Green-Tinted Glasses: How Do Pro-Environmental Citizens Conceptualize Environmental Sustainability?

Abstract

Recent research has shown that many Australians see pro-environmental behaviour as desirable, and identify as being green. However when compared to other countries, Australians score poorly on pro-environmental behaviour measures, engaging mostly in tokenistic pro-environmental actions, and demonstrate low levels of concern for the environment. In this article we examine this tension through exploring the meaning of the term sustainability to Australian participants who self-identify as pro-environmental. Twentysix interviews were conducted and analysed using Causal Layered Analysis. Through the examination of participants' environmental discourse and practices, some of the deeper sociopsychological processes influencing pro-environmental behaviour are revealed. While participants aspired to be green, their actions were bound by cultural traditions and worldviews that perpetuate environmental degradation. Participants struggled to define the term sustainability and held self-enhancing motives for adopting what they identify as a proenvironmental identity. These findings highlight the influence of collective cultural constructs in shaping how pro-environmental behaviours are understood and enacted.

The influence of moral disengagement on responses to climate change

“…Invectives aimed at the high-profile environmental activist Greta Thunberg from various sections of the commentariat serves as a recent example (Warren, 2019). Such derogation, in turn, increases the social stigma of these groups and their activities (Stuart, Thomas, & Donaghue, 2018;Uren, Dzidic, Roberts, Leviston, & Bishop, 2019). Ultimately, it may lead to blaming vulnerable communities such as climate refugees for their own predicament, or to dehumanising the most vulnerable groups (Baldwin, 2017).…”

“Journeys towards a green lifestyle”: Metaphors in green living blogs

“…Milne and colleagues (2006) have criticised such use of Journey metaphors as strategically suitable for businesses -allowing them to present a positive image of being responsible (by attempting difficult tasks) and of being perpetually successful (in the absence of a defined "destination" against which to measure success, the simple act of "moving" is success). The Journey metaphor has also been used by proenvironmental citizens to conceptualize their actions towards an environmentally sustainable lifestyle and to express frustration that they will never "arrive at a point" of full sustainability (Uren et al, 2019).…”

“…The latter has been employed to emphasize the difficulty of the journey -"sustainability is a jagged trail" and to de-emphasize the importance of the destination -"sustainability is not a destination" (Milne et al, 2006). The Journey metaphor has also been used by proenvironmental citizens to conceptualize their actions towards an environmentally sustainable lifestyle and to express frustration that they will never "arrive at a point" where they are fully sustainable (Uren et al, 2019).…”

“…This important role of metaphors to "translate" new, complex, vague issues into more familiar, simpler, more concrete ones has been already recognised in the context of sustainable living: (a) there is a longstanding theoretical and experimental scholarship seeking to uncover "metaphors [to] survive by" (e.g. Karlsson, 2015;Larson, 2011;Meijers et al, 2018;Norgaard, 1995); and (b) researchers have started analysing metaphor use within business and educational sustainability discourses and within the discourse of proenvironmental citizens, identifying Journey 3 and Limit metaphors as particularly common (Carew & Mitchell, 2006;Milne et al, 2006;Uren et al, 2019). This paper advances research on metaphors and sustainability by exploring the understudied area of how sustainable living 4 is metaphorically presented on top personal green living blogs authored by ordinary individuals.…”

A Theory of Predictive Dissonance: Predictive Processing Presents a New Take on Cognitive Dissonance

“…CD is arguably one of the more relevant cognitive phenomena in understanding the roots of the global ecological crisis. This is due to the apparently prominent role that CD plays in the so-called attitude–action gap in environmental psychology (see Kollmuss and Agyeman, 2002; Kaaronen, 2017; Uren et al, 2018) as well as climate denialism and other ecological “denialisms” (Lorenzoni et al, 2007). Here, it seems, dissonance arising between generative models and sensory input (e.g., dissonance between attitudes and action) is explained away by mechanisms such as delegation of responsibility, distancing, apathy, denial, and active avoidance of contradictory information (Stoll-Kleemann et al, 2001; Kollmuss and Agyeman, 2002).…”