequency
of extreme weather events, ocean acidification, decreases in biodiversity, changes in natural
systems, and a wide range of human health effects. These consequences are already being
observed and global greenhouse gas emissions to date mean we are already locked into further
global warming and climatic changes.
4.
Climate change as a serious global health threat
4.1.
Climate change is regarded as the most serious global health threat of the 21st Century
(Costello et al., 2009). The major threats, both direct and indirect, come from changing
patterns of disease, water and food insecurity, vulnerable shelter and human settlements,
extreme climatic events such as more catastrophic bushfires, droughts, floods and cyclones, and
population growth and migration.
4.2
The main categories of risks to physical health in Australia come from health impacts of
extreme weather events, temperature extremes, vector-borne infectious diseases, food-borne
infectious diseases, water-borne infectious diseases and risks from poor water quality,
diminished food production, increased in urban air pollution, (Horton & McMichael, 2008)
4.3
The main mental health consequences of climate change will come from direct impacts of
extreme weather events, disruptions to the social, economic and demographic determinants of
mental health (e.g., from impaired rural livelihoods, increased costs of basic services), and
emotional stresses and mental health problems in response to perceptions/fears of climate
change and to family stresses.
4.4
The most severe impacts of climate change will fall on the most vulnerable and disadvantaged
communities who have played the smallest part per capita in contributing to the rise in
greenhouse gases. Variations in vulnerability to climate change impacts are evident across
nations and communities, and also across social class, age, and gender, with women, children,
the elderly, and future generations more vulnerable.
Psychology and Climate Change
A Position Statement prepared for the Australian Psychological Society
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5. Psychology’s unique contribution to dealing with climate change
5.1
Psychologists have been substantially involved in collaborative, multi-disciplinary work on
environmental issues in Australia and internationally for decades. Several key articles by
eminent psychologists have been published over the last few years stressing psychology’s
essential role in addressing climate change and environmental threats (Swim et al., 2009;
Gifford, 2008; Stokols et al., 2009; Kazdin, 2009).
5.2
There is strong consensus among psychologists and other scientists that human motivations
and behaviours constitute core causal factors with respect to environmental problems (e.g.,
Gardner & Stern, 2002; Geller, 2002; Gifford, 2007; Oskamp & Schultz, 2006; Swim et al.,
2009; Vlek & Steg, 2007).
5.3
According to the IPPC report (2007), however, human behaviour is one of the least well
understood components of the climate system.
5.4
Psychologists have important contributions to make to climate change
science, through:
5.4.1
helping to conceptualise and understand the human behaviour contributions to climate
change (like population growth and consumption) and the psychological (e.g., motivation, ability) and contextual drivers of these contributions (e.g., physical
opportunities and constraints, social and cultural norms).
5.4.2 sharing knowledge and understanding of how the public perceives the risks of, and
understands climate change.
5.4.3 providing answers to questions about how people and organisations can change their
behaviour to reduce the threats of climate change (mitigation).
5.4.4 helping individuals and communities adapt to the psychosocial impacts of climate
change and threats, including helping people to manage the distress of facing the
threats of climate change.
5.4.5 helping organise fair and sustainable rules for equitable sharing of global resources.
6.
People’s risk appraisals and understanding of climate change
6.1
How people perceive, appraise and understand environmental problems is critical because these
processes affect how concerned people are (or not), and how motivated they are to take action
(or not).
6.2
Psychologists are uniquely positioned to explore how people’s emotional reactions and other
moderating factors combine with rational thought to produce a sense of risk and the
willingness to take actions that reduce it (Slovic et al., 2004).
6.3
Understanding why scientists and other relevant stakeholders may not get their messages
about risk across to the public – and why they are not always able to motivate appropriate
action even when they do – is one of the areas where psychology can help address the
challenge of climate change (APA, 2008).
Psychology and Climate Change
A Position Statement prepared for the Australian Psychological Society
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7. Psychological contributions to how people change behaviour
7.1
Human behaviour is complex, and deeply embedded in social situations, institutional contexts
and cultural norms. Psychologists contribute valuable knowledge about the importance of
addressing numerous and often interacting factors including risk perceptions and
understandings, threat and coping response appraisals, the extent to which individuals think
that their actions will make a difference, barriers to action, and ways of motivating people
to change.
7.2
Barriers to action include structural barriers (e.g., lack of public transport), socio-cultural barriers
such as perception of high status coming from large cars and large homes, and economic
disincentives (e.g., high costs of ’greening’ behaviours, especially for low income families). There
are also significant psychological barriers including ignorance, uncertainty, mistrust, denial,
judgmental discounting, lifetime habits, perceived risks, tokenism, social comparison,
conformity, and conflicting goals and aspiration (Swim et al., 2009).
7.3
Psychologists have a long history of work in motivating change (e.g., Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975;
Prochaska and DiClemente, 1984; McKenzie-Mohr, 2000; Stern, 2000).
7.4
Motivating change includes a range of strategies that have been identified in the social science
literature for helping people to overcome barriers (McKenzie-Mohr, 2000; Stern, 2000. People
need to know what they can do, what actions they can take, and why taking such actions can
really make a difference. Both the public and policy makers need to be aware of the relative
efficacy and utility of particular actions (Gardner & Stern, 2008). Psychologists can identify and promote strategies which directly address people’s concerns, anxieties and distress in the
face of a daunting set of environmental issues and uncertainties, and can also identify
environmentally significant behaviours with an emphasis on psychologically significant
responses that lead to feelings of efficacy, responsibility, hope and optimism.
7.5
As well as having expertise in motivating and facilitating change at an individual level (including
intra-individual variables as well as behaviours), psychologists also have expertise in developing
an understanding of broader physical, geophysical and social environments, including
infrastructure, landscaping, weather, scarcity of resources, sense of community and feeling of
‘ownership’ of a place (Gifford, 2008). They can also advise on how to measure and modify
aspects of these environments to achieve sustainable change (Curnow & Spehr, 2006).
7.6
Both bottom-up (e.g., individual and community commitment), and top-down (e.g.,
government leadership and legislative strategies) initiatives are needed. Behavioural science
knowledge is critical at all levels of the design, implementation and evaluation of proenvironmental campaigns and activities at an individual and societal level. In addition, social
scientists can develop models of decision making that will help policy-makers understand how
the public will respond once policies are put into place (Swim et al., 2009), and advise
government on how to ensure that climate policies are effectively communicated and turned
into effective actions.
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A Position Statement prepared for the Australian Psychological Society
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8.
Adaptation to, and coping with, climate change impacts and threats
8.1
Adaptation to climate change is an ongoing and ever-changing process that includes reactions
to, and preparations for, both the physical and psychosocial impacts of climate change.
8.2
Physical changes include the effects of rising sea levels, droughts, unpredictable weather,
shortages of food and clean water, other resource shortages, extreme weather events.
8.3
The social and psychological impacts of climate change include the direct impacts on people affected by natural disasters and a changing environment, as well as the psychosocial impact
of disruptions to the social, economic and environmental determinants that promote wellbeing
in individuals and communities (Fritze et al., 2008), conflicts over resources (Reuveny, 2008 –
from APA), anxiety and despair (Kidner, 2007 – from APA), and heat related violence.
8.4
The psychosocial impacts also include the threat of climate change as constructed and represented by the media and contemporary information and communication technologies.
8.5
Adaptation to threats and impacts includes a wide range of responses including how people
understand the problems, how they react emotionally, how they decide what to do and how
they behave in response to the problems.
8.6
Types of coping responses include actions by individuals or groups which are proactive,
in anticipation of predicted changes to the environment, or reactive to changes that are
already here.
8.7
Individual responses include intra-psychic responses like denial or minimisation, cognitive
reappraisals, emotion regulation, and behavioural changes like seeking information, seeking
social support, and engaging in mitigation efforts to reduce the threat (Swim et al., 2008).
8.8
Psychologists can assist adaptive responses at numerous levels: helping to change people’s
appraisals of environmental threats; therapeutic interventions to help people deal with climate
change distress; helping people to develop a sense of individual and group efficacy to move
them from despair and hopelessness to a sense of empowerment; helping people to imagine
and plan for a great transformation of our society; teaching helpful attitudes and lifestyles;
teaching acceptance of change; helping to reframe aspirations from consumerism to adopting
climate change amelioration behaviours (Gifford, 2008).
8.9
As they have done in peace psychology and alternative dispute resolution at local and
international levels, psychologists can make crucial contributions to organising fair and
sustainable rules for sharing global resources, advocating for just and equitable solutions, and
adding to the development of conditions and mechanisms for achieving national and
international consensus, adherence and successful outcomes for climate change mitigation and
adaptation strategies.
Psychology and Climate Change
A Position Statement prepared for the Australian Psychological Society
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9
The APS position
The APS accepts the scientific consensus of grave concern regarding climate change as a global
problem with significant psychosocial implications, including direct impacts on health.
9.1
In relation to climate change and health, the APS considers that:
9.1.1 Climate change involves potentially serious or irreversible harm to the environment and
to human health and psychosocial wellbeing;
9.1.2
The main mental health consequences of climate change will come from direct impacts
of extreme weather events, disruptions to the social, economic and demographic
determinants of mental health (e.g., from impaired rural livelihoods, increased costs of
basic services), and emotional stresses and mental health problems in response to
perceptions/fears of climate change and to family stresses;
9.1.3 Measures that mitigate climate change will also benefit health;
9.1.4 Governments, businesses, and organisations should recognise the urgency of climate
change and other environmental problems, and develop effective policies to significantly
reduce greenhouse gas emissions;
9.1.5 Strategies to mitigate climate change impacts and to promote successful community
adaptation and resilience should be fair and just, and should observe the human rights
of vulnerable people and communities;
9.1.6
9.2
Individuals, businesses and organisations, including psychologists and other health
professionals, should be informed about, and take measures to reduce, their
greenhouse gas emissions (‘carbon footprint’) by making appropriate changes to
consumption patterns.
In relation to psychological contributions to climate change, the APS considers that:
9.2.1 Human motivations and behaviours constitute core causal factors with respect to
environmental problems;
9.2.2 Profound changes in human behaviour are therefore required to bring about improvements in every area of concern where the national and global environment
is threatened;
Psychology and Climate Change
A Position Statement prepared for the Australian Psychological Society
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9.2.3 Psychologists are a professional group with expert knowledge, skills and resources that
can help our understanding of:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
the psychological dimensions of global climate change;
the human behaviour contributions to climate change;
how people understand the risks of climate change and how motivated they are to
take action;
pro-environmental behaviour change;
measuring and modifying aspects of the environments to achieve sustainable change
the design, implementation and evaluation of pro-environmental campaigns
and activities at an individual and societal level;
models of decision making that will help policy-makers understand how the public
will respond once policies are put into place;
effective communication of climate policies to ensure they are turned into
effective actions;
how people and communities can adapt to and cope with environmental threats;
how to organise fair and sustainable rules for equitable sharing of global resources.
9.2.4 There is a social and moral imperative for psychology to play an active and leading role in
climate change mitigation and adaptation, and to contribute its expertise to relevant local,
state, national and international dialogues.
9.25
The APS accepts responsibility for its environmental footprint, including greenhouse gas
emissions, resource use and waste production, and takes action accordingly, by estimating
emissions, setting targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions, adopting sustainability
measures, and through public and transparent reporting on its activities and progress on
these efforts.
10
Recommendations
10.1
In light of the importance of understanding and addressing psychological and social
responses to the impacts of climate change, the APS makes the following specific recommendations. The APS:
10.1.1
Urges governments, organisations, psychologists and other health professionals, and the public, to recognise the urgency of climate change and other environmental problems, and to develop effective strategies to minimise climate change impacts and promote successful community adaptation and resilience.
10.1.2
Supports psychologists to collaborate with other expert groups, climate change scientists, government, social scientists, and to contribute to climate science, including understanding of human behaviour drivers of climate change, as well as climate change
mitigation and adaptation.
10.1.3 Undertakes to assist and encourage psychologists’ engagement with climate change
issues as researchers, academics, practitioners and students.
10.1.4 Urges psychologists from all domains and specialisations to bring their skills to bear in
climate change advocacy, mitigation and adaptation.
Psychology and Climate Change
A Position Statement prepared for the Australian Psychological Society
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Psychology and Climate Change
A Position Statement prepared for the Australian Psychological Society
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