Overestimating One's “Green” Behavior: Better‐Than‐Average Bias May Function to Reduce Perceived Personal Threat from Climate Change

The actions of others, and what others approve of, can be a powerful tool for promoting pro-environmental behaviour. A potential barrier to the utility of social norms however are cognitive biases in how we perceive others, including the better-than-average effect. This effect describes the tendency for people to think they are exceptional, especially when compared with their peers. In order to investigate the role of the better-than-average effect in the context of climate-relevant pro-environmental behaviour, we administered questions as part of a larger online survey of 5,219 nationally representative Australians. Participants were asked to report whether they engaged in a list of 21 pro-environmental behaviours, and then asked to estimate how their engagement compared with the average Australian. Over half of our participants ‘self-enhanced’; they overestimated their engagement in pro-environmental behaviours relative to others. ‘Self-enhancement’ was related to reduced perceptions of personal harm from climate change, more favourable assessments of coping ability, less guilt, and lower moral and ethical duty to take action to prevent climate change. These relationships held when participants sceptical about anthropogenic climate change were removed from analyses. We discuss the implications of the findings for the use of social norms in promoting pro-environmental behaviour.

Invasive Plants and Climate Change Will Alter Desert Landscapes

Eos ◽

10.1029/2022eo220027 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 103 ◽

Author(s):

Katherine Kornei

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Invasive Plants ◽

Biosphere 2 ◽

Drought Conditions ◽

Better Than

In experiments conducted in Biosphere 2, invasive buffelgrass weathers higher temperatures and drought conditions better than its native brethren.

Climate Fiction and the Ethics of Existentialism

Ecozon@: European Journal of Literature, Culture and Environment ◽

10.37536/ecozona.2021.12.1.3826 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 167-178

Author(s):

Jens Kramshøj Flinker

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Reference Point ◽

Narrative Ethics ◽

Ethical Standards ◽

Reading Practice ◽

Ethical System ◽

Positive Side ◽

Climate Fiction ◽

Better Than

The purpose of this article is twofold: Existentialism as a philosophical discipline and ethical reference point seems to be a rare guest in ecocriticism. Based on an analysis of Lyra Koli's climate fiction Allting Växer (2018) this article argues that existentialism has something to offer to the ecocritical field. I make use of an econarratological approach, drawing on James Phelan's narrative ethics. Thus, I emphasize the article's second purpose, as narrative ethics is about reconstructing narratives own ethical standards rather than the reader bringing a prefabricated ethical system to the narrative. This reading practice can help to question the idea that some ethical and philosophical standards are better than others within ecocriticism—by encouraging scholars in ecocriticism to relate to what existentialism has to do with climate change in this specific case. In continuation of my analysis, I argue that Allting Växer is pointing at a positive side of existentialist concepts such as anxiety or anguish, that is, that there is a reflecting and changing potential in these moods or experiences. This existentialist framework contrasts with the interpretation of "Anthropocene disorder" (Timothy Clark) as the only outcome when confronting the complexity of the Anthropocene.

A Legacy of Zeal and Perseverance

Making Deep History ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198870692.003.0007 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 223-259

Author(s):

Clive Gamble

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Deep Sea ◽

Modern Synthesis ◽

Human Origins ◽

The Past ◽

Better Than

What happened to the surviving time revolutionaries and their legacy? Knighthoods, high office, a peerage, and bespoke mansions all followed. France preserved Boucher de Perthes’s legacy better than England that of its time revolutionaries, whom it forgot. War, however, destroyed Abbeville in 1940 and with it Boucher de Perthes’s collections and public statue. Lubbock was the last to die in 1913, having seen the Piltdown forgery. Then follows an excursion into the development of the modern synthesis of human origins with scientific dates, a detailed deep-sea record of climate change and the ages of the sites they found on the Somme and at Hoxne. Changing views of our remote ancestors are shown in artists’ imaginings and through bestselling authors. The reticence of Prestwich and Evans to speculate was forgotten as deep history was fleshed out to resonate with the present. The chapter ends by placing the time revolution at the start of an interest in universal and deep history. The time revolutionaries changed our relationship with time and set in motion a dialogue with the past that continues to challenge and enthral.

Conclusion

Climate, Catastrophe, and Faith ◽

10.1093/oso/9780197506219.003.0010 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 199-202

Author(s):

Philip Jenkins

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Nineteenth Century ◽

Global Warming ◽

Science Fiction ◽

The Political ◽

Climate History ◽

Accurate Knowledge ◽

The World ◽

Religious Dimensions ◽

Better Than

My own interest in the topics of this book dates back a good many years. In fact, it predates the emergence of the modern field of climate history, or the identification of global warming as an incipient menace. In saying that, I am claiming no status as a prodigy, still less a prophet. Rather, in my teenage years, I read a great deal of speculative fiction, science fiction, in which themes of climate change and cataclysm have long percolated, at least since the latter years of the nineteenth century. We can debate how accurate the scientific analyses or predictions were in many of these works—in many cases, the level of accurate knowledge was minimal—but those works had the inordinate advantage of thinking through the human and cultural consequences of catastrophe, commonly speculating about religious dimensions. Obviously, some works succeeded better than others in that regard, but the essential project was critically important. If we are foretelling that the world will be assailed by lethal menaces, then we cannot fail to go on to imagine what the political or cultural consequences would or should be....

The Drivers of Corporate Climate Change Strategies and Public Policy

Business & Society ◽

10.1177/0007650315578450 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 56 (4) ◽

pp. 545-575 ◽

Cited By ~ 32

Author(s):

Charles A. Backman ◽

Alain Verbeke ◽

Robert A. Schulz

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Public Policy ◽

Information Management ◽

North American ◽

Climate Change Impact ◽

Change Strategies ◽

Policy Recommendations ◽

Firm Level ◽

Change Impact ◽

Better Than

Effective public policy to mitigate climate change footprints should build on data-driven analysis of firm-level strategies. This article’s conceptual approach augments the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm and identifies investments in four firm-level resource domains (Governance, Information management, Systems, and Technology [ GISTe]) to develop capabilities in climate change impact mitigation. The authors denote the resulting framework as the GISTe model, which frames their analysis and public policy recommendations. This research uses the 2008 Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) database, with high-quality information on firm-level climate change strategies for 552 companies from North America and Europe. In contrast to the widely accepted myth that European firms are performing better than North American ones, the authors find a different result. Many firms, whether European or North American, do not just “talk” about climate change impact mitigation, but actually do “walk the talk.” European firms appear to be better than their North American counterparts in “walk I,” denoting attention to governance, information management, and systems. But when it comes down to “walk II,” meaning actual Technology-related investments, North American firms’ performance is equal or superior to that of the European companies. The authors formulate public policy recommendations to accelerate firm-level, sector-level, and cluster-level implementation of climate change strategies.

The Effect of Religion on the Effectiveness of Ecological Advertising

Worldviews Global Religions Culture and Ecology ◽

10.1163/15685357-02303300 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 24 (1) ◽

pp. 5-34 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Myriam Martinez-Fiestas ◽

Luis Casado-Aranda ◽

Jessica Alzamora-Ruiz ◽

Francisco J. Montoro-Rios

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Religious Affiliation ◽

Environmental Behavior ◽

Green Communications ◽

Environmentally Responsible ◽

Environmental Discourses ◽

Sustainable Behavior ◽

Green Behavior ◽

Mitigate Climate Change

Abstract Attitudes toward ecological consumption can trigger environmentally responsible intentions and behaviors. Understanding how ecological messages can influence attitudes is essential to mitigate climate change. This paper analyzes how religious affiliation (or lack of), can influence attitudes toward green advertising and explores the role of religious affiliation in the effectiveness of ecological messages. The findings indicate that religious affiliation has an influence on the degree of effectiveness of each message. So, green communications can be a useful tool to persuade atheists to develop more sustainable attitudes when they are exposed the benefits that can be achieved with green behavior. However, persuasive environmental messages, in general, do not generate major changes of attitude among Catholics. Businesses, NGO s, states, educators and society in general should acknowledge that environmental discourses fostering sustainable behavior. Furthermore, messages depicting the problems of environmental behavior have no repercussion on atheists and little on Catholics.

Communicating Climate Change: Are Stories Better than “Just the Facts”?

Policy Studies Journal ◽

10.1111/psj.12072 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 42 (4) ◽

pp. 644-673 ◽

Cited By ~ 54

Author(s):

Michael D. Jones

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Better Than

Simulation performance of selected global and regional climate models for temperature and rainfall in some locations in India

Journal of Agrometeorology ◽

10.54386/jam.v22i4.443 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 22 (4) ◽

pp. 407-418

Author(s):

SHWETA PANJWANI ◽

S. NARESH KUMAR ◽

LAXMI AHUJA

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Bias Correction ◽

Climate Models ◽

Regional Climate ◽

India Meteorological Department ◽

Regional Climate Models ◽

Climate Data ◽

Simulation Performance ◽

Climate Change Assessment ◽

Better Than

Global and regional climate models are reported to have inherent bias in simulating the observed climatology of a region. This bias of climate models is the major source of uncertainties in climate change impact assessments. Therefore, use of bias corrected simulated climate data is important. In this study, the bias corrected climate data for 30 years’ period (1976-2005) from selected common fourGCMs and RCMs for six Indian locations are compared with the respective observed data of India Meteorological Department. The analysis indicated that the RCMs performance is much better than GCMs after bias correction for minimum and maximum temperatures. Also, RCMs performance is better than GCMs in simulating extreme temperatures. However, the selected RCMs and GCMs are found to either over estimate or under estimate the rainfall despite bias correction and also overestimated the rainfall extremes for selected Indian locations. Based on the overall performance of four models for the six locations, it was found that the GFDL_ESM2M and NORESM1-M RCMs performed comparatively better than CSIRO and IPSL models. After bias correction, the RCMs could represent the observed climatology better than the GCMs. And these RCMs viz., GFDL_ESM2M and NORESM1-M can be usedindividually after bias correction in the climate change assessment studies for the selected regions.

Outperforming Peers Through A Comprehensive Climate Change Strategy: The Case of Electric Utilities

Journal of Business Strategies ◽

10.54155/jbs.35.2.1-28 ◽

1970 ◽

Vol 35 (2) ◽

pp. 1-28

Author(s):

Edeltraud Guenther ◽

Alexandra Schmidt ◽

Anne Bergmann ◽

Julia Hilmann

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Financial Performance ◽

Electric Utilities ◽

Change Strategies ◽

Change Strategy ◽

Corporate Managers ◽

Paired Samples ◽

Corporate Context ◽

Combat Climate Change ◽

Better Than

Firms increasingly aim to combat climate change. For corporate managers,the question whether a related strategy affects financial performance arises. Sinceempirical research on this topic is rather sparse, this study investigates whetherpursuing a corporate climate change strategy leads to better corporate financialperformance. By applying paired samples t-tests, a sample of 62 companies fromthe electric utilities sector matched in pairs is investigated over a five-year timespan. Results indicate that firms with a comprehensive climate change strategypredominantly perform significantly better than their competitors without such astrategy. These findings might contribute to promoting climate change strategies ina corporate context.