It’s not too late to do the right thing: Moral motivations for climate change action
Bain, PG; Bongiorno, RT
Date: 23 October 2019
Journal
WIREs Climate Change
Publisher
Wiley
Publisher DOI
Abstract
While it is too late to avert some dangerous consequences of climate change, it is not “all-ornothing” and our actions can still make a difference. Building on social psychology research
showing the importance of seeing one’s group as moral, one reason people act on climate
change is to help create a more moral and caring society. ...
While it is too late to avert some dangerous consequences of climate change, it is not “all-ornothing” and our actions can still make a difference. Building on social psychology research
showing the importance of seeing one’s group as moral, one reason people act on climate
change is to help create a more moral and caring society. Considering climate change action
through this lens gives rise to several challenges, including how people respond to moral
threats, who has moral standing as advocates, the consequences of promoting a moral cause
through “immoral” actions (e.g., breaking the law), and moral “blindspots” where some
emitting behaviours are excluded from scrutiny. Reviewing social psychological bases for
these issues suggests potential responses to these challenges, including the importance of
engaging people with diverse views and backgrounds (e.g., through citizens’ assemblies),
advisory personal carbon budgets, and broad-based policies that aim to secure the social
wellbeing of communities as well as the protect the environment (e.g., a Green New Deal).
Encouragingly, a recent study suggests that many people are more ready than we might
assume to accept the types of changes urgently needed.
Psychology - old structure
Collections of Former Colleges
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