Abstract
Abstract
Island nations are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, including changes in sea level, storms, coastal erosion, and freshwater availability. The purpose of this cross-cultural study is to understand how emotional responses to climate change are inequitably distributed across people living in island nations with varying climate change vulnerability. We consider how emotional responses (particularly sadness, worry, anger, happiness, and hope) may be related to people's biophysical vulnerability, adaptive capacity, and likelihood of relocation in the face of climate change. Using data from 272 ethnographic interviews collected in local communities in Fiji, Cyprus, New Zealand, and England, we explore the emotional reactions of respondents to current and future effects of climate change. Our results demonstrate that respondents in island nations with greater biophysical vulnerability are more likely to be concerned about relocation as a result of climate change, and they are also more likely to indicate their sadness or anger. Countries with higher adaptive capacity and lower biophysical vulnerability are more likely to suggest that, though they are sad about the effects of climate change, they feel neutral about its overall effect. This research demonstrates how focusing on emotional responses within communities affected by climate change brings important and under-explored dimensions of climate-related environmental injustice into sharp relief.
Introduction
A
Environmental injustice and emotion: new challenges
Although environmental justice research has historically focused on the way that hazards and vulnerability are inequitably distributed among communities, 3 recent scholarship has begun to focus on the ways that climate change inequitably impacts communities. As the Johannesburg Declaration 4 demonstrates, less developed countries are more likely to experience the harmful effects of climate change. Although emotional vulnerabilities have not emerged as a focus of environmental justice research, early studies suggest that proximity to contaminated landscapes leads to fear, worry, and other strong emotional responses among affected groups. 5
Beyond environmental justice scholarship, anthropological studies show that negative emotional responses can result from inequitable distribution of resources within developing countries. For example, Wutich and Ragsdale 6 demonstrated that inequitable access to drinking water often resulted in frustration, worry, anger, and concern for vulnerable Bolivian community members. Similarly, Sultana 7 argues that inequitable access to drinking water among Bangladeshi communities results in high levels of anxiety and frustration for community members.
Drawing from these studies, we propose that emotions have a key, and arguably underexplored, role to play in environmental justice research. First, emotions are central to how people experience, understand, and, subsequently, manage their environments. 8 Second, emotions are crucial for mobilizing protest and other forms of political response to environmental injustice. 9 Third, disadvantaged groups disproportionally suffer from anxiety and depression related to environmental injustices and this is a serious health disparity, a point that public health experts are starting to take seriously. 10
Climate change: biophysical and social (in)justice
Although there has been extensive exploration of environmental justice issues in the United States, international environmental justice issues are often couched in the context of vulnerability and hazards, rather than justice. In the context of climate change, there are very tangible justice issues at stake. As Adger and colleagues 11 demonstrate, the anticipated effects of climate change inequitably impact local communities' infrastructure, health outcomes, and emotional distress. In addition, environmental ethicists 12 have argued that less developed countries are less at fault for the accumulation of greenhouse gases that has led to climate change, but are more likely to be affected by the outcomes of climate change.
As the Johannesburg Declaration 13 argued, the evident effects of climate change are more threatening to less developed countries, which are likely to be more socially and biophysically exposed and sensitive, while often lacking in adaptive capacity to the effects of climate change. 14 Without critical infrastructure, or the financial and social networks necessary to handle extreme events, less developed countries are more likely to experience the extreme effects of climate change and to be less able to respond. Indeed, for some countries, this is already leading to drastic changes; Pacific island nations are already looking at the possibility of relocation, since mitigation and adaptation are not options to deal with sea-level rise.15,16 Meanwhile, more developed countries have the financial means and the legal and social infrastructure to begin preparing for the effects of climate change.
Methods
To understand the way that climate change produces inequitable emotional distress, we compare community-based sites in four island nations (Fiji, Cyprus, New Zealand, and England). The IPCC 17 estimates that island nations are uniquely exposed to the effects of climate change; rising sea levels, coastal erosion, and increasing frequency of coastal storms, along with changes in temperature and precipitation, are all likely outcomes for island nations. In addition, many island nations, particularly those that are less developed, have less adaptive capacity to handle these changes. The four sites in this study range on a spectrum of exposure and adaptive capacity (Fig. 1).
Respondents were asked a series of open-ended interview questions regarding how climate change had already changed their local community, how it was changing livelihood patterns in the area, and how they expected that climate change would affect the younger generation. For each theme (current changes, livelihood changes, and changes for the younger generation), respondents were asked how they felt when they thought about the way that climate change was affecting this dimension of their lives. Interviews were autocoded in MAXQDA for emotion words. The data were dichotomized in SPSS such that if a respondent used an emotion word multiple times in the interview, the entire interview was coded as present or absent for that word (resulting in each interview having a 0/1 count for each emotion word).
The respondents in a coastal village in Viti Levu, Fiji, are the most comparatively exposed and sensitive to the effects of climate change, including sea-level rise and coastal erosion based on physical location and economic circumstances. Because they reside in a small village in a less developed country, they also do not have resilient physical infrastructure. Respondents in Nicosia, Cyprus, have a greater level of adaptive capacity as a result of living in the capital city, but they are also very exposed to the effects of climate change, including reduced freshwater access. Respondents in Wellington, New Zealand, not only have a high adaptive capacity as a developed, water-rich city but also experience a high level of sensitivity to the effects of coastal erosion and rising sea levels as a coastal city. Respondents in London face a different set of exposures than respondents in the other three sites. As a water-rich environment and financial center set back from the coast, England has the highest adaptive capacity; however, due to its location on the Thames, London is sensitive to flooding risk. In addition, the city may become a destination for climate refugees due to its temperate climate and robust economy.
In each site, we conducted ethnographic interviews addressing climate change and emotion with a purposive sample of 272 respondents. We conducted text analysis of the interview texts, focusing on positive and negative emotion words 18 (Table 1, Fig. 1).
Interviews were coded for emotion words based on lists of previously identified emotion words (based on Ryan and Weisner, 18 Seale et al. 2006, Saldaña 2009, Taylor et al. 2015).
N/A, not applicable.
Discussion
Sadness and worry were common emotions across the four sites (Fig. 1). Key themes derived from each of the sites related to that concern and worry are described in detail later.
What my ancestors had: happiness and sorrow in a Fijian village
Fijian respondents indicated that they had a great sense of pride in their cultural heritage, and in their continued traditions of fishing and farming even as they increasingly engage in the cash economy. Villagers connect fishing and farming traditions to their community and social histories and identities, and many respondents felt very sad at the possible loss of their livelihood traditions. Fijian respondents identified concerns related to how climate change was affecting their cosmology and cultural traditions, and they frequently indicated that this saddened them (Table 1).
Although Fijian respondents indicated considerable concern at the way climate change was affecting them and their local ecology, they also frequently used the word “happy” (Fig. 1). In most cases, Fijian respondents used this term in a negative way to indicate that they were not happy with changes such as sea-level rise. Some Fijian respondents indicated that the younger generation had already started leaving the village for economic opportunities elsewhere, and that they were happy and reassured that they would continue to have these opportunities in the future. Thus, though there was an abiding sense of sadness at losing heritage and traditions, and the fact that relocation within or beyond the island was becoming a necessity, yet some respondents did indicate that the new economic opportunities that this provided were positive developments (Table 1).
We must be more conscious: anger and frustration in Cyprus
Cyprus is already physically water scarce, and the specter of water shortages is one that concerns many respondents. Although respondents infrequently mentioned relocation as a possible solution to their concerns, they clearly indicated that they were concerned and frustrated with the possible water shortages as a result of climate change (Fig. 1). Cypriot residents often expressed a general sense of anger at the changes; many expressed a sense of helplessness along with their anger, particularly that they could not do anything to forestall the effects of climate change.
Although these respondents, unlike those in Fiji, are not facing the imminent threat of rising sea levels, they are facing the threat of water scarcity, and they indicated that this was a significant worry and a source of sensitivity for them. They also indicated that they felt sad about the changes to rainfall and other changes to local resources, particularly when it came to food production and the inability to trust in local agriculture (Table 1).
Hope for the younger generation: mixed emotions in New Zealand
Respondents from Wellington often indicated that they were worried about the effects of climate change (Fig. 1). Many respondents indicated that they had relatives living overseas, and that they worried about the rise of global disasters as a result of climate change. Respondents also indicated that they felt sad at the thought of changes to their local ecology.
Although respondents in New Zealand expressed these negative emotions, they also said that they had hope, particularly for future generations. Respondents in other sites also said that their source of hope lay in the younger generation, whereas respondents in Wellington regularly indicated that, in spite of the current circumstances, they felt that the younger generation had the knowledge to prevent some of the more dire effects of climate change (Table 1). Perhaps because of its vulnerability coupled with its higher adaptive capacity, the emotional responses from respondents in New Zealand were more mixed, indicating concern as well as optimism.
Change always comes: worry and neutrality in the United Kingdom
Similar to respondents in the other three sites, those in London also indicated their concern and worry for the future. They worried that the younger generation might not have the opportunities and benefits they had when they were young (Table 1). Respondents also expressed worry about the population changes that climate change might bring to London. Several respondents indicated that they were worried about incoming refugees and how that could change their society (Fig. 1).
Many respondents, however, indicated that they felt neutral about the effects of climate change (Fig. 1). Some respondents in all four sites indicated that climate change might not affect them, whereas respondents in London more often expressed that they felt neutral. For some respondents, their neutrality was connected to feeling that they would not be impacted by climate change; others used neutrality to suggest that they could not control whether the climate changed or not, and therefore they were not going to get upset about it. Of the four sites, the United Kingdom has the lowest vulnerability to the effects of climate change and the highest adaptive capacity; because of this relative security in the face of climate change, it is not surprising that a number of respondents feel neutral about the outcomes of climate change.
Conclusion
Using ethnographic interview data to elicit data on emotional responses to climate change across four island nations indicates that worry is a consistent theme for most respondents. Our analysis illustrates that emotions are central to people's understanding, management, and knowledge of their environment in the face of climate change. Our research also demonstrates that climatically disadvantaged groups are disproportionately likely to experience emotional distress as a result of environmental injustice. 19 Of all the groups, the Fijians—most immediately physically and economically vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and most emotionally connected to the specific place in which they currently live—are the most emotionally distressed. For London respondents, who have the highest adaptive capacity and the lowest vulnerability, neutrality is a common expression. They may not be directly impacted by climate change; therefore, they experience less emotional distress and are more likely to have positive mental health outcomes. For respondents in Fiji and Cyprus, in particular, the changes to the local ecology, their livelihoods, and their connection to the land are already resulting in clear emotional distress. Given that emotional distress may be associated with poor mental health outcomes, 20 our findings are part of a growing body of research that suggests that the public health community should address the interaction between environmental injustice and emotional well-being.
This research demonstrates the potential value of bringing more emotional analysis into environmental justice scholarship, in general, and in understanding how emotional vulnerabilities to climate change patterns inequitably. Our results suggest that emotions could play a role in mobilizing political responses to environmental injustice. 21 For Cypriot residents, their anger and frustration at the thought of water shortages may be the catalyst for change and solutions. As several respondents indicated, they have to get used to these changes; they are also clear, however, that they are not resigned to using less water. For them, climate change and their frustration as a result of changing resource access may be a motivating factor that provokes change and prevents further injustice in their community. The hope expressed by the respondents in New Zealand may also be a galvanizing force, as they put their energy into ensuring that the younger generation can mitigate the effects of climate change. Figuring out how to understand and harness these emotional responses to assist with climate change mitigation is suggested as the next important step.
Footnotes
Acknowledgments
This research was conducted as part of the Global Ethnohydrology Study, a multiyear, multisite study designed to examine water norms and knowledge cross-culturally. The authors thank their research collaborators, interviewers, and participants in each site for their contributions to the study.
Funding
This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. SES-0951366, DMUU: Decision Center for a Desert City II: Urban Climate Adaptation; and Grant No. SES-1462086, DMUU: DCDC III: Transformational Solutions for Urban Water Sustainability Transitions in the Colorado River Basin. Additional support was provided by NSF grant BCS-1026865: Central-Arizona Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Author Disclosure Statement
No competing financial interests exist.