LISBON, Portugal — The leaders of more than 40 psychological associations from around the world have signed a resolution asserting that climate change “is a serious global threat, is occurring faster than previously anticipated, and is contributed to by human behavior.”
Participants in the first International Summit on Psychology’s Contributions to Global Health committed to “inform our respective members and the public about climate change, emphasizing scientific research and consensus on its causes and short- and long-term harms, and the need for immediate governmental, societal, community and personal action,” according to the resolution.
They pledged to conduct more research, with an eye toward obtaining cross-cultural data, and to launch advocacy and media campaigns aimed at changing the human behaviors responsible for climate change.
“Psychology as the science of behavior change must be actively involved [but] behavior change is going to be different in every country,” said Arthur C. Evans Jr., PhD, chief executive officer of the American Psychological Association. “These climate issues are affecting people now. There are psychological consequences in terms of the anticipatory challenges and in terms of how we help people recover after climate events. … How do you build in your country infrastructure that ensures there are ways of addressing the anxiety and fears” people experience as a result of climate change?
Over nearly three days, Nov. 14-16, the participants shared information about the effects of climate change on their respective countries and citizens. Portuguese President Marcelo Rebalo de Sousa spoke to the summit, praising the attendees for tackling such an important issue.
“You chose the right subject because it’s a global subject,” he said. “We must have a global response to it. There is not a single country, not even a superpower, that can address alone this issue.”
Several of the participants delivered presentations starkly depicting the impact of climate change on their respective countries and citizens.
Ava Thompson, past president and co-chair of the Hurricane Dorian Steering Committee of the Bahamas Psychological Association, presented sobering statistics regarding the increasing frequency and power of hurricanes hitting the Caribbean.
“Dorian was not an isolated event,” she said, showing a slide that tallied 27 hurricanes that struck the Bahamas from 1990-2017. And, she added, “It is very rare for a hurricane to effect only one Caribbean country.”
Jeanyung Chey, secretary of external affairs for the Korean Psychological Association, spoke about the problem of microdust due to the rapid growth of the Korean economy in the last 60 years. She showed photos of clouds of tan haze with barely discernible blobs that were, presumably, people. Presenting data on the relatively high incidence of dementia among Koreans, she noted that “recent studies have found a connection” between dementia and exposure to the dust.
Brian Dixon of the New Zealand Psychological Society showed photos of flooding in the city of Dunedin, where he is based. “Our city now floods on a regular basis,” he said, showing other images of the beaches breaking apart and falling into the sea.
The summit opened with the signing of a proclamation on collaboration, committing the 43 signatories to use their professional, scientific, educational, cultural and applied resources “to achieve progress on matters of utmost importance for which psychology offers the greatest contribution.” Their initial efforts will focus on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 13: Take action to combat climate change and its impacts.
Also at the meeting, participants developed plans for advocacy, media campaigns, research and a toolkit to meet the goals laid out in the proclamation and referendum. They agreed to continue to work together to put these plans into action in their respective countries.
“People came with energy and excitement about the topic, and they are leaving with a commitment to work on this issue going forward,” APA’s Evans said. “APA as an organization has been committed to this issue for at least a decade and we’re leaving for this conference with a new commitment to take our involvement to another level.”
APA co-hosted the summit with the Portuguese Psychologists Association. Both groups agreed at the conclusion of the meeting to continue to play an administrative role to help pull more international associations into these efforts and to enact the plans laid out during the meeting.
Among the countries represented at the summit were Australia, Brazil, China, Cuba, Jordan, Lebanon, Mexico, Nigeria, South Korea and Uganda.