Does Climate Change Worry Decrease during Armed Conflicts?

Climate change poses significant risks to human health, particularly exacerbating conditions for individuals with chronic diseases. This study aimed to examine differences in climate change awareness, risk appraisal, pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs), and climate change worry between individuals with and without chronic diseases, and to investigate their interrelationships. A cross-sectional survey design was employed, using convenience sampling. Participants included 405 Israeli adults (146 with chronic diseases, and 259 without) who completed validated self-report questionnaires assessing climate change awareness, risk appraisal, PEBs, and worry. Data analyses included descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, and multivariate analysis of covariance, using SPSS version 29. Moderated serial mediation analysis was conducted using Hayes' PROCESS macro (model 92) with 5,000 bootstrap samples. Participants with chronic diseases reported significantly higher levels of climate change awareness, F(1, 400)=5.88, p = .016; risk appraisal, F(1, 400)=12.68, p < .001; PEBs, F(1, 400)=4.00, p = .046; and worry, F(1, 400)=6.81, p = .009, than did participants without chronic diseases. The moderated serial mediation model was significant (effect = 0.02, SE = 0.01, 95%CI [0.001, 0.04]), explaining 44% of the variance in climate change worry. Awareness positively predicted risk appraisal (B = 0.33, p < .001), which in turn predicted both PEBs (B = 0.23, p < .001) and worry (B = 0.29, p < .001). The indirect pathway from awareness to worry via PEBs was significant only among participants with chronic diseases (B = 0.04, SE = 0.02, 95%CI [0.01, 0.10]). Similarly, the complete serial mediation path-from awareness to risk appraisal, to PEBs, and finally to worry-was significant for participants with chronic diseases (B = 0.02, SE = 0.01, 95%CI [0.01, 0.05]) but not for participants without chronic diseases. The results emphasize the need for targeted communication strategies and policy initiatives that address the specific vulnerabilities and behaviors of chronically ill populations. Future research should utilize longitudinal approaches and objective assessments to deepen our understanding of these dynamics and inform effective interventions.

“Demain” is a French documentary film launched in 2015 by Melanie Laurent and Cyril Dion which presents many feel-good stories of people that are taking concrete actions to combat the ecological crisis. In contrast to most environmental campaigns, the filmmakers decided to use positive emotions instead of negative emotions to encourage people to adopt behaviors in favor of the environment. Surprisingly, this innovative approach has received limited attention in the literature. This paper aims to fill this gap in investigating the role of hope about climate change (hope) on adoption of pro-environmental behaviors. Two studies looked at the distinct effect of feeling hope on the commitment of the population to a big range of pro-environmental behaviors. In the first study, we measured the level of hope of a sample of 202 Mechanical Turk respondents and evaluated its correlation with the level of pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors. We controlled for dispositional hope and optimism in order to have a clear picture of the main and isolated impact of hope. We found that hope was significantly, positively correlated to pro-environmental behaviors and attitude toward the environment. Dispositional hope did not impact this relationship, and optimism about climate change did not have any statistically significant correlation to pro-environmental behaviors. Knowledge regarding climate change influenced hope in such a way that an increase of knowledge was beneficial to hope until a certain level and detrimental after. In the second study (N = 229), to insure the causal effect of hope on pro-environmental behaviors, we used a writing task to manipulate the level of hope among respondents. The first group was asked to write down the reasons why we can be hopeful about climate change (hope condition; n = 70), the second the reasons why we cannot be hopeful (absence of hope condition; n = 78), and the third (control condition; n = 81) was asked to write down what they think about climate change. We then measured their intention to engage in various environmental behaviors in the next year. Results supported the outcomes of study 1. Hope was positively related to intention to engage in pro-environmental behaviors. To conclude, hope appeals should be used in awareness-raising campaigns to increase consumers’ engagement in pro-environmental behaviors and to reduce denial and counter effects of educative messages about climate change effects.

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The IPCC states in its latest, 6th synthesis report that human activities have ‘unequivocally’ resulted in a rise in the surface temperature of the earth, inducing changes in the atmosphere, oceans, cryosphere and biosphere which have had adverse effects on both the natural world and humanity (IPCC, 2023). In order to limit warming to 1.5oC, the IPCC posits that annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions must decrease by 45% of their 2010 levels by 2030, and drop to net zero by 2050 (Masson-Delmotte et al., 2019). At present, 65% of global GHG emissions can be directly and indirectly linked to consumption within households (Ivanova et al., 2016). Consequently, individuals can have a profound effect on the levels of GHG’s emitted into the atmosphere. Thus, changing individual behaviour within households represents a significant leverage point (Ivanova et al., 2016; Pörtner et al., 2022). It is known that further actions may be taken by individuals to reduce the carbon footprint of households (Hall et al., 2018; Steg, 2018). However, it remains unclear how to induce individuals to undertake such additional pro-environmental behaviours.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Currently, climate change policies have recruited economic understandings of behaviour to design interventions that incorporate fiscal motivations and deterrents as part of their structure (Cooper, 2011). For example, emission trading schemes (ETS), initially envisaged within the Kyoto Protocol, have been separately engineered in different regions of the world (Leining et al., 2020; Skjærseth &amp; Wettestad, 2008; X.-Q. Wang et al., 2022). These policies have had negative consequences in the form of furthering existing inequities between countries (Liverman, 2009), as well as issues in quantifying their additionality as compared to a business-as-usual scenario (Teixidó et al., 2019; Verde, 2020). Furthermore, ETS are necessarily targeted at the social actors who participate in the engineered markets, rendering such policies ineffective for directly targeting the 65% of global GHG emissions embodied in individual/household behaviours.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The research in this PhD steps away from economic understandings of (environmental) behaviour, to explore the utility of other conceptualizations of human action. The work done here examines theories from environmental psychology and behavioural economics, to explore how psychological phenomena such as attitudes, and binds on rationality such as the recruitment of heuristics, direct decision making in relation to environmental issues. By examining alternative drivers of behaviour, it is hoped that different environmental policies directly targeting behaviour within households could be designed in the future.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Prior to the work undertaken here, the multitude of hypothesised determinates of environmental behaviour precluded the effective integration of alternative perspectives from environmental psychology and behavioural economics into policy discourses. As Shove (2010, pp. 1275) pointed put there was no ‘obvious limit to the number of possible determinants and no method of establishing their…precise role in promoting or preventing different behaviours’. Through the course of this research, multiple models of human behaviour from within and between the disciplines of environmental psychology and behavioural economics have been interrogated. These models have been examined in relation to both self-reported and observed measures of individuals’ environmental action, in an effort to delimit the critical determinates of pro-environmental behaviour - and curtail the number of possible pre-cursors lamented by Shove.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The first set of studies undertaken as part of this doctoral research focused on models of behaviour from environmental psychology. The numeracy of the models recruited within environmental psychology to explain behaviour ensured there existed considerable redundancy between these concerning the variables they incorporated into their structures. For example, biospheric values are cited in the norm activation model (Schwartz, 1977), value belief norm theory (Stern, 2000), and recent models concerning an individual’s connection to nature (Martin &amp; Czellar, 2017). Work was initially undertaken to create a database documenting solely the variables from within these models. This was done for clarity, and to eliminate the aforementioned redundancy. Individual meta-analyses were run for each of the psychological variables to generate an effect size estimate for each. Effects size estimates were then compared between the psychological variables, to determine which of these correlated most strongly with pro-environmental actions and intentions. The five key variables with the largest (lower-bound) effect size estimates for both pro-environmental intentions and behaviour were revealed to be: attitudes, perceived behavioural control, injunctive norms, descriptive norms, and personal moral norms. Following the meta-analyses, an online study was run to investigate whether participants’ reported: attitudes, perceived behavioural control, injunctive norms, descriptive norms, and personal moral norms, were related to an observed (as opposed to a self-reported) measure of pro-environmental action. This was done to determine whether the results obtained in the meta-analyses were robust when participants could not simply report their own actions. In the online study, participants were asked how much (real) money they would like to donate to an environmental charity (the ‘Clean Air Task Force’), to observed directly whether they behaved in alignment with their proclaimed environmental beliefs, attitudes and norms. Regression analyses and structural equation modelling revealed that personal moral norms were the most critical antecedent to the observed measure of pro-environmental behaviour, with attitudes and injunctive norms also demonstrating strong relationships with monetary donations. Perceived behavioural control and descriptive norms did not demonstrate a significant direct association with participants’ charitable donation behaviours.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In a final online experiment, insights regarding human behaviour from behavioural economics were introduced. The experiment took place over two time points. At the first point in time, the three psychological variables that previously exhibited significant direct relationships with participants’ observed monetary donations (attitudes, injunctive norms and personal norms), were elicited from participants’, and their influence over behaviour was assessed in comparison with the effects of a social norms nudge. This investigation was undertaken to evaluate whether critical ingrained psychological variables (attitudes, injunctive norms and personal norms) were associated with environmental behaviour to a lesser or greater extent than an applied nudge, which manipulated the salient social norm and thus operated through the activation of a simple imitation heuristic within participants. At the second point in time the longevity of the effect of the social norms manipulation was investigated. This was done by comparing the subsequent behaviour of participants who were, and were not, exposed to the social norm nudge in part one. At time two, behaviour was evaluated in relation to the same action as before, and also in relation to a second action from a different domain of environmental behaviour. Discrepancies between participants’ who had, or had no prior exposure to the social norms manipulation at time one, were used to comment on the temporal and behavioural spillover effects of the social norms manipulation. At the first point in time, only the three psychological variables (attitudes, injunctive norms and personal norms) exhibited a significant association with the observed environmental behaviour. No effect over behaviour of the social norms nudge was observed at time one. The lack of significant influence demonstrated by the social norms nudge at time one, portended the lack of spillover effects detected for the nudge at time two. This research demonstrated the central importance of personal moral norms, attitudes, and injunctive norms for determining individuals’ substantive pro-environmental behaviours. This thesis advanced previous work by (i) using meta-analyses to summarise and compare the relationships between numerous heterogeneous psychological determinates of pro-environmental action, and self-reported environmental intentions and behaviours; (ii) advancing theory by using structural equation modelling to demonstrated that personal moral norms were more closely affiliated with an observed measure of environmental behaviour than other variables such as attitudes; and (iii) revealing the critical determinates of pro-environmental action in order to design appropriately targeted behaviour change intervention policies: the variables that most closely correlated with observed pro-environmental acts were not nudge interventions, but instead individuals internalised moral norms and attitudes. The results of this work are necessarily limited to some extent by the methodological decisions made in service of achieving the ambitions of this doctoral research. The chosen observed behaviour (charitable giving), the selected nudge (provision of information concerning a social norm), and the techniques used to elicit participant responses (online questionnaire), all represent valid techniques and constraints on the broader applicability of my findings. These should be taken into consideration when extrapolating any results of this work to alternative scenarios.&lt;/p&gt;

Manuscript type: Research paper Research aims: This study examines perceived self-efficacy and its role in fostering pro-environmental attitude and behaviours. Design/Methodology/Approach: This study employs a quantitative approach to explain the relationship among the variables. The data of 500 individuals are collected and then analysed through the partial least squared (PLS) approach. Research findings: Results show that perceived self-efficacy has a positive influence on attitude; it enables individuals to orchestrate their capabilities in pursuing pro-environmental behaviours. Theoretical contributions/Originality: This study expands on previous literature by adapting lifestyle-centric pro-environmental behaviour and social cognitive theory to identify the factors that motivate pro-environmental behaviours. Practitioner/Policy implications: This study provides insights for marketers and other policy makers to better understand how perceived self-efficacy impacts the attitude and pro-environmental behaviours of individuals. The results imply that practitioners need to include attitude change campaigns and intervention programmes that can increase self-efficacy so as to encourage individuals to engage in more challenging environmental behaviours. Research limitation: Since this study focusses on the urban population of Malaysia only, the generalisability of the findings may be restricted. Future studies need to incorporate a larger and more diverse samples. Keywords: Attitude, Intrinsic Motivation, Perceived Self-efficacy, Pro-environmental Behaviours, Social Cognitive Theory JEL Classification: M310

Biology and being green: The effect of prenatal testosterone exposure on pro-environmental consumption behaviour

Organizations are faced with the challenge of reducing their impact on climate change and for this reason also strive to increase pro-environmental attitudes and behavior of their employees. To make these attitudinal and behavioral changes measurable, the Employee Pro-Environmental Attitudes and Behavior Scale was developed. The scale represents the first instrument focusing on the measurement of employee pro-environmental attitudes and pro-environmental behavior. The aim of the scale is the valid and reliable measurement of these constructs. For this purpose, a total of five studies were conducted in the present work to generate items and to test content, construct, and criterion validity. On the basis of this procedure an efficient scale was developed, which matches with the psychometric quality criteria and measures employee pro-environmental attitudes and employee pro-environmental behavior with six items each. The scale complies to the requirements for use in scientific studies but is particularly suitable for use in organizational applications due to its small number of items.

Go green! Measuring the factors that influence sustainable performance

PurposeThrough the application of the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this study aims to explore the main determinants of higher education students’ pro-environmental behavior.Design/methodology/approachAn online survey was conducted among the students of a public higher education institution (HEI) in Portugal, from March to May of 2020. The data were analyzed with the structural equation modeling technique, considering environmental attitude, knowledge, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control as exogenous latent variables, and pro-environmental intention and behavior as endogenous latent variables.FindingsThe results show that the students’ environmental attitude and knowledge have no significant impact on their pro-environmental intention, while the students’ subjective norm and perceived behavioral control have a positive impact on their pro-environmental intention. The results also reveal that the students’ perceived behavioral control and pro-environmental intention have a strong and positive impact on their pro-environmental behavior.Research limitations/implicationsThis study focuses on the students from a single public HEI, in accounting and administration area, and deepens environmental behavior in relation to resources’ consumption.Practical implicationsThis study provides findings that can be useful for HEIs to be more effective in their policies, strategies and practices to improve students’ environmental behavior.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the literature by exploring the main determinants of higher education students’ pro-environmental behavior in a Portuguese HEI and extending the TPB considering the additional variable environmental knowledge.

The effects of climate change have already begun to threaten biological diversity and human societies, and these effects will continue to grow over time. To face the challenges related to mitigation and adaptation will require an educated and motivated citizenry. From the perspective of green education, providing knowledge related to climate change and promoting pro-environmental behaviors is imperative. In this study, we assess current levels of knowledge, risk perception and types of pro-environmental behaviors. We administered a questionnaire to 1118 university students in Taiwan evaluating climate change knowledge (15 items), risk perception (23 items), and attitudes toward behavioral change (33 items). Factor analyses were conducted to identify the underlying latent variables for risk perception and obstacles to behavioral change, and ANOVA tests were performed to identify significant associations between three different levels of climate change knowledge and responses to the risk perception and obstacles-to-change items. We found that higher levels of knowledge significantly predicted greater perceptions of risk related to biodiversity threats and increased public costs. In terms of behavior, students with lower levels of knowledge were significantly more likely to find uncertainties related to climate change to be a greater obstacle to engaging in pro-environmental behaviors. Higher levels of knowledge clearly allow individuals to better assess the threats posed by climate change and reduces the perceived level of uncertainty related to climate change and the impact of pro-environmental behaviors. Our results suggest that Taiwan's efforts to implement climate change related information in the public schools and in the university system have been effective and that such efforts should be broadened to reach the public as a whole.

In recent years, mindfulness has been considered as a potential source of proenvironmental attitudes and behavior. Present research is aimed at consolidating and expanding previous knowledge by proposing that mindfulness is related to both proenvironmental behavior and belief in global climate change through social dominance orientation (SDO). A first study was conducted on undergraduate students ( n = 279) and found, as expected, that trait mindfulness was related to proenvironmental behavior through SDO. A second study using a known groups approach compared practitioners ( n = 44) and nonpractitioners ( n = 53) of Buddhist meditation, which is known to develop a mindful stance. Moreover, in Study 2, a measure of belief in global climate change was adopted as a further outcome. Again, trait mindfulness was related to both proenvironmental outcomes through SDO. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Climate change is one of society's most severe crisis, presenting a health threat to humans with serious impacts on mental health. Climate anxiety has been identified as an important mental health consequence of climate change. The current study examined the role of social psychological characteristics on climate change anxiety and pro-environmental behavior, using a nationally representative sample of Portuguese parents who completed extensive questionnaires. More central parental identities negatively correlated with and predicted climate change anxiety, revealing that a central parental identity can be a protective factor against mental health issues. Parental identity centrality also predicted greater engagement in pro-environmental behavior. The findings further showed that environmental identity and climate change perceptions were positively related and predicted higher levels climate change anxiety and pro-environmental behavior. Finally, parental identity centrality was linked to greater pro-environmental behavior through climate change anxiety, bringing important contributions to research on the underlying mechanisms that shape pro-environmental behavior. The findings shed light on the complex mechanisms underlying and influencing climate anxiety and pro-environmental behavior, necessary to mitigate the acute consequences of the climate crisis.

Background: Environmental degradation and climate change have become global concerns, driven by human activities such as the exploitation of natural resources. However, humans also play a crucial role in mitigating environmental damage through pro-environmental behavior. This behavior involves actions aimed at minimizing negative environmental impacts, which contribute to improving environmental quality. An individual’s affective connection with their social group and place of residence influences their pro-environmental behavior. The study compares pro-environmental behavior in urban and rural communities, focusing on the differences in driving factors across these settings. Methods: A literature review method was employed to gather data from 13 accredited articles discussing pro-environmental behavior in urban and rural communities across Asia, Europe, and America. The literature was sourced from scientific databases, allowing for a comprehensive analysis of the existing research on the topic. Findings: Both urban and rural communities engage in pro-environmental behaviors, but the factors driving these behaviors differ. Rural communities tend to have stronger social bonds and a closer connection to the natural environment, which influences their pro-environmental actions. Urban communities, on the other hand, have greater knowledge of environmental issues but often show skepticism regarding others' ability to protect the environment. Differences in pro-environmental behavior are influenced by sociodemographic, cultural, and geographical conditions. Conclusion: Pro-environmental behavior varies between rural and urban communities due to different social, cultural, and geographical factors. Understanding these differences can help develop targeted strategies to encourage environmentally conscious actions in both settings. Novelty/Originality of this article: This study provides a comparative analysis of pro-environmental behavior in rural and urban communities across diverse regions, highlighting how sociodemographic, cultural, and geographical conditions influence environmental actions. This perspective has been less extensively addressed in previous research.

When correlated to a broad range of pro-environmental behaviors, biospheric values typically have a positive correlation while egoistic values typically have a negative correlation. However, people who strongly endorse egoistic values might undertake pro-environmental behavior involving attempts to influence others. This article describes a study that assessed the relationship between values and the likelihood of students to attempt to influence their housemates in engaging in pro-environmental behavior. To measure this type of influence behavior, the authors developed the Environmental Social Influence Behavior questionnaire, which was then used with 193 students for this study. Both biospheric and egoistic values correlated with influence behaviors. Biospheric values more strongly related to the likelihood of social-influence actions as egoistic values decreased, except when egoistic values were high. The results are included in a discussion about the connections between values and social-influence behaviors, and current knowledge of the role of egoistic values in environmental actions.

Cities are at the forefront of the battle against climate change. We are the source of approximately 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions. And as the climate changes, densely populated urban areas—particularly coastal cities—–will disproportionately feel the impacts. Those of us in local government recognize the importance of national and international leadership on climate change. But we are not waiting for others to act first. Under PlaNYC, New York City's comprehensive sustainability plan, most of our efforts have focused on reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. Initiatives including the Greener, Greater Buildings Plan, which will increase energy efficiency of existing buildings, and retrofitting ferries to use cleaner fuel, will help us meet our goal of reducing the city's emissions by 30% by 2030. These actions alone, however, will not stop climate change. We already face climate risks today, including heat waves, blackouts, flooding, and coastal storms. With climate change these risks will only increase. To ensure that New York City is resilient to existing and future climate risks, we must take further action. Through a generous contribution from the Rockefeller Foundation, I convened the New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC), which gathered the leading climate change scientists, academics, and insurance, risk management and legal experts. These experts helped develop a framework and tools to assist the City create a risk-based response to climate change that is grounded in state-of-the-art science information. In February 2009, the NPCC released the most detailed climate risk information for any major city in the world; this volume of the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences presents the NPCC's full findings. The NPCC climate change projections put numbers to what we already know: climate change is real and could have serious consequences for New York if we do not take action. I appreciate the hard work of the members of the New York City Panel on Climate Change. Through PlaNYC, the City will build on their work as we craft strategies to improve the city's resilience to climate. Building climate resilience can take many forms, including increasing our understanding of climate risks and vulnerabilities, hardening facilities and assets to prevent impacts, educating vulnerable populations about risks, and ensuring that we can quickly resume operations after weather events occur. In the coming months, the New York City Climate Change Adaptation Task Force, another PlaNYC initiative, will release a plan detailing how Task Force members will prepare the city's critical infrastructure for warmer temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, and rising sea levels. Planning for climate change today is less expensive than rebuilding an entire network after a catastrophe. We simply can't wait to plan for the effects of climate change. The NPCC and Rockefeller Foundation's contributions to the City's climate resilience efforts will help ensure that we create a greener, greater New York for future generations. In 2008, Mayor Bloomberg established the New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC), with the mandate to provide New York City with the most up-to-date and comprehensive scientific, technical, and socioeconomic information about climate change and its impacts on the city and environs. Climate Change Adaptation in New York City: Building a Risk Management Response is the first report of the NPCC. The report will help New York City develop, adopt, and implement policies to adapt the city's critical infrastructure to the changing climate. This NPCC report outlines a powerful and novel framework for deploying sophisticated tools of risk management to address the city's climate adaptation challenges, and details with rigor and insight the critical challenges that climate change poses to New York City's energy, transportation, water, and communications systems. The report also presents a coordinated set of climate projections prepared by the NPCC to be used by the many public agencies and private-sector organizations that manage critical infrastructure in the region as they develop adaptation strategies, and it describes how legal and regulatory tools can support adaptation policies. The challenges facing the insurance industry and the use of insurance to reduce climate risks are also described at length. A final section sets forth the indicators and monitoring activities needed to inform Flexible Adaptation Pathways as the City and region move forward. The NPCC report is the product of the committed scientists and experts in the New York City region who served as authors, led by Co-chairs Cynthia Rosenzweig and William Solecki. The dedicated Science and Policy Team at the Columbia Earth Institute and the CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities organized the process that has resulted in the production of this landmark report. It is becoming recognized throughout the world that cities have a crucial role to play in responding to climate change. The NPCC 2010 Report puts climate change adaptation in New York City in the broader national and international contexts and helps establish New York City as a thought and policy leader in this urgent endeavor. Climate Change Adaptation in New York City will be widely read around the world, both for its specific insights and also as a roadmap for other cities in preparing plans for climate change adaptation. The work of the NPCC is a pioneering activity for which all New Yorkers, and all others around the world who will benefit, should be most grateful. The Rockefeller Foundation also merits our gratitude for the generous support it has provided to this endeavor. Climate change will have a profound impact on New York City and its residents as it alters environmental baselines on which the urban infrastructure was built. Despite this, both the City and its stakeholders have a wide range of tools and resources with which to respond to the problem. Key insights in the following report derive from the highly integrated connections between science and public policy as they relate to climate change. The New York City Panel on Climate Change, for example, comprises a number of scientists and other technical experts capable of considering the issues at hand with a view to understanding the potential impacts of climate change and options for adaptation. The City University of New York is well placed to contribute to the multifaceted complex questions of climate change and how the city will be affected. This requires a multidisciplinary approach that can draw from the deep resources of the colleges that make up our institution. In addition, the New York City Panel on Climate Change had ongoing, continuous, and fruitful communication with the Mayor's Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability, and the New York City Climate Change Adaptation Task Force. The collaborations brought forward in this document embody the culmination of a first step in a science–policy linkage that will be required to effectively address climate change in New York City. In addition, these collaborations show how great universities in a great city can link together to make a positive difference in the lives of its citizens.

Effects of climate change anxiety and environmental sustainability attitudes on pro-environmental behaviors among nursing students: A cross-sectional study.