Climate change has happened in the news for over 40 years. It is usually covered as a scientific or political issue. However, social scientists like me have found that emotions and values they are what lead people to broad, collective change – not charts, graphs or pictures.
Surveys confirm that the majority of Americans now believe that climate change is real. But many adults seem to feel too exhausted, defeated, or powerless to do anything about it.
lead a large multi-year research project is funded by the National Science Foundation that looks at how to leverage ethics, morality, and spirituality to create lasting behavioral change on this issue. In the pilot study for this project, which has not yet been published, we recently surveyed 275 adults in the US to understand their relationship and feelings towards the natural world.
This is a first step towards understanding how to start communicating differently about climate change. Climate change is altering weather patterns, temperatures and seasons, which people are now beginning to feel in almost all locations around the world.
Many people said that when they thought of nature, it brought back fond memories of climbing trees, stepping in puddles, or watching sunsets. But underneath, they described fraught relationships with the environment – a tense mix of love, longing, guilt and worry.
No predetermined answers
We used an open-ended survey that allowed respondents to answer as they wished, with no pre-set options. For example, we asked “What is your personal relationship with nature?” and gave respondents a blank box to write their own interpretation.
Open-ended questions are coded line by line by a team of researchers – a time-consuming process that limits the number of survey participants. Large surveys usually use closed-ended questions that are simpler to analyze and easier to administer to a larger number of people.
However, using this approach meant that responses were not constrained or motivated by the ideas of one researcher. The themes we found emerged from the thoughts and feelings of the participants.
How do people think about and engage with nature?
To understand people’s relationships with nature, we asked several questions. In one set we asked: “How are people and nature connected? What is the role of humans in nature?’ More than half of respondents (53%) noted that we should care for and protect the Earth. About 45% specifically mentioned nature’s benefits to human health and well-being. And 27% discussed how humans depend on the Earth and its resources.
About a quarter of responses (26%) indicated that people can choose to be positive or negative forces in nature. This was closely followed by statements that people take too much from nature (23%).
AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty
When analyzing another question, “What is your personal relationship with nature?” we noted salient themes and how participants tended to relate them to each other. For example, participants reported that, for them, nature represented beauty, health, joy, childhood, and escape.
To connect with nature, respondents said they usually engage in activities such as walking outdoors, camping, watching the sunset, or gardening. However, many said that barriers – such as time constraints, lack of physical access or being distracted by technology – prevented them from connecting with nature in the way they wanted to.
Wanting to do better
Beneath it all lay strong feelings of love, longing, worry and guilt. These feelings appeared most often in the responses – usually through a literal statement, although sometimes the feeling was referred to.
When discussing love, participants were more direct. They usually just said, “I love it, honestly” or “I love it.” Longing was often expressed in slightly more varied ways, such as stating “It makes me sad that I’m not out as much as I’d like” or “I wish I could hike and do things to get closer.”
Concern and guilt emerged in responses such as: “I try to respect the environment and take care of it. I know I can do better.” “I take care of it as best I can, but I wouldn’t say I’m making grand gestures either.” and “I don’t appreciate it enough.” One person simply replied: “Appreciation, respect, care, sadness.”
This question had asked: “What is your personal relationship with nature?” We did not instruct respondents to list their feelings. However, the responses were laden with emotion.
No sense of how to help
The way people talk about or picture a topic – their words, symbols, phrases or images – is called context. Picture frames highlight a subset of an issuewhich then generally becomes people’s primary way of thinking about something.
Positive self-efficacy frames—in other words, the belief that people can make a difference—were largely absent from climate change debates. Political or distant environmental contexts are more common.
For example, prominent images usually contain political figures or far-reaching environmental impacts, such as smoke or melting ice. These tend to they leave people feeling powerless or feeling that they have little to offer.
Our research findings reflect these contexts. People feel longing, guilt, and concern about the environment, with virtually no mention of hope, excitement, or empowerment.
From paralysis to engagement
Social scientists have learned through climate change research that some emotions paralyze and others catalyze. Is it possible to reduce the paralysis and match the love of nature with hope?
Other surveys show that Americans are increasingly concerned about future generations, that they worry about harm to plants and animals, and that almost all groups see human actions as the cause of these concerns. However, as long as people do not feel personally empowered to make changes, they will not take steps such as telling political leaders to act.
The next phase of our research will build on the findings of this research by examining how moral, ethical and spiritual affect behavior. We want to know what is required for these ideas to evoke a sense of personal empowerment necessary to take action.
When one focuses on their connection to each other and to future generations, they draw on a different set of ethics and sense of self – and that can motivate action.
