scholarly journals The Effect of Internationalization on Students’ Attitudes to Environmental Activism

2021 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-359
Author(s):  
Ivanka Rajh ◽  
Zdravka Biočina
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
International Students ◽  
Environmental Activism ◽  
Ecological Awareness ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Students Attitudes

In 2019 Greta Thunberg gave a speech at the UN Climate Action Summit on climate change. The survey presented in this paper was conducted among students studying at the Zagreb School of Economics and Management (N = 99) in order to analyze their attitudes to this speech. The sample included students from Croatia as well as international students. Research questions covered the role of language, ecological awareness, age and education in the perception of the quality, the attractiveness of the speech, the use of ethos, pathos and logos, persuasiveness, and also influence potential. Generally, the results show statistically significant differences in perception and attitude between Croatian and international students.

The Role of Late-Night Infotainment Comedy in Communicating Climate Change Consensus

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward John Roy Clarke ◽  
Anna Klas ◽  
Joshua Stevenson ◽  
Emily Jane Kothe
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Policy Support ◽  
Mitigation Policy ◽  
Behavioural Intentions ◽  
Late Night ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Adaptation Policies ◽  
Diverse Audience

Climate change is a politically-polarised issue, with conservatives less likely than liberals to perceive it as human-caused and consequential. Furthermore, they are less likely to support mitigation and adaptation policies needed to reduce its impacts. This study aimed to examine whether John Oliver’s “A Mathematically Representative Climate Change Debate” clip on his program Last Week Tonight polarised or depolarised a politically-diverse audience on climate policy support and behavioural intentions. One hundred and fifty-nine participants, recruited via Amazon MTurk (94 female, 64 male, one gender unspecified, Mage = 51.07, SDage = 16.35), were presented with either John Oliver’s climate change consensus clip, or a humorous video unrelated to climate change. Although the climate change consensus clip did not reduce polarisation (or increase it) relative to a control on mitigation policy support, it resulted in hyperpolarisation on support for adaptation policies and increased climate action intentions among liberals but not conservatives.

Missing in Action: Experiences of women with climate journalism

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zofeen Ebrahim
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Environmental Activism ◽  
Female Journalists ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
The Media ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
Missing In Action ◽  
Experiences Of Women

This booklet narrates the stories of five female journalists from Pakistan who are working on environment- and climate-change-related issues. Women are being disproportionately and adversely impacted by climate change and female journalists are uniquely placed to understand and share their stories. However, these journalists are ‘missing in action’ from the media in sharing their experiences of environmental activism and climate action. The publication covers a range of challenges journalists face, from limitations on mobility and harassment, to gender-based discrimination in media houses. It highlights why environmental issues sometimes make headlines while remaining dormant at others.

scholarly journals What Drives Climate Action in Canada’s Provincial North? Exploring the Role of Connectedness to Nature, Climate Worry, and Talking with Friends and Family

Climate ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 146
Author(s):  
Lindsay P. Galway ◽  
Thomas Beery ◽  
Chris Buse ◽  
Maya K. Gislason
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Mediation Analyses ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Connectedness To Nature ◽  
Leverage Point ◽  
Vulnerability To Climate Change ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
The Relationship

Despite widespread calls to action from the scientific community and beyond, a concerning climate action gap exists. This paper aims to enhance our understanding of the role of connectedness to nature in promoting individual-level climate action in a unique setting where climate research and action are lacking: Canada’s Provincial North. To begin to understand possible pathways, we also examined whether climate worry and talking about climate change with family and friends mediate the relationship between connectedness to nature and climate action. We used data collected via postal surveys in two Provincial North communities, Thunder Bay (Ontario), and Prince George (British Columbia) (n = 628). Results show that connectedness to nature has a direct positive association with individual-level climate action, controlling for gender and education. Results of parallel mediation analyses further show that connectedness to nature is indirectly associated with individual-level climate action, mediated by both climate worry and talking about climate change with family and friends. Finally, results suggest that climate worry and talking about climate change with family and friends serially mediate the relationship between connectedness to nature and with individual-level climate action. These findings are relevant for climate change engagement and action, especially across Canada’s Provincial North, but also in similar settings characterized by marginalization, heightened vulnerability to climate change, urban islands within vast rural and remote landscapes, and economies and social identities tied to resource extraction. Drawing on these findings, we argue that cultivating stronger connections with nature in the places where people live, learn, work, and play is an important and currently underutilized leverage point for promoting individual-level climate action. This study therefore adds to the current and increasingly relevant calls for (re-)connecting with nature that have been made by others across a range of disciplinary and sectoral divides.

Filling in for Governments? The Role of the Private Actors in the International Climate Regime

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-28
Author(s):  
Charlotte Streck
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Climate Regime ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
State Actor ◽  
International Climate ◽  
Private Actors

The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change abandons the Kyoto Protocol’s paradigm of binding emissions targets and relies instead on countries’ voluntary contributions. However, the Paris Agreement encourages not only governments but also sub-national governments, corporations and civil society to contribute to reaching ambitious climate goals. In a transition from the regulated architecture of the Kyoto Protocol to the open system of the Paris Agreement, the Agreement seeks to integrate non-state actors into the treaty-based climate regime. In 2014 the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Peru and France created the Non-State Actor Zone for Climate Action (and launched the Global Climate Action portal). In December 2019, this portal recorded more than twenty thousand climate-commitments of private and public non-state entities, making the non-state venues of international climate meetings decisively more exciting than the formal negotiation space. This level engagement and governments’ response to it raises a flurry of questions in relation to the evolving nature of the climate regime and climate change governance, including the role of private actors as standard setters and the lack of accountability mechanisms for non-state actions. This paper takes these developments as occasion to discuss the changing role of private actors in the climate regime.

scholarly journals Are citizen juries and assemblies on climate change driving democratic climate policymaking? An exploration of two case studies in the United Kingdom

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Wells ◽  
Candice Howarth ◽  
Lina I. Brand-Correa
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Elected Representatives ◽  
The Impact

Abstract In light of increasing pressure to deliver climate action targets, and the growing role of citizens in raising the importance of the issue, deliberative democratic processes (e.g. Citizen Juries and Citizen Assemblies) on climate change are increasingly being used to provide a voice to citizens in climate change decision-making. Through a comparative case study of two processes that ran in the UK in 2019 (the Leeds Climate Change Citizens’ Jury and the Oxford Citizens’ Assembly on Climate Change), this paper investigates how far Citizen Assemblies and Juries on climate change are increasing citizen engagement on climate change and creating more citizen-centred climate policy-making. Interviews were conducted with policy-makers, councillors, professional facilitators and others involved in running these processes to assess motivations for conducting these, their structure and the impact and influence they had. The findings suggest the impact of these processes is not uniform: they have an indirect impact on policymaking by creating momentum around climate action and supporting the introduction of pre-planned or pre-existing policies rather than a direct impact by being truly being citizen-centred policymaking processes or conducive to new climate policy. We conclude with reflections on how these processes give elected representatives a public mandate on climate change, that they help to identify more nuanced and in-depth public opinions in a fair and informed way, yet it can be challenging to embed citizen juries and assemblies in wider democratic processes.

scholarly journals Managing climate change risk: the case of the Italian Churches

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donatella Porrini ◽  
Francesco De Masi
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Private Insurance ◽  
Climate Change Risk ◽  
A Value ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Managing Risk ◽  
Double Track ◽  
Climate Events

AbstractIn a world of increasing and worse and worse climate events, there is an urgent need to find how to manage the climate change risk and make cultural heritage more resilient. Given the relevant threat represented by climate-related events, this paper aims to analyze the role of insurance in safeguarding cultural heritage from natural disasters. The focus is on Italian Churches seen as a particular case of study. Taking into consideration the characteristics of the managing risk strategy, we use a value-belief-norm approach and a decision tree analysis to evaluate the efficiency of the governance scheme adopted. In the case examined of the Italian Churches, the strategy is mainly based on a private insurance contract characterized by a double track, local and national, to reach the important goal of the full coverage of all churches. We conclude that cultural heritage can drive climate action and the originality of the Italian Churches strategy can represent a benchmark in this field.

scholarly journals Youth Engagement in Climate Change Action: Case Study on Indigenous Youth at COP24

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (16) ◽  
pp. 6299
Author(s):  
Makenzie MacKay ◽  
Brenda Parlee ◽  
Carrie Karsgaard
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Leadership Development ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Youth Engagement ◽  
Remote Communities ◽  
Indigenous Youth ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

While there are many studies about the environmental impacts of climate change in the Canadian north, the role of Indigenous youth in climate governance has been a lesser focus of inquiry. A popularized assumption in some literature is that youth have little to contribute to discussions on climate change and other aspects of land and resource management; such downplay of youth expertise and engagement may be contributing to climate anxiety (e.g., feelings of hopelessness), particularly in remote communities. Creating opportunities for youth to have a voice in global forums such as the United Nations Conference of Parties (COP24) on Climate Change may offset such anxiety. Building on previous research related to climate action, and the well-being of Indigenous youth, this paper shares the outcomes of research with Indigenous youth (along with family and teachers) from the Mackenzie River Basin who attended COP24 to determine the value of their experience. Key questions guiding these interviews included: How did youth impact others? and How did youth benefit from the experience? Key insights related to the value of a global experience; multiple youth presentations at COP24 were heard by hundreds of people who sought to learn more from youth about their experience of climate change. Additional insights were gathered about the importance of family and community (i.e., webs of support); social networks were seen as key to the success of youth who participated in the event and contributed to youth learning and leadership development.

scholarly journals Kierkegaard in the Anthropocene: Hope, Philosophy, and the Climate Crisis

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 279
Author(s):  
Ruby Guyatt
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Religious Faith ◽  
Therapeutic Practice ◽  
Christian Philosophy ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
Positive Climate ◽  
Affective Dimensions

What is the role of hope in the climate crisis? What type of hope does this crisis demand? How can we sustain hope, in order to resist falling into fatalistic despair or paralyzing fear, whilst always guarding against hope giving way to happy complacency? This essay considers these urgent questions through a novel encounter between the Christian philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard, and recent eco-critical and empirical research on the affectivity of climate change mobilization. I begin by outlining the scope and aims of this essay (1st section), before introducing some affective dimensions of the climate crisis (2nd section), particularly the place of hope. Next, I examine Kierkegaard’s account of hope, and explore the extent to which it corresponds to the type of hope needed in the climate crisis (3rd section). Here, I show that Kierkegaardian hope is a therapeutic practice which subverts the eco-anxiety and sense of helplessness that can otherwise prevent individuals from engaging in positive climate action. Finally, I compare Kierkegaard’s theologically grounded hope with the hope held by climate change activists without religious faith (4th section). Participating in collective climate action anchors the individual’s hopes in a larger, collective hope, which I suggest is sustainable in ways that are partially analogous to the therapeutic functions of Kierkegaard’s Christian hope.

Children Climate Change Activism and Protests in Africa: Reflections and Lessons From Greta Thunberg

2021 ◽  
pp. 027046762110496
Author(s):  
Kelvin Zhanda ◽  
Munyaradzi A Dzvimbo ◽  
Leonard Chitongo
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
The Past ◽  
Climate Policies ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Regional Organisations ◽  
National Governments ◽  
Document Review

This article is based on a distinctive study that seeks to analyse the nascent role of teenagers’ activism and protests for climate change action. With the increasing realisation of children's rights to participation, the past few years have marked the rise of the new dispensation of climate activism and protests in which teenagers have occupied the centre stage. We pay specific reference to Greta Thunberg, a Swedish child climate activist, in as much as she can set a framework upon which Africa can draw parallels, lessons and insights for climate activism and protests. Even though the context may be different, the paper attempts to inform vibrant climate action through activism by children and ultimately climate policies, laws and management for environmental sustainability in Africa. We engaged document review and thematic approaches, and it emerged that children climate activism and protests in Africa are not as vibrant as they should be given the prevalence of climate inaction across the continent. Therefore, there is much to learn from Thunberg by pushing national governments and regional organisations to increase the decision-making space of children in the fight against climate change.

scholarly journals Communicating climate change in a “post-factual” society: lessons learned from the Pole to Paris campaign

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-93
Author(s):  
Erlend M. Knudsen ◽  
Oria J. de Bolsée
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Awareness Campaign ◽  
Climate Change Science ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. The politicization of and societal debate on climate change science have increased over the last decades. Here, the authors argue that the role of climate scientists in our society needs to adapt in accordance with this development. We share our experiences from the awareness campaign Pole to Paris, which engaged non-academic audiences on climate change issues on the roads from the polar regions to Paris and through conventional and social media. By running and cycling across a third of the globe, the scientists behind the initiative established connections on the audiences' terms. Propitiously for other outreach efforts, the exertions were not in themselves the most attractive; among our social media followers, the messages of climate change science and action were more favourable, as measured by video statistics and a follower survey. Communicating climate action in itself challenges our positions as scientists, and here we discuss the impact such messages have on our credibility as researchers. Based on these reflections, as well as those from other science communication initiatives, we suggest a way forward for climate scientists in the post-factual society, who should be better trained in interaction with non-academic audiences and pseudoscepticism.

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