Cognitive and Behavioral Challenges in Responding to Climate Change
Climate scientists have identified global warming as the most important environmental issue of our time, but it has taken over 20 years for the problem to penetrate the public discourse in even the most superficial manner. While some nations have d...
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20090519142931 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4134 |
| Summary: | Climate scientists have identified
global warming as the most important environmental issue of
our time, but it has taken over 20 years for the problem to
penetrate the public discourse in even the most superficial
manner. While some nations have done better than others, no
nation has adequately reduced emissions and no nation has a
base of public citizens that are sufficiently socially and
politically engaged in response to climate change. This
paper summarizes international and national differences in
levels of knowledge and concern regarding climate change,
and the existing explanations for the worldwide failure of
public response to climate change, drawing from psychology,
social psychology and sociology. On the whole, the widely
presumed links between public access to information on
climate change and levels of concern and action are not
supported. The paper's key findings emphasize the
presence of negative emotions in conjunction with global
warming (fear, guilt, and helplessness), and the process of
emotion management and cultural norms in the construction of
a social reality in which climate change is held at arms
length. Barriers in responding to climate change are placed
into three broad categories: 1) psychological/conceptual, 2)
social and cultural, and 3) structural (political economy).
The author provides policy considerations and summarizes the
policy implications of both psychological and conceptual
barriers, and social and cultural barriers. An annotated
bibliography is included. |
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