Engaging the Public with Climate Change

Engaging the Public with Climate Change
Behaviour Change and Communication
Edited By Lorraine Whitmarsh, Saffron O'Neill and Irene Lorenzoni with a foreword by Susanne Moser

'How do we break out of the hardened habits of mind and practice which prevent us from addressing climate change - and do so soon? This book is an important contribution to help answer this question. It offers many and encouraging, but no quick and easy answers to help create effective ways of engaging people while we still have hope of steering our journey in a desirable direction.'
Susanne Moser, Independent Scholar, Susanne Moser Research & Consulting

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$84.95
Hardback

November 2010 • 288 pages • 234 x 156mm • ISBN 9781844079285

Despite increasing public awareness of issues around climate change mitigation and adaptation, energy use and other consequent impacts of modern daily lives continue to increase. This book answers the urgent call for effective engagement methods to foster sustainable lifestyles, community action, and social change.

The first part of the book examines how different theoretical perspectives contribute to understanding individual and community engagement in a changing climate. The second part of the book offers case studies and practical guidance on engaging the public with climate change and fostering behaviour change. Written by practitioners and academics from the UK and across the world, these chapters expand upon their underpinning assumptions and methods, examine in detail what works and what doesn't, and reflect on transferable lessons for future engagement approaches.

Showcasing innovative thought and approaches from around the world, this book is essential reading for anyone working to foster real and lasting behavioural and social change.

CONTENTS (Expand Contents)

Foreword
Susanne Moser, Independent Scholar, Susanne Moser Research & Consulting

Introduction: Opportunities and Barriers to Engaging Individuals with Climate Change
Part 1: Theories and Models.

1. Old habits and New Routes to Sustainable Behaviour

2. Carbon Budgets and Carbon Capability: Lessons from Personal Carbon Trading

3. Public Engagement in Climate Action: Policy and Public Expectations

4. Collective Self and Individual Choice: The Role of Social Comparisons in Promoting Public Engagement with Climate Change

5. Dismantling the Consumption-Happiness Myth: A Neuropsychological Perspective on the Mechanisms that Lock us in to Unsustainable Consumption

6. Public Engagement with Climate Adaptation: An Imperative for (and Driver Of) Institutional Reform?

7. Ecological Citizenship as Public Engagement

Part 2: Methods, Media and Tools

8. Engaging People in Saving Energy on a Large Scale: Lessons from the Programmes of the Energy Saving Trust in the UK

9. Keeping Up with the Joneses in the Great British Refurb: The Impacts and Limits of Social Learning in Eco-Renovation

10. Up-Scaling Social Behaviour Change Programmes: The Case of Ecoteams

11. The Role and Effectiveness of Governmental and Non-Governmental Communications in Engaging the Public with Climate Change

12. Communicating Energy Demand: Measurement, Display and the Language of Things

13. The Role of New Media in Engaging the Public with Climate Change

14. Low Carbon Communities: A Grassroots Perspective on Public Engagement

Conclusion: What have we Learnt and where do we go from Here?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

Dr. Lorraine Whitmarsh is a Lecturer in Environmental Psychology at the University of Cardiff and a Visiting Fellow at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.

Dr. Saffron O'Neill is a Research Fellow in Climate Adaptation at the University of Melbourne and a Visiting Fellow at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.

Dr. Irene Lorenzoni is a Lecturer in Environmental Politics and Governance in the School of Environmental Sciences, and member of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, at the University of East Anglia.

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