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 done better than others, no nation has adequately red...
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Washington, DC: World Bank
2012
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10986/9066 |
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okr-10986-90662021-04-23T14:02:44Z Cognitive and Behavioral Challenges in Responding to Climate Change Norgaard, Kari Marie World Development Report 2010 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. 2012-06-26T15:37:21Z 2012-06-26T15:37:21Z 2010 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/9066 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank Washington, DC: World Bank Africa Europe and Central Asia Middle East and North Africa Latin America & Caribbean East Asia and Pacific South Asia |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
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Foreign Institution |
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Digital Repositories |
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World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
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World Bank |
| language |
English |
| topic |
World Development Report 2010 |
| spellingShingle |
World Development Report 2010 Norgaard, Kari Marie Cognitive and Behavioral Challenges in Responding to Climate Change |
| geographic_facet |
Africa Europe and Central Asia Middle East and North Africa Latin America & Caribbean East Asia and Pacific South Asia |
| description |
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. |
| author |
Norgaard, Kari Marie |
| author_facet |
Norgaard, Kari Marie |
| author_sort |
Norgaard, Kari Marie |
| title |
Cognitive and Behavioral Challenges in Responding to Climate Change |
| title_short |
Cognitive and Behavioral Challenges in Responding to Climate Change |
| title_full |
Cognitive and Behavioral Challenges in Responding to Climate Change |
| title_fullStr |
Cognitive and Behavioral Challenges in Responding to Climate Change |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Cognitive and Behavioral Challenges in Responding to Climate Change |
| title_sort |
cognitive and behavioral challenges in responding to climate change |
| publisher |
Washington, DC: World Bank |
| publishDate |
2012 |
| url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/9066 |
| _version_ |
1764408336813391872 |