Understanding Environmentally Conscious Behaviour Through Environmental Identity

This paper argues that the strongly established connection between identity and consumer behaviour may not be necessarily applicable in examining environmentally conscious behaviour through an identity lens due to several other factors that may especially influence environmental identity formation; (1) the continuously evolving nature of environmental identity in the context of complexities (i.e., political debates, climate change science) of climate change; (2) the challenges of expressing inner connection with nature (i.e., instrumental value vs. intrinsic value); (3) the various cultural and symbolic meanings associated with environmentally conscious behaviour (i.e., functional benefits vs emotional benefits) and (4) different forms of behavioural practices (i.e., environmentally conscious behaviour vs. anti-consumption). Therefore, this paper recommends utilising insights and measurements unique to environmentally conscious behaviour as opposed to that of general consumer behaviour because the antecedents of the former, especially environmental identity projections can be multifaceted.

Bringing physical reasoning into statistical practice in climate-change science

The treatment of uncertainty in climate-change science is dominated by the far-reaching influence of the ‘frequentist’ tradition in statistics, which interprets uncertainty in terms of sampling statistics and emphasizes p-values and statistical significance. This is the normative standard in the journals where most climate-change science is published. Yet a sampling distribution is not always meaningful (there is only one planet Earth). Moreover, scientific statements about climate change are hypotheses, and the frequentist tradition has no way of expressing the uncertainty of a hypothesis. As a result, in climate-change science, there is generally a disconnect between physical reasoning and statistical practice. This paper explores how the frequentist statistical methods used in climate-change science can be embedded within the more general framework of probability theory, which is based on very simple logical principles. In this way, the physical reasoning represented in scientific hypotheses, which underpins climate-change science, can be brought into statistical practice in a transparent and logically rigorous way. The principles are illustrated through three examples of controversial scientific topics: the alleged global warming hiatus, Arctic-midlatitude linkages, and extreme event attribution. These examples show how the principles can be applied, in order to develop better scientific practice.“La théorie des probabilités n’est que le bon sens reduit au calcul.” (Pierre-Simon Laplace, Essai Philosophiques sur les Probabilités, 1819).“It is sometimes considered a paradox that the answer depends not only on the observations but on the question; it should be a platitude.” (Harold Jeffreys, Theory of Probability, 1st edition, 1939).

Transformative Frames for Climate Threat in the Anthropocene

This is a mini review of literature surrounding new inter and transdisciplinary frames of the threat of climate change including “Anthropocene,” linked with “climate crisis,” “climate emergency,” and “climate catastrophe”. The specific meanings and consequences of these frames are discussed and an argument why these frames are needed and risk is not enough. Ultimately, this article concludes these new framings assist transformative change by opening up climate change science, citizen engagement, and policy response. However, no one frame and no one associated policy is supported, but a plurality, dependent on context, and culture.

Recreational fishers’ perceptions of climate change

Shifts in marine species distributions associated with climate change occur across large spatial areas and long time periods. Marine recreational fishing occurs in most countries with many participants interacting regularly with the environment, yet there have been few studies on the views of recreational fishers towards climate change. This study aims to assess perceptions of climate change for a boat-based recreational fishery in Western Australia, where fishing occurs across a wide latitudinal range, from tropical to temperate waters. Perceptions of climate change were assessed by fisher demographics and fishing behaviour. One in two respondents noticed changes in species types and distributions, with metropolitan residents and avid fishers more likely to notice these changes. Two out of three respondents considered climate change is occurring, recognition of which was higher amongst metropolitan residents, females, and younger respondents. Males and older respondents, on the other hand considered themselves to have more knowledge of climate change science. This study provides a baseline to assist in informing policy changes that might be required to address the impacts of climate change. Studies of this kind can also build support for citizen science programs to enhance data collection across the spatial and temporal time scales required to observe climate change.

Anglo Fears

The rejection of climate change science is organized by a countermovement, a collective effort to oppose a threatening social movement, in this case global environmentalism along with climate mitigation efforts. This chapter shows that, from a comparative perspective, the Anglo group of countries are quite alone in organizing the Climate Change Countermovement (CCCM), even though climate denial manifests in an unorganized way more broadly. This chapter offers the theoretical possibility that this Anglo climate denial emerges as a defense of imperial privilege threatened by the social change required to address a warming world. The theory is then supported by selections from authors of books who reject climate change and that evidence a fear of loss—of US power, of possessive individualism, and of Western progress.