This Is Psychology

Climate change poses significant risks for a broad range of human and natural systems. To help cope with the environmental, economic and health effects of climate change, psychologists are offering new insights and solutions to counter the growing problem.

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Dr. Norman Anderson: Hello, and welcome to “This is Psychology.”

In this episode, I want to share with you the new insights and solutions that psychologists are offering to help counter climate change. I’ll also describe ways in which psychologists are helping people cope with the environmental, economic and health effects of climate change that are already having an impact on our lives.

According to a recent special issue of American Psychologist, the American Psychological Association’s flagship journal, climate change poses significant risks for a broad range of human and natural systems. The authors of articles in this special issue have called upon psychologists to increase research in this area and work closely with industry, government and educators to stem global warning, climiate change, and their effects.

The role psychologists can play in limiting climate change may be different from what many people expect. According to Dr. Paul C. Stern of the National Research Council, psychological contributions to limiting climate change will come not from trying to change people’s attitudes, but by helping to make low-carbon technologies more attractive and user-friendly...by making economic incentives more transparent and easier to use ...and by providing information that is more relevant to the people who need it.

Dr. Janet K. Swim, of Penn State University, who was the chair of the 2010 APA Task Force on the Interface Between Psychology and Global Climate Change, writes that psychology is essential to understanding the human causes and consequences of climate change. Moreover, she says, psychology can play a significant role to help limit or mitigate the effects of global warming.

Dr. Thomas J. Doherty, of the Lewis & Clark Graduate School of Education and Counseling, writes that climate change is a particularly challenging issue to confront because it evokes a different human response as compared to other global crises. He says that altruistic responses are associated with natural disasters, whereas uncertainty and divisiveness are associated with technological disasters. According to Doherty, the human response to climate change blurs the distinction typically found between responses to natural and technological disasters. Doherty says that psychologists can use the same types of interventions they have used in helping people recover from natural disasters to foster more environmentally positive behavior in all of us.

For more information, and to read these articles, visit our website at apa.org.

Thanks for watching “This is Psychology.”