Galway Lindsay P, Beery Thomas
Department of Health Sciences, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, ON, Canada.
Faculty for Teacher Training, Man and Biosphere Health Research Group, Kristianstad University, Kristianstad, Sweden.
Front Psychol. 2022 Jun 24;13:920313. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.920313. eCollection 2022.
The mental and emotional dimensions of climate change are increasingly concerning as extreme events become more frequent and severe, ecosystem destruction advances, and people become more aware of climate impacts and injustices. Research on climate emotions has rapidly advanced over the last decade with growing evidence illustrating that climate emotions can impact health, shape climate action, and ought to be considered in climate change communication, education, and engagement. This paper explores, describes, and discusses climate emotions in the context of Canada's Provincial North: a vast region characterized by a vulnerability to climate change, remoteness, political marginalization, diverse Indigenous populations, and economies/livelihoods tied to resource extraction. Using postal survey data collected in two Provincial North communities (Thunder Bay, Ontario, and Prince George, British Columbia; = 627), we aim to (1) describe climate emotions experienced in the context of Canada's Provincial North, including relationships among specific emotions; and (2) examine if socio-demographic variables (gender, age, and parenthood) show a relationship with climate emotions. Results show high levels of emotional response to climate change overall, with worry and frustration as those emotions reported by the highest percentage of participants. We also find significant difference in climate emotions between men and women. A methodological result was noted in the usefulness of the Climate Emotion Scale (CES), which showed high reliability and high inter-item correlation. A notable limitation of our data is its' underrepresentation of Indigenous peoples. The findings contribute to a greater understanding of climate emotions with relevance to similar settings characterized by marginalization, vulnerability to climate change, urban islands within vast rural and remote landscapes, and economies and social identities tied to resource extraction. We discuss our findings in relation to the literature and outline future research directions and implications.
随着极端事件愈发频繁和严重、生态系统破坏加剧，且人们愈发意识到气候影响和不公现象，气候变化在心理和情感层面愈发令人担忧。在过去十年里，气候情感研究迅速发展，越来越多的证据表明，气候情感会影响健康、塑造气候行动，并且在气候变化的沟通、教育和参与中应予以考虑。本文在加拿大北部省份的背景下探讨、描述并讨论气候情感：这是一个广大的地区，其特点是易受气候变化影响、地处偏远、政治边缘化、有多样化的原住民人口，以及经济/生计与资源开采相关。利用在两个北部省份社区（安大略省的桑德贝和不列颠哥伦比亚省的乔治王子城；n = 627）收集的邮政调查数据，我们旨在：（1）描述在加拿大北部省份背景下所体验到的气候情感，包括特定情感之间的关系；（2）研究社会人口统计学变量（性别、年龄和是否有子女）是否与气候情感存在关联。结果显示，总体上对气候变化的情感反应程度较高，担忧和沮丧是参与者报告比例最高的情绪。我们还发现男性和女性在气候情感方面存在显著差异。注意到一个方法学上的结果，即气候情感量表（CES）很有用，显示出高信度和高项目间相关性。我们数据的一个显著局限是原住民代表性不足。这些发现有助于更深入理解与类似环境相关的气候情感，这些环境的特点是边缘化、易受气候变化影响、处于广大农村和偏远地区的城市孤岛，以及经济和社会身份与资源开采相关。我们结合文献讨论了我们的发现，并概述了未来的研究方向和意义。
