Recent findings and emerging trends concerning the role of affect and emotion in climate change perceptions and judgments as well as their potential as drivers of sustainable action are reviewed. The affective responses people experience toward climate change are consistently found to be among the strongest predictors of risk perceptions, mitigation behavior, adaptation behavior, policy support, and technology acceptance.
The fact that a behavior can be instrumental for multiple goals does not logically entail that people are typically propelled into action for multiple reasons. On the contrary, goal-directed behavior in the real world is, in a given instance, aimed at one focal goal. In this article, I present the Campbell paradigm, in which a particular behavior is controlled by a single reason or goal. To identify the very reason (i.e.
How can we as individuals or groups mitigate climate change? One key issue is whether motives other than the pursuit of material self-interest can be used fruitfully to reduce climate change. In this article I describe recent research that supports three deeply rooted concerns: (a) concern with other humans (prosociality), (b) concern with equality (egalitarianism), and (c) concern with animals (as part of adherence to biospheric values).
Climate change's particular ‘perfect storm’ problem-nature requires educators and communicators to acknowledge that a single ‘silver bullet’ intervention that eliminates ignorance and denial regarding global warming may never emerge. However, diverse kinds of information-hunks and educational initiatives do incrementally increase acceptance (and alarm) regarding climate change, thus decreasing ignorance/denial.
The mounting research on consumer behavior and climate change is gradually improving our understanding of effective ways to mobilize consumers to mitigate climate change. The relationship between consumer behavior and climate change is complex and most consumers are not capable of determining which behavior changes are worth doing. Research has come a long way identifying the most impactful behavior changes, but more research is needed to refine and situate these insights.
A Viewpoint on Europe's response to climate change, in the context of SDGs 12, 13, and 17, focusing specifically on the use of region-specific indicators to address the main challenges and opportunities of Europe's response in the context of public and planetary health.
Fish experiencing abnormally high or prolonged elevations in temperature can exhibit impaired reproduction, even for species adapted to warm water environments. Such high temperature inhibition of reproduction has been linked to diminished gonadal steroidogenesis, but the mechanisms whereby hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis signaling is impacted by high temperature are not fully understood.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, caused by zoonotic SARS-CoV-2, has important links to biodiversity loss and ecosystem health. These links range from anthropogenic activities driving zoonotic disease emergence and extend to the pandemic affecting biodiversity conservation, environmental policy, ecosystem services, and multiple conservation facets. Crucially, such effects can exacerbate the initial drivers, resulting in feedback loops that are likely to promote future zoonotic disease outbreaks.
