Emotions and the Climate Crisis: A Research Agenda for an Affective Sustainability Science

Uniting the Global Gastroenterology Community to Meet the Challenge of Climate Change and Non-Recyclable Waste

Mental health and climate change: tackling invisible injustice

Over 200 health journals call on the United Nations, political leaders, and health professionals to recognise that climate change and biodiversity loss are one indivisible crisis and must be tackled together to preserve health and avoid catastrophe. This overall environmental crisis is now so severe as to be a global health emergency.

A “lifeline out of the <scp>COVID</scp>‐19 crisis”? An ecofeminist critique of the European Green Deal

Climate change is increasingly being framed as a “climate crisis.” Such a crisis could be viewed both to unfold in the climate system, as well as to be induced by it in diverse areas of society. Following from current understandings of modern crises, it is clear that climate change indeed can be defined as a “crisis.” As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 1.5oC special report elaborates, the repercussions of a warming planet include increased food insecurity, increased frequency and intensity of severe droughts, extreme heat waves, the loss of coral reef ecosystems and associated marine species, and more. It is also important to note that a range of possible climate-induced crises (through, e.g., possible increased food insecurity and weather extremes) will not be distributed evenly, but will instead disproportionally affect already vulnerable social groups, communities, and countries in detrimental ways. The multifaceted dimensions of climate change allow for multiple interpretations and framings of “climate crisis,” thereby forcing us to acknowledge the deeply contextual nature of what is understood as a “crisis.” Climate change and its associated crises display a number of challenging properties that stem from its connections to basically all sectors in society, its propensity to induce and in itself embed nonlinear changes such as “tipping points” and cascading shocks, and its unique and challenging long-term temporal dimensions. The latter pose particularly difficult decision-making and institutional challenges because initial conditions (in this case, carbon dioxide emissions) do not result in immediate or proportional responses (say, global temperature anomalies), but instead play out through feedbacks among the climate system, oceans, the cryosphere, and changes in forest biomes, with some considerable delays in time. Additional challenges emerge from the fact that early warnings of pending so-called “catastrophic shifts” face numerous obstacles, and that early responses are undermined by a lack of knowledge, complex causality, and severe coordination challenges.

The Negative Bidirectional Interaction Between Climate Change and the Prevalence and Care of Liver Disease: A Joint BSG, BASL, EASL, and AASLD Commentary

The state and local governments are implementing emissions trading systems and carbon neutral policies to reduce greenhouse gases. Nevertheless, the Earth is facing a climate crisis due to the increase in greenhouse gases generated from energy generation, steel and chemical industries, energy in the home and transportation, industrial processes such as cement, agriculture, and waste. The number of cases of youth and future generations filing climate lawsuits in the Constitutional Court and courts regarding the climate crisis is increasing, and the issue of guaranteeing basic climate rights under the Constitution is becoming a social issue.&#x0D; Therefore, a public legal response is urgently needed so that the state and local governments can protect the lives, bodies, and property of citizens in order to respond to the climate crisis and achieve sustainable development, and guarantee the right of current and future generations to live in a pleasant environment.&#x0D; In this paper, after examining the concept of climate crisis and Korea's climate crisis response legislation, we review legislative precedents and precedents in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and France to find implications for Korea. In addition, the provisions on climate crisis response are stipulated in the Constitution, guaranteeing basic climate rights to protect against damage caused by climate change, the role of the Climate Crisis Response Act, climate crisis response and cooperation through cooperative climate governance, and the freedom of the current generation to respond to the climate crisis. We review the role of public law by discussing emergency declarations and public law issues in response to the crisis of climate change, guaranteeing future generations' temporal climate crisis protection rights, and protecting future generations.&#x0D; For climate protection and response to the climate crisis, the Constitution should specify climate change reduction goals, basic climate rights, and cooperative measures to respond to the climate crisis, and legislatively consider the “urgent need” of the climate crisis beyond the concept of climate protection. In addition, in order to ensure equity and fairness due to infringement of basic rights related to the climate crisis, basic climate rights should be guaranteed under the constitution as well as legislative, scientific, and judicial responsibilities. In addition, the Climate Crisis Response Act should be enacted on necessary measures to make the climate crisis effective by public law. The Climate Crisis Response Act shall be guided and complementary in relation to the Building Act, the National Territory Planning Act, the Economic Act, the Disaster Safety Act, etc., and shall prescribe clear legal responsibility and due process for the climate crisis. In addition, climate crisis response requires cooperation by establishing climate governance between the state and local governments, between local governments, and between countries, so climate change reduction technologies and climate crisis response strategies should be shared, and legal countermeasures should be prepared in cooperation with each other. In addition, in order to reasonably allocate the cost burden of the climate crisis, the right to protect the temporal climate crisis should be clearly established legally and systematically to lead a life in a comfortable environment in accordance with the principle of equity and proportionality for current and future generations. The state or local government's climate emergency declaration and emergency plans on climate change crises and risks, administrative measures under executive orders, scientific predictions of climate crises and improve the vulnerability of disasters, and the role and legal responsibility of responding to climate crises should be considered in public law.

Behavioral science approaches to promoting sustainable action have mainly focused on cognitive processes, whereas the role of emotions has received comparably little attention. However, emotions have a great but currently not fully exploited potential to contribute to a sustainable behavior change. In this perspective, we summarize recent research emphasizing the central and indispensable role of emotion in human thinking and judgment. We discuss how these insights can promote affective reactivity toward sustainability issues, help leverage the potential of emotion to motivate action, and improve emotional climate change communication and intervention strategies. We outline a research agenda that we see as crucial for obtaining a solid evidence base on how emotions can optimally promote sustainable behavior. This paper is meant to stimulate discussion and a coordinated research effort on how emotions may be better leveraged to promote large-scale sustainable action and to promote a stronger integration of emotional strategies into the toolbox of policy makers.

COP27 Climate Change Conference: urgent action needed for Africa and the world

Human activities like greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, and deforestation are largely responsible for climate change and biodiversity loss. The climate is a complex system and scientists are striving to predict, prevent, and address the aforementioned issues in order to avoid reaching tipping points. The threat to humankind is not only physical (ie, heat waves, floods, droughts) but also psychological, especially for some groups. Insecurity, danger, chaos, and an unstable system due to climate change have both short- and long-term psychological effects. In this scenario, the need for new psychological categories is emerging, namely, eco-emotions and psychoterratic syndromes which include eco-anxiety, ecological grief, climate worry, and climate trauma. This paper focuses on these new categories, presenting a summary of each one, including definitions, hypotheses, questions, and testological evaluations, as a useful tool to be consulted by researchers and clinicians and to help them in the therapeutic work. Also, this paper endeavors to distinguish between a psychological stress resulting in a positive outcome, such as pro-environmental behavior, compared to a stress that leads to a psychopathology. Prevention and intervention strategies including social and community support are fundamental to help cope with and mitigate the effect of climate change on mental health. In conclusion, the climate crisis has led to an enormous increase in research on climate change and its consequences on mental health. Researchers and clinicians must be prepared to assess this complex phenomenon and provide help to those who cannot cope with anxiety and climatic mourning.

The global hydrological cycle is the «bloodstream» of the biosphere, providing the basis for all life, regulating the climate, enabling carbon cycling through the production of biomass, and carrying nutrients, chemicals and pollutants. Freshwater, often overlooked, is the silent currency sustaining our economies — powering every sector from agriculture to energy — and underpinning our livelihoods. Disruptions to the water cycle jeopardize this very foundation. Furthermore, those disruptions are deeply intertwined with climate change and biodiversity loss, with each rebounding on the other. The increasing imbalance of the hydrological cycle obstructs our ability to act on the climate and biodiversity crises. A resilient hydrological cycle, in turn, requires both climate change mitigation and the protection of biodiverse ecosystems and lands and their hydrological functioning. Taking the hydrological cycle as a starting point, this policy brief unpacks the interconnectedness of the water and climate crises and the imperative of integrated blue-green water governance. Approaching a resilient hydrological cycle as a global common good means we must redefine the relationship between water and climate, recognizing green and blue water as indispensable elements to tackle climate change, and ensure that hydrological resilience is centred and elevated as a collective policy priority.

Climate movements led by students and the youth worldwide (and in particular, those in richer economies) have been recognized as having a formidable voice and making important contributions towards a more radical societal transformation to face the climate crisis. However, little is said about the contribution of popular sectors, who have been mobilizing for decades and demanding broader structural transformations—with proposals that tackle environmental issues more broadly and the climate crisis in particular—but who are not directly involved in climate politics arenas, such as the United Nations Climate Change conferences. Usually portrayed as vulnerable, as those most affected by climate events, as victims and receivers of adaptation strategies, or, as resilient, rarely do popular sectors appear as agents of transformation. Critical scholars have advocated for understanding the climate crisis as part of multiple crises, including the biodiversity crisis, a crisis of care, and a crisis of democracy. Situating our article within this scholarship, we argue that the scholarly and societal debate on climate change will further benefit from broadening the scope of which social subjects are considered as part of the climate movement. Based on our research with rural popular feminist movements in Brazil, and in particular, the coalition Marcha das Margaridas, we address the following questions: how are their diagnostics of, and proposals to, overcome the climate crisis embedded in their broader project of transformation? Additionally, how does their political identity within class, gender, and rural categories of inequality inform their positions?

Climate change and its consequences are recognized as one of the most important challenges to the functioning of the Earth's ecosystem and humanity. However, the response to the threat posed by the climate crisis still seems inadequate. The question of which psychological factors cause people to engage (or not) in pro-environmental behavior remains without a comprehensive answer. The aim of this study is to establish the links between the cognitive (level of knowledge about climate change and degree of belief in climate myths), emotional (various climate emotions, especially climate anxiety) and behavioral aspects of attitudes towards the climate crisis and their determinants in the form of the Big Five personality domains and time perspectives. The stated hypotheses were verified by analyzing data collected in an online survey of 333 adults using knowledge tests and self-report methods, including psychological questionnaires (Climate Change Anxiety Scale by Clayton and Karazsia, Big Five Inventory-short version by Schupp and Gerlitz, and Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory by Zimbardo and Boyd), and measurement scales developed for this study (Climate myth belief scale, Climate emotion scale, and Inventories of current and planned pro-environmental activities). The results of stepwise regression analysis demonstrate the importance of the core personality traits and the dominant temporal perspective as determinants of belief in climate change myths, climate anxiety, as well as actual and planned pro-environmental behavior.

We are ever more connected, on a global scale, and our problems have no real borders, as we are increasingly aware in the ongoing discussions of the global climate and biodiversity crises. This collection brings together different vantage points on the interstitial relationship between these considerations. While the chapters in the volume are organized in three sections—perspectives on the climate crisis; concrete challenges of extinctions; and posthuman reconfigurations of human-nonhuman relations—this introduction traces other elements of continuity between the chapters: framing, vulnerability, and interconnectedness. We open by discussing how framing operates when considering climate crises and the nonhuman. Then, following Rachel Carson, we consider the notion of vulnerability, as we are faced with global problems of pandemic and climate crisis. This is shared—by human and nonhuman actors alike—but shared unequally and impacts disproportionately. The introduction highlights this phenomenon and draws connections along this axis. For, just as we are vulnerable, we are also interconnected, which is both a strength and part of our vulnerability. Our narrative responses to these challenges, paired with the goals of such a discussion, bring us back to the frame of the debate and frame the collection as a whole.

Purpose – The primary aim of this quantitative survey research is to explore the connection between environmental education, participation in environ-mental programs or actions, and the enhancement of pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors in individuals. In light of global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation, under-standing how education and active engagement can promote sustainability is increasingly crucial. This study aims to determine whether exposure to environmental education and participation in environmental actions can influence individuals’ environmental consciousness and encourage more sustainable practices. Design/Methodology/Approach – The study sample consisted of 2,687 Greek consumers, aged 18 to 29 years. This age group was specifically chosen to capture insights from young adults, who are key to future sustainability efforts. The Mann-Whitney non-parametric test was used to analyze potential differences in environmental awareness among participants who had received environmental education and those who had participated in environmental programs. The survey gathered responses related to specific actions, dailyhabits, and individual choices to assess the level of environmental consciousness among the participants. The research method focused on determining how environmental education and participation in programs impacted behaviors related to sustainability.Findings – The findings of this survey indicate that individuals who received environmental education in school are more likely to consider the environmental consequences of their purchasing decisions. Furthermore, those who have participated in environmental programs or actions were more inclined to adopt pro-environmental behaviors, such as reducing waste, conserving energy, and opting for sustainable products. Additionally, the analysis revealed that participants aged 26–29 demonstrated higher environmentalconsciousness than their younger counterparts aged 18–21, suggesting that environmental awareness increases with age and experience. Originality – This study contributes to the body of research on environmental education and sustainability by highlighting the significant role that both education and active participation in environmental initiatives play in fostering environmental awareness. It emphasizes the importance of these factors in encouraging sustainable behaviors and helping create a more sustainable andeco-conscious society. Design/Methodology/Approach – The sample involved 2,687 Greek consumers aged 18 to 29 years. The non-parametric Mann–Whitney test was used to explore possible differences in the environmental consciousness of the research participants in relation to whether they have been taught environmental education at school and/or they have participated in an environmental program or action in the past. The survey participants were asked to respond regarding the frequency of specific actions and daily habits, which frame their environmental consciousness and awareness. The questionnaire included behaviors such as recycling, reducing water and energy use, and choosing eco-friendly products. A multiple linear regression analysis was also conducted to assess the effect of age and other factors on environmental attitudes and actions. Findings – The results of this survey showed that the people who have been taught about environmental education at school are more likely to consider the environmental impact of the products they buy, while those who have participated in environmental programs or actions adopt more consistent pro-environmental behaviors. These include limiting single-use plastics and supporting sustainability-related initiatives. Furthermore, through the multiple linear regression analysis, it was found that the participants aged 26–29 have an increased environmental consciousness compared to the participants aged 18–21, possibly due to increased maturity, life experience, and exposure to sustainability-related information. Originality – This survey adds to the existing literature on environmental education and sustainability by highlighting the importance of environmental education and participation in environmental programs or actions towards increasing environmental consciousness and awareness and building a sustainable society. It underscores the necessity of incorporating structured environmental education within formal curricula and promoting active participation through community-based programs.