Adapting to Climate Change: What We Owe to Other Animals

In this article, I expand the existing discourse on climate justice by drawing out the implications of taking animal rights seriously in the context of human‐induced climate change. More specifically, I argue that nonhuman animals are owed adaptive assistance to help them cope with the ill‐effects of climate change, and I advance and defend four principles of climate justice that derive from a general duty of adaptation. Lastly, I suggest that even if one can successfully argue that the protection of human interests in adaptation ought to be prioritised, nonhuman animal rights will continue to place significant constraints on climate change action.     

Individual Responsibility for Climate Change

As we become more aware of the potential causes and consequences of climate change we are left wondering: who is responsible? Climate change has the potential to harm large portions of the global population and, arguably, is already doing so. Further, climate change is argued to be human‐caused. If this is true, then it seems to be the case that we can analyze climate change in terms of responsibility. I argue that we can approach environmental harms, such as climate change, through a theory of collective responsibility. I propose an account of reductive collective responsibility that can apply to the unstructured collective causing climate change and determine what we are each individually morally responsible for. To avoid the critiques of reductive collective responsibility for large unstructured harms, I propose we separate the determination of membership and eligibility for responsibility from the attribution of responsibility. Through this method, I can speak to the individual responsibility of each member who contributes to climate change without holding them responsible for that which is outside their control.     

Caring for Creation and Striving for Climate Justice: Implications for mission and spirituality1

Presenting climate change as one of the most important challenges the world faces today, and one that already affects populations in the Pacific, in Africa, in the Caribbean and in Southeast Asia, the author links spirituality and mission with the advocacy work being carried on by the World Council of Churches on climate change issues. The article asserts that the ecumenical work on climate change is rooted in a biblical imperative. Two biblical insights, the wholeness of creation and the commitment for justice, are unfolded as guidelines for the ecumenical concern on climate change. The first one requests a renewed theology of creation that responds adequately to the accusation that Christianity is anthropocentric. In this theology, the trinitarian understanding of creation and the role of the Holy Spirit are highlighted. Together with theology, ethics is a core contribution churches make to the climate change debate. This ethical approach is based on the commitment for justice, biblically rooted, which pays special attention to the poor, the vulnerable ones. Main principles of climate justice from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change are also analyzed. Finally, the spiritual dimension is presented following texts of Leonardo Boff and Larry Rasmussen, among others, as a specific contribution Christian churches make to climate change, ecology and environmental issues.     

Towards a Theory of Pure Procedural Climate Justice

A challenge for the theorising of climate justice is that even when the agents whose actions are supposed to be regulated are cooperative and act in good faith, they may still disagree about how the burdens and benefits of dealing with climate change should be distributed. This article is a contribution to the formulation of a useful role for normative theorising in light of this bounded nature of climate justice. We outline a theory of pure procedural climate justice; its content, function in relation to international climate diplomacy, and justification. The theory is ‘pure' in the sense that it does not rely on an independent criterion of what are just outcomes in negotiations of climate responsibilities. Rather, it specifies procedural fairness norms, such as transparency, reciprocity and participation, which make the process of negotiation fair independently of which account of substantive climate justice happens to be correct. Such procedural fairness norms are justified in part by being expressions of an ideal of a reasonable negotiator, an ideal which itself commands respect. They are also justified as means to an effective coordinated response to dangerous climate change in virtue of their capacity to create trust, predictability and accountability.     

African Religion,Climate Change,and Knowledge Systems

This article argues that as humanity is now changing the composition of the atmosphere at a rate that is very exceptional on the geological time scale, resulting in global warming, humans must deal with climate change holistically, including the often overlooked religion factor. Human‐caused climate change has resulted primarily from changes in the amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, but also from changes in small particles (aerosols), as well as from changes in land use. In Africa, the entire relationship between humans and nature, including activities such as land use, has deep religious and spiritual underpinnings. In general, religion is central to many of the decisions people make about their own communities’ development. Hence, this contribution examines religion as a factor that can be tapped into to mitigate negative effects of climate change, discussing climate change and religion in the context of development practice. It argues that some of the difficulties encountered in development, including efforts to reverse global warming in Africa, directly speak to the relegation of African cosmovision and conversely of the need to adopt new epistemologies, concepts, and models that take religion into consideration.     

Implementing climate equity: the case of Europe

For over two decades, international environmental equity – the fair and just sharing of the burdens associated with environmental changes – has been the subject of much debate by philosophers, activists and diplomats concerned about climate change. It has been manifested in many international environmental agreements, notably the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol. The question arises as to whether it is being put into practice in this context. Are the requirements of international environmental equity merely words and principles in international instruments, or are they having a practical effect on the policies of state governments? This article aims to start answering these questions. It examines whether the European Union (EU) and its member states are sharing the burdens of climate change. The article introduces equity in the context of the climate change agreements and looks at some normative and practical considerations. It suggests that Europe has been a leader on international equity in the climate change negotiations over the last decade, and it points to what European states and the EU have done to take on some of the burdens of climate change. Europe's actions are briefly assessed from practical and normative perspectives. Europe is doing more than any other part of the world to address climate change and to share the burdens associated with it. Nevertheless, Europe is not doing as much to address this problem as it can and should do. Both practical and normative imperatives demand more urgent action by Europe to implement climate equity.     

Are integrative or distributive outcomes more satisfactory? The effects of interest‐based versus value‐based issues on negotiator satisfaction

Negotiation research usually distinguishes between integrative and distributive outcomes. Integrative outcomes satisfy the negotiation parties' most important interests (by trading off less important for more important issues). In contrast, distributive outcomes require negotiators to give up their most important interests (as they make concessions on both less and more important issues). Integrative outcomes are more beneficial, but do they offer greater satisfaction? In this research, we hypothesized that satisfaction with integrative versus distributive outcomes depends on whether people negotiate interest‐based or value‐based issues. Three experiments consistently revealed that people in interest‐based negotiations were more satisfied with integrative outcomes, whereas those in value‐based negotiations tended to be more satisfied with distributive outcomes. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Influence of Identity Salience on Framing Effectiveness: An Experiment

Efforts to influence attitudes on highly polarizing issues, such as climate change, often fail because individuals interpret political messages through the lens of their partisan identities. However, shifting the identity lens through which an individual interprets a message may result in more effective political communication. Through a preregistered survey experiment (n = 978), this study tested how priming either a partisan or a nonpartisan (parental) identity influenced the effectiveness of a climate change frame on several attitudinal outcomes. Findings suggest that identity salience—specifically partisan identity salience—can influence the effectiveness of a frame. Among Republican parents, receiving a message about the impact of climate change on future generations increased climate change concern and intended proclimate political behaviors, but this framing effect disappeared when a partisan identity was first primed. Among Democrat parents, framing had no significant effect until a partisan identity was first primed. The findings offer important insight into the role that identity salience plays in framing effectiveness and suggest that political communication on polarized issues is likely to be more effective at building bipartisan agreement when nonpartisan identities are salient.     

Public understanding of climate change in the United States

This article considers scientific and public understandings of climate change and addresses the following question: Why is it that while scientific evidence has accumulated to document global climate change and scientific opinion has solidified about its existence and causes, U.S. public opinion has not and has instead become more polarized? Our review supports a constructivist account of human judgment. Public understanding is affected by the inherent difficulty of understanding climate change, the mismatch between people's usual modes of understanding and the task, and, particularly in the United States, a continuing societal struggle to shape the frames and mental models people use to understand the phenomena. We conclude by discussing ways in which psychology can help to improve public understanding of climate change and link a better understanding to action. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved).     

Anxiety,Sophistication, and Resistance to Persuasion: Evidence from a Quasi‐Experimental Survey on Global Climate Change

Our contribution deals with the emotional and cognitive foundations of resistance to persuasive information. We rely on an original quasi‐experimental protocol that simulates the flow of information and the respondents' reactions to persuasive arguments on global climate change. Respondents in a representative sample (N = 604) were asked if they supported reduction of economic activity to reduce climate warming and were then provided, based on their support or disapproval for this first argument, with counterattitudinal arguments to test their resistance to persuasion. This article highlights that sophistication strengthens resistance to persuasion, whereas anxiety has a double effect: directly, it decreases resistance; indirectly, it interacts with political sophistication and makes sophisticates less likely to resist persuasion when facing arguments inconsistent with their previous beliefs. Nonanxious citizens, in turn, are more likely to resist persuasion when their political sophistication increases. We also provide evidence that the joint effect of anxiety and sophistication is moderated by the ideological identification of respondents.     

Diversity and the Imagined Community: Immigrant Diversity and Conceptions of National Identity

As immigrant diversity increases across most developed democracies, there is an increasing concern that perceived threats to mainstream interests (both cultural and economic) will produce an ethnocentric response. This study approaches the question using survey measures that explicitly tap respondents' normative conception of membership in the national community. Based on cross‐sectional and over‐time analysis of the ISSP's “National Identity Module,” it shows that more immigrant‐exclusive definitions of the national ingroup are linked to both contextual and individual measures of cultural threat. Perceived economic threat at the individual level is also powerfully linked to this outcome, but contextual measures of economic prosperity are not. This finding lends weight to the argument that increasing levels of immigrant diversity are a threat to an inclusive sense of national identity that includes both natives and immigrants.     

Climate change: making us brothers and sisters

The constraint for prevailing ethical orientations is the unavoidable concern each person has for her own welfare. Climate change can transform the fundamental structure of these ethical orientations because it compels the recognition that the behaviors of those at the far reaches of my concentric circle model have real and potentially disastrous effects upon me. The tangible prospect of climate change will inspire the recognition of our common destiny.     

Praying for Courage: African Religious Leaders and Climate Change

Climate change has emerged as one of the major challenges facing Africa. This article argues that religious leaders in Africa must mobilize their communities to provide effective responses to climate change. Although prayer occupies a central place in the major religions found in Africa, this article maintains that religious leaders must invest in innovative strategies to address climate change. They must avoid escapist prayers. The article analyzes the strengths of religious leaders in Africa and identifies some of the areas where they can play an effective role. It calls upon African religious leaders to challenge triumphalist theologies, mobilize for local action, and convene multi‐religious meetings on climate change.     

Climate Change,Responsibility, and Justice

In this paper I make the following claims. In order to see anthropogenic climate change as clearly involving moral wrongs and global injustices, we will have to revise some central concepts in these domains. Moreover, climate change threatens another value (“respect for nature”) that cannot easily be taken up by concerns of global justice or moral responsibility.     

Organizational climate and company productivity: The role of employee affect and employee level

Consistent with a growing number of models about affect and behaviour and with a recognition that perception alone provides no impetus for action, it was predicted that associations between company climate and productivity would be mediated by average level of job satisfaction. In a study of 42 manufacturing companies, subsequent productivity was significantly correlated in controlled analyses with eight aspects of organizational climate (e.g. skill development and concern for employee welfare) and also with average job satisfaction. The mediation hypothesis was supported in hierarchical multiple regressions for separate aspects of climate. In addition, an overall analysis showed that company productivity was more strongly correlated with those aspects of climate that had stronger satisfaction loadings. A second prediction, that managers' perceptions of climate would be more closely linked to company productivity than would those of non‐managers, was not supported. However, managers' assessments of most aspects of their company's climate were significantly more positive than those of non‐managers.     

Contending with the nature of climate change: Phenomenological interpretations from northern Wisconsin

In this study we conduct interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) of the narrative accounts of 17 community members who reside on the south shore of Lake Superior in northern Wisconsin regarding the experience of living amid climate change. We propose that there is a connection between the fundamental nature of climate change and the phenomenological nature of living with it, and that difficult emotions emerge from those experiences. Our analysis illustrates how feelings of helplessness and fear are entwined with not only experiences of ecological loss and living within harmful systems and structures, but also the experience of living with an awareness of the global scale and complexity of climate change. Participants narrate their understandings of the failure of collective action and the uncertainties surrounding the magnitude and timing of localized effects of climate change. While facing and processing difficult emotions that arise in relation to climate change can lead toward hope, renewal, and political and moral action, we propose that the nature of climate change challenges us to be more intentional about providing spaces for such transformations.     

The ironic effect of national identification on support for collective action

Previous research has suggested that dual and superordinate identities are not only prerequisites of collective action among minority group members but they can also be associated with greater acceptance of the ingroup's disadvantaged position. In this three‐wave study among Ingrian Finnish migrants from Russia to Finland (N=153_T1?85_T3), we tested the indirect association between superordinate national identification (T1) and support for collective action (T3), via perceived permeability of group boundaries (T2). Support for collective action was operationalized as one's personal willingness, and the perceived need of the Russian‐speaking community, to engage in it. When controlling for the direct association between Russian minority identification and support for collective action, perceived permeability was shown to mediate the negative association between Finnish national identification and support for community's collective action. Thus, being close to the majority may make immigrants perceive group boundaries as more permeable and be less inclined to improve their group's position.     

LIVING WITH THE WICKED PROBLEM OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Outlining the characteristics of “wicked” and “super‐wicked” problems, climate change is considered as a global super‐wicked problem that is primarily about the future. Being global‐ and future‐oriented makes climate change something we have to learn to live with but cannot expect to solve. Because the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science (IRAS) is a multidisciplinary society that yokes the natural and social sciences with values, it is in a position to explore strategies for living with climate change—exemplified by the articles in this section. Finally, asking “who/what is in charge,” it is suggested that in a dynamically interrelated and evolving world no one is. It is important to distinguish between good that is already created and the creative interactions that give rise to new good. In order to live with climate change, our primary orientation should be to live with the creativity that has created and continues to create our life on Planet Earth—since we are not able to know what the future holds.     

Climate Change: Evidence of Human Causes and Arguments for Emissions Reduction

In a recent editorial, Raymond Spier expresses skepticism over claims that climate change is driven by human actions and that humanity should act to avoid climate change. This paper responds to this skepticism as part of a broader review of the science and ethics of climate change. While much remains uncertain about the climate, research indicates that observed temperature increases are human-driven. Although opinions vary regarding what should be done, prominent arguments against action are based on dubious factual and ethical positions. Thus, the skepticisms in the recent editorial are unwarranted. This does not diminish the general merits of skeptical intellectual inquiry.     

Planetary Secularisms: Delayed Messianism,Climate Change,and the Space for Pluralism

As many scholars have pointed out, Western secularism (or neoliberalism) is itself a faith‐filled and religiously located concept. It forces other understandings of secularism (and along with it other religions) to adhere to the public reason/private faith distinction, for instance, or else face the charge of being unenlightened or somehow in the dark (ages). This article agrees with and builds upon these ongoing critiques of secularism by suggesting that the two important bio‐historical factors that are beginning to shed light on the religiously filled foundations of Western‐style secularity are those of globalization and climate change. The contemporary situation of globalization and climate change is forcing the hidden faith of secularism out of its foxhole.