Saving the Future by Looking to the Past: Personal Relationships to the Environment
Patrick O’Neill, Sarina Alavi, Pratibha Yadav, Ray Chen, Neiva Teka and Susan Bodnar
Citation: O’Neill, P., Alavi, S., Yadav, P., Chen, R., Teka, N., & Bodnar, S. (2023). Saving the Future by Looking to the Past: Personal Relationships to the Environment. Journal of Ecopsychology, 3, 2, 1-10. https://joe.nationalwellbeingservice.com/volumes/volume-3-2023/volume-3-article-2/
Processing dates: Submitted 22nd June 2022; Resubmitted 27th September 2022; Accepted 3 November 2023; Published: 16th March 2023
Abstract
Background: Humans have a long history of hurting the environment and causing irreparable damage to the planet. This is alarming considering the dependency humans have on environmental resources for survival. Despite this, there is currently no research on the relationship between past and present connections with the environment and future climate-saving actions.
Methods: 163 participants completed a questionnaire about their past and present relationships with nature and their concerns for the future of the environment. 25 participants completed follow-up interviews where they expanded upon their questionnaire answers and talked about their views on climate change.
Results: When asked about the past and present environments, descriptions given by participants were largely positive (n = 500, 66.67%). However, over 90% (n = 73) of descriptions were negative when asked about a potential loss of their valued environments. Results suggested participants held deeply positive feelings about their past and present environments and were concerned about the impending damage to these environments due to climate change.
Discussion/Conclusion: If people care about specific environments, they may be more likely to take climate-saving actions in an effort to preserve those valued environments. Climate-saving actions could include voluntary vasectomies, going vegan, and driving an electric car. Future research should ask participants that have a personal relationship to the environment how likely they are to engage in climate-saving actions.
Keywords: Climate change; nature relationships; climate-saving actions; past/present environments
Biographies
Patrick O’Neill is an MA student, Psychology in Education: General Psychology, Teachers College, Columbia University, 525 West 120th Street, New York, NY 10027, USA
Email: pro2107@tc.columbia.edu
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3679-9590
Sarina Alavi is with the Teachers College, Columbia University, 525 West 120th Street, New York, NY 10027, USA https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7160-0677
Pratibha Yadav is with the Teachers College, Columbia University, 525 West 120th Street, New York, NY 10027, USA https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9769-0033
Ray Chen is with the Teachers College, Columbia University, 525 West 120th Street, New York, NY 10027, USA
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9724-0710
Neiva Teka is with the Teachers College, Columbia University, 525 West 120th Street, New York, NY 10027, USA https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2750-6514