User:Yiannatromboukis/OLES2129

Hi! I am a student from OLES2129, I will be working on a draft for Environmental Behaviour.

= Environmental Behaviour =

Pro-environmental behaviours (PEBs) can be defined as “behaviour that consciously seeks to minimize the negative impact of one’s actions on the natural and built world”. When discussing human behaviour in the context of maintaining a sustainable environment, it is imperative to dissect these behaviours into physical, mental and proactive ones. Hence, this site will seek to refer to how a range of pro-environment attitudes, education, change and management are integral in diminishing the futile reality of global warming.

These behaviours are categorised into pro-environment attitudes, education, change and management which work in unity to reduce the futile reality of global warming. The causes for a majority of environmental issues are rooted in human behaviour. Humans impact the environment through many ways, most commonly through overpopulation, pollution, destruction of biodiversity, deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels.

Drastic changes in the conditions of our environment have foreseen symptoms of premature climate change and natural disaster. More specifically, access to high air quality and clean water has become exponentially scarce across certain nation states. It is encouraged to pursue minor adjustments of pro-environmental behaviour to lessen the burden of climate change. These adjustments usually include switching to energy-saving appliances, water-saving devices, and home insulation. Unfortunately, these day-to-day efforts of pursuing ecological efficiency are overrun by consumption growth. Whilst the encouragement of short-term measures for preventative action is ideal, the reality is, environmental change can only occur from widespread reform on a global scale.

Whilst physical and technical preventative measures are taking place, it is imperative to implement informed teachings and public discourse on the severity of climate change and how reducing our carbon footprint is the key to reducing the threat of global warming.

Knowledge and Environmental Action
There is disengagement with scientific inquiry into global warming due to the scientization and politicization of environmental issues. The inconsistencies in approaches to pro environmentalism have proven to be detrimental in being able to allow for large-scale constitutional legislation that guarantees the recovery of the environment.

The Politicization of Scientization
This divide between scientific evidence and political mistrust has encouraged citizens to seek other forms of belief making and knowledge based on their contextual understandings. Due to the politicization of objective scientific knowledge, most citizens are compelled to formulate and transmit their own beliefs and perceptions of climate change onto other members in their community. The beliefs that are administered into society are usually ones of a negative nature. These beliefs are constructed on the premise that climate change is not a threat as it is not real. A belief constructed based on the mistrust of the distributor, the government. The rejection of objective scientific knowledge distributed from government sources proves that encouraging environmental change in a community where biased and inaccurate information is being transmitted to wider groups of people is a futile pursuit. However, there is still space for reform on the premise that there is an alternate way to distribute knowledge about climate change through a neutral platform.

Breaking Down Pre-Established Bias
In order to appeal to global audiences on climate change, it is imperative to understand the psychology behind the widespread climate change disillusionment. A person’s perception on environmental behaviour is deeply aligned with their contextual background. These alternating contexts can be further divided into antecedent strategies and consequence strategies. An antecedent mindset will allow for a person to change factors that precede behaviour. I.e. These people might be more inclined to raise problem awareness, address different choices, and acknowledge that there are positive or negative consequences. A consequence strategist will change the consequence after their behaviour. I.e. These people tend to argue perception and social norms. Essentially, through a new approach to pro-environmental action, the introduction of global warming into curriculums and public conversation will allow for audiences and people to engage using a ‘consequence’ approach. This will also foresee newer generations being able to argue against the politicisation of climate change and pursue a more objective analysis of the consequences of climate change.

Curriculum & Early Childhood Teachings
To encourage a widespread conversation about the ramifications of global warming, it is advised to encourage discussion about pro environmentalism in the classroom setting. Enriching children with a sound environmental education and giving them the capacity to critically think is important in perpetuating a sustainable future with passionate, astute leaders guiding the way for global action.

The Government’s Responsibility
While institutional curriculums set out the foundations for environmentalism, the maintenance of these pro-active actions are up to the individual. There are many factors that can hinder pro-environmental behaviour. They include: the impact of various resources, customs and norms as well as the an ageing population. Educational curriculums are exponentially expanding their pedagogies on pro-environmentalism. Pro-active measures are being centred on preventative, sustainable behaviour. To encourage holistic transformative change it is imperative to centralise environmental education to target students who are most concerned and equipped with skills to provide futuristic change. This is evident in statistic centralising around energy saving and young people as this method of sustainability is something that people from all walks of life can adapt into their daily lives. With these behaviours taking place in adolescence, we can hope that they can transcend into adulthood and thus larger demographics of humans will be applying these proactive measures of sustainability. This is a curriculum incentive designed to practice proactive behaviours at an early age to encourage routine in behaviour and instil younger audiences with an understanding that is one supporting pro-environmentalism.

The Individual’s Responsibility
Amidst teaching students about the benefits of sustainable thinking, applying these modes of thought into everyday practice is imperative. While students are aware of the consequences of climate change, they will be guided to formulate attitudes that will adhere to global change in the future. Despite these minute changes in behaviour including switching towards public transportation, or simply changing behaviour to suit. Alongside this motivation and campaigns should be implemented within the curriculum to increase awareness and the consequences of environmental issues. While educational institutions can implement extensive content about sustainability into aligning curriculum, it is important to understand that behaviour can also be manipulated by external factors and contexts. These factors could inhibit a person’s ability to maintain their pursuit for upmost sustainability in their day-to-day lives. Despite these measures, encouraging involvement in environmental activities is still imperative into boosting moral and feelings of positivity towards their contribution to a sustainable future.

Values, Situation and Psychology
Relying on masses of people in a community to apply to PEBs in their daily lives is a difficult task. This is because all people have different relationships with sustainability and pro-environmentalism due to their own personal contexts and relationships. Whilst it is crucial to promote education about global warming for all ages, there are other methods to enhance more widespread action at an exponential rate.

From a scientific perspective, there has been exponential evidence in our ecosystem to suggest that climate change represents a threat to human society and the environment. To able to encourage viable change, there needs to be global collective action and public engagement. Studies have shown the people are either concerned about the long-term consequences of climate change or that they are sceptical about the legitimacy of global warming. In short, there are varied discrepancies in climate change perception. White scientific and statistical data can provide evidence for existing climatic change; human reform can only be modified via human intervention.

To be able to modify human behaviour and perception, we must understand that human values are relatively stable dimensions and can be moderately adjustment in response to socio-cultural changes around them. There are four types of human values and they are: openness to change (hedonism, self-direction, and stimulation) versus conservation (security, tradition, and conformity), and self-enhancement (hedonism, achievement, and power) versus self transcendence (universalism and benevolence). Humans encompassing values of self-transcendence would attain higher levels of environmental concern and climate change, whereas humans with self-enhancing values would have lower levels of environmental concern. In conjunction to this, humans with high levels of self-direction possess higher modes of open-mindedness to allow them to embrace new education on eliminating premature symptoms of climate change. To allow for a more encouraging approach to public engagement with climate change, it would be imperative to focus on pursuing public education on the values of self-direction and self-transcendence, however all modes of human values should be met to allow for true global change.

Adapting PEBs into daily routine
It is commonly known that instilling positive PEBs within communities and individuals, it allows them to formulate positive values and attitudes towards saving the environment. Another way to encourage exponential change will be through processes of sustainable application in daily life. It is fair to say that when positive behaviours are consistently repeated they become habitual, and it is processes like these that need to be addressed in order to solidify holistic change within the youth and all demographics in society.

Instilling PEBs in the workforce
A perfect environment for introducing sustainable development learning and communicating innovative practices is within the workforce. The workforce, while it is a social setting, there is also an element of authority. It is within this mode of authoritarian direction that employees are encouraged to follow suit within given instruction as opposed to considering it and not taking further precautions. If these behaviours were implemented within a workforce and applied rigorously at a frequent rate, it is fair to say that these behaviours will become habitual. Once they have become habitual, they will transcend into other aspects of these individuals lives. These aspects can include their home life and their life within the public sphere. It is measures like these that will solidify that preventative measures are taken and there is active procedures taking place to decrease the consequences of climate change on a global scale.

In addition to applying these actions taught in the workforce and brought into home life, there are other positive outcomes of this method of action taking place. Despite these measure being addressed to employees in an authoritative tone, the context of conversation will be in an environmentally friendly manner. Encouraging PEBs at work can also positively influence socio and economic procedures, which are also integral to a suitable community development. When employees feel like their workforce are adhering to their professed values, this increases workplace moral and performance. So while PEBs are becoming exponentially increased within the workplace, so is employee engagement and employee satisfaction. This once again transcends positive mental status into employees’ home and personal life. In future cases, workplaces that instil PEBs can expand awareness so that government and NGOs are encouraged to seek greater actions for sustainable transitions.

Larger Scale Research and Innovation
An organisation, the European Commission, has been making legislation to ensure that sustainable climate and energy targets are regularly being met. For example, they created a piece of legislation in 2007 to ensure that by 2020, there will be a ‘20% cut in greenhouse gas emissions (from 1990 levels), 20% of EU energy from renewables and a 20% improvement in energy efficiency’.

EU Initiative
Countries within the EU are required to adopt a series of give dimensions from the period of 2021-2030. These dimensions include: security, solidarity and trust, a fully-integrated internal energy market, energy efficiency, climate action- decarbonising the economy and research, action and competitiveness. The EU’s objectives will explicitly foresee the security of energy supplies, expanding internal energy markets, an increase in energy efficiency, a reduction of emissions and the continual support for research and innovation. Through these comprehensive measures of sustainability, these nations will have an integrated national energy and climate plan to secure appropriate action on reducing a carbon footprint.