Download MSc course: Principles of Environmental Sustainability (P00807

Principles of Environmental Sustainability (P00807)
The Principle of Participation in
Environmental Sustainability
Dr Claire Haggett
Lecturer in Sociology of
Sustainability
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Why do we need to think about human behaviour and
the environment?
Policies and plans are for people – not developed in the
abstract
Have to understand how they will be received and
work
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eg transport planning, solar panels on roofs
Individual or cultural explanations – need to know which to
appeal to
We are all ‘people’ – move beyond high-handed
attitudes
Have to understand environmental attitudes and
behaviour in the context of people’s lives
What shapes public attitudes and engagement?
People – as individuals
People – in contexts
People – making up communities
Crucial to try and understand how people think
about sustainable development; and how to
work with people and communities
Overview for today
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Part 1: Understanding human behaviour
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Public attitudes and behaviour
Public response to environmental issues
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Break
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Part 2: The role and nature of participation
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The importance of public opinions
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Case study of renewable energy
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Part 3: Break
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Part 4: Discussion
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Part 5: Feedback and key points
Part 1: Understanding human behaviour
Overview
i) Understanding the emergence and extent of
environmental concern
ii) Why don’t people care more?
iii) Strategies for change and encouraging
environmentalism
iv) Responsibility to care
Apollo 17 (Dec 1972)
• Iconic image
• World as a whole
for the first time
• Able to see
problems,
disasters,
devastation
i) Understanding environmental concern
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General trend increase
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Influence of specific events/issues
Widespread in the population
Concern and knowledge grew during the 1980’s and
1990’s
DEFRA Survey of Public Attitudes to Quality of
Life and to the Environment
Explanations for the rise in
environmental concern
1.
2.
3.
4.
Environmental explanation
Interest based explanation
Post material values explanation
Cultural based explanation
1. Environmental explanation
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Environmental problems are
serious…
… and are getting worse?
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Dramatic, catastrophic nature
Advances in technology,
communications
 More able to see evidence
of them
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But: does not explain rise and fall in concern
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Hilgartner and Bosch (1988)
Concern not directly in line with seriousness of all
problems
eg seals not slugs
Concern does not necessarily translate
into action…
2. Individual interest based explanations
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Rational individuals – will not act unless personal
cost is exceeded by the sum of selected
incentives
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Material incentives
Solidarity incentives
Purposive incentives
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But – overly individualistic and simplistic to see
participation in environmentalism as just about
self-interest
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Appeal of collective goods and benefits
3. Post material explanations
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Inglehart’s Post-Material Values Thesis
“The rise of the ecology movement is not
simply due to the fact that the environment
is in a worse condition than it used to be.
Partly this development has taken place
because the public has become more
sensitive to the quality of the environment
than it was a generation ago” (Inglehart,
1990:372).
• Shift from material to post-material values
• Idea of hierarchy of needs
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Scarcity hypotheses – have money,
so worry about environment
So…
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Satisfaction of material needs does not
necessarily lead to the development of
post-material values
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Lack of material values does not
necessarily mean no post-material values
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Environmental Justice movement
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Developing countries – Gallup ‘Health of the Planet’
survey of 24 nations
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Citizens in less economically developed nations..
 much more likely to see their local environments as
degraded
 more likely to see their national environments as
degraded
 Just as likely to see world environmental problems as
very serious..
... than citizens in the wealthier nations
4. Cultural based explanation:
The Risk Society
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Beck – environmentalism as a response to the ‘risk
society’
Broader changes in society
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Technology out of control
Spread of ‘bads’ rather than ‘goods’
“Hazards produced in the growth of the industrial
society become predominant” (Beck, 1996:28-29).
Minimising the consequences of modern society
becomes more important than the accumulation of
wealth
New characteristics of environmental risks
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Risks no longer tied to their place of origin
Risks can affect everyone: “risks endanger
all forms of life on this planet” (Beck, 1993:22).
Risks are felt across space
Risks are felt across time: “atomic
accidents.. affect even those not yet alive at
the time” (Beck, 1993:22)
Poverty, justice and sustainable development
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Minimising the consequences of modern society becomes
more important than the accumulation of wealth
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Risks are globalised
But - risks are felt differently by different people
The rich may be able to buy themselves a certain amount of
freedom from risk
 Housing, nutrition and occupation
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Invariably the poor who live in
polluted areas, face the possibilities of
contaminated food, and the prospects
of hazardous jobs and working conditions
Impacts of environmental risks
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Rich countries – produce vast bulk of past and current GHGs
… Yet those to suffer most from climate change will be in the
developing world
 fewer resources for coping with storms, with floods, with
droughts, with disease outbreaks, and with disruptions to
food and water supplies
Exporting of risk – pollution and chemicals; relaxed
environmental regulations for investment
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Environmentalism as a response to huge
environmental problems and inequalities
As part of a cultural shift
Societal transition: goods and wealth to
pollution and ‘bads’
ii) Why don’t we care more?
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Catastrophic consequences
International impacts; and in the UK
Media coverage
Fourth Assessment Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Report on understanding of the human and natural drivers of
climate change, climate processes and attribution, and estimates
of projected future climate change.
Conclusions:
 Climate change is happening
 It is caused by human impacts
 The effects will last for centuries to come
Why don’t we care more?
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Issues often characterised by:
 Being invisible
 Being temporally distant
 Being spatially distant
 Being science based
Lack of direct experience (mediated information)
Responsibility – cannot unite against a common enemy
Impacts incremental
No definite deadline
Huge range of causes and actions – one person’s contribution
infinitesimal
Environmental ‘bads’ can be social and economic goods eg cheap
flights
 Example from India: ‘The People’s Car’
Practicalities
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Time consuming: public
transport
Costs higher at the point of
consumption: new boiler
Yucky: green nappies
Lack of opportunities
Public deficit model
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If only people knew better…
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But people are not necessarily stupid, ignorant,
or irrational
They do not necessarily lack information
More reports will not necessarily correlate with
increased ‘environmentalism’
Environmental attitudes and behaviour have to
be understood in context
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iii) Strategies for change
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
General information provision
Reducing opportunities for ‘ungreen’ behaviour
Sticks
Carrots
Inciting fear
Small, incremental, tangible change
1. General information provision
Most frequent but not most effective: providing
general information, and providing information
about consequences
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCJotacAmo4
2) Reducing opportunities
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Reducing opportunities for ‘un-green’
behaviour
47% of C02 emissions from homes
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Climate Change Bill
Phasing out ‘stand-by’ buttons
Energy saving light bulbs
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Easier decision making or removing
people’s choice?
3) Encouraging environmentalism: sticks
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Punishments
Regulation
Polluters pays
Not just ‘pollution’
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Pay-as-you-throw
Road pricing
Low Emission Zone: £200 charge for lorries
in London
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‘Sledgehammer’ approach
Would individuals choose to do this without
(large) financial penalties?
Is the Govt right to think of the greater good
(air quality, illness and death) – and force
drivers to do this?
Doesn’t encourage support for specific or
wider incentives
4) Encouraging environmentalism: carrots
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Rewarding or making easier ‘green’ behaviour
 Free home insulation
 Grants for solar panels
 Reduced council tax for energy efficient homes
 HIPs
 Car share schemes
Personal, social, community rewards…
5) Inciting fear
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Inducing regret; arousing fear
Least effective:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD2WTK94c1U&feature=r
elated
6) Small, incremental, tangible change
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Most effective: setting specific goals; prompt reviews
of behaviour; generate community-talk, engaging
people in locally relevant ideas
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You do influence people by helping
us to see what we want to do
Induces goodwill and the experience
of facilitation
Enhances authority
Promotes mobilisation
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Example 1: TEU
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Collected ‘waste’ from
departing student’s halls
7 tonnes of waste was
collected from a pool of
4000 departing students
and diverted from landfill.
3 tonnes of carbon saved
Goods given a new home reducing consumption,
waste and saving
students money
Wider
consequences…?
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Charity: ‘Freshstart’
An estimated 1000 people attended during the first three
hours of the event
The engagement team talked to those in the very long queue
about different programmes and signed up people who
want to participate in other events
www.teu.org.uk
Responsibility: ‘Other’ people
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Other people’s behaviour, and what they
should and shouldn’t do
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eg environmentalists and flying
‘If only everyone else would drive less..’
Other people
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We all engage in un/green behaviour
We are all ‘other people’
Can we expect ‘other people’ to do things we
wouldn’t be prepared to do ourselves?
Summary of this lecture:
The importance of understanding
human behaviour
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Rise of environmentalism
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Environmental explanation
Interest based explanations
Post material explanations
Cultural shifts; societal transitions
Factors that influence the relationship between
problems and concern
Summary of this lecture:
The importance of understanding
human behaviour

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Different strategies to encourage environmentalism
All important because
 Have to understand how policies will be received
and work
 eg transport planning
 Information, fear or incentives
 Behaviour as interest based? Or culturally
informed?