Introduction
Climate change is a complex process that involves significant alterations in weather. The climate changes happen constantly throughout the history of mankind. However, due to the increased human activity of extracting oil, gas, and coal and burning these resources, a large amount of carbon began to enter the earth’s atmosphere. This gas increases the heating of the earth’s atmosphere as it captures the sun’s rays. As a result, the average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere rises, which leads to climate changes, such as melting glaciers, summer heatwaves, and forest fires, a rise in the level of the world ocean that leads to flooding of coastal areas, hurricanes, and tsunamis (“Climate change,” 2022). This paper aims to discuss the historical background and social values underlying the social movement of climate change.
Rising temperatures in certain parts of the ocean affect ecosystems, leading to their extinction, while fires, floods, and temperature fluctuations also pose a serious threat. Climate change became a topic of concern during the late 1990s when scholars noticed that the median temperature began to rise more intensively. In the 2000s the topic became more widespread when scholars presented dramatic forecasts which gradually began to come true.
Historical Background
Recently, experts began to share an interesting opinion – that the climate change movement was built for a world before climate change. Hence, experts assert that the time for a new approach has come (Fenton, 2022). Nowadays, the mass climate change movement needs to “deal with climate disasters by training people to both protect and mobilize their communities” (Fenton, 2022, para. 1). Since stopping climate change is hardly possible, governments and other stakeholders should become more involved. Earlier, the climate change movement was stimulated by the need for social change and the realization of human rights for safe living. It was also based on socialist ideas regarding equal opportunities for all people.
Economic
Regarding the economic aspect of climate change, the potential economic losses mainly stimulated the movement. First, due to heatwaves and potential devastation caused by hurricanes in Europe and the US, cultivating crops was predicted to become a more difficult task for farmers. Other stakeholders who knew they would suffer economic losses were the households in coastal areas of big cities like New York, London, and Amsterdam. No less importantly, the demand for energy increases due to the less reliable power generation, and potential stresses to the water supply were considered (Cho, 2019). The impaired global logistics due to climate change was another concern.
Political Events Leading to the Movement of Climate Change
The global emphasis shifted in 1997 after the first Kyoto Conference on climate change. It was recognized to be “a scientific issue that impacts powerful political and economic interests” (Murray, 2021, para. 8). The aspect of politicization was the need to refuse from using fossil fuels, introduce more green energy solutions, and develop a new approach for life in the community. In the US the concept was dramatically politicized with Democrats agitating for taking steps to stop climate change and Republicans insisting that the whole matter is overestimated. Murray (2021) says that in 2020 “Pew Research Center found that while 72 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning Americans say human activity is driving climate change, only 22 percent of Republicans and Republican leaders agreed” (para. 12). The Presidential and Congress elections in the US were usually accompanied by the increased interest in the issue of climate change in the 2010s. Today, the climate change movement is becoming less politicized and focuses more on scientific and social aspects.
Social Values Underlying the Movement
Achievement
Since there is a need for transforming the general approach to the issue, particular social values can be emphasized for this purpose. First, the social value of achievement is introduced through numerous official conferences, like the upcoming UN-led events – UN Climate Change Conference (COP 27) where the solutions and innovations for Africa will be discussed, Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15), and UN 2023 Water Conference (“Climate events,” 2022). Numerous public gatherings and rallies also add a sense of achievement when youth and other activists are involved as volunteers. International holidays, such as Earth Day when the whole world turns off electronic devices for an hour, days dedicated to planting trees to preserve forests or strengthen coastlines, or cleaning.
Work Ethic
The climate change movement also impacted the work ethic in many offices. First, entrepreneurs began to use architectural solutions aimed at saving electricity – such as ventilation systems, planning buildings with maximum use of daylight, and the use of special LED lamps. Some companies conduct training for employees on conscious consumption, including the implementation of energy-optimal solutions at work and home. Equally important, manufacturers increasingly include environmental protection initiatives in their corporate social responsibility (CSR) departments.
Public Morality
The issue also has an impact on public morality, specifically on its moral values. The experts note that compassion and fairness are two values that have the highest impact on the willingness to make personal choices (Gashler, 2018). Other public moral values of in-group loyalty and authority were not associated with the willingness to act. The supporters of the climate change movement have a higher motivation to act by the positive moral qualities listed above. Therefore, in general, the climate change movement positively impacts public morality.
Humanitarian Concerns
The public morality aspect is supported through various campaigns that are covered in the media, and such public discussions often involve humanitarian concerns. Climate change tends to impact the agricultural sector and threaten access to drinking water in some regions (“The humanitarian impacts of climate change,” 2018). No less importantly, the hurricanes destroy houses, making thousands of people homeless. The UN reports that “food shortages, fires, floods, and droughts” will endanger even more lives of people during the following 12 years (“The humanitarian impacts of climate change,” 2018). There is also the concept of climate-related poverty in developing countries.
Social Control
The climate change issue is closely related to social control, as social problems evolve along with rising temperatures. The control can be provided in various forms that impact the social protection practices, such as housing insurance. In general, climate change practices are aimed to ensure social equality, and social justice, not only in terms of safety and food security but also in other aspects of decent living. For instance, the practices that discipline the citizens in water, food, and energy consumption include investments in related scientific developments. At the same time, waste sorting and recycling practices are introduced to ensure sustainability and reduce the negative impacts of gathering plastic waste in landfills.
Individualism
Interestingly, the climate change movement has an inherent social value of individualism, as it motivates people to be more aware of individual consumption. Scholars admit that consumption reduction policies aimed at individual choices are usually more effective than campaigns that appeal to groups of citizens (Brownstein et al., 2022). Therefore, the climate change movement always involves the appeal to individualism and is better recognized in individualistic cultures such as the US and European countries, compared to collectivistic cultures like China.
Racism and Group Superiority
The issues of racism are not inherent in the climate change and environmental protection movements. However, the countries in subtropical regions are more vulnerable to tsunamis and hurricanes, which leads to forced relocation to safer locations. Scientists note that “a race-conscious analysis of climate change and climate displacement can reveal the commonalities among seemingly distinct forms of oppression to forge the alliances necessary to achieve just and emancipatory outcomes” (Gonzalez, 2020). In other words, people of other races do not always receive new decent living conditions in return for their homes destroyed by climate-related catastrophic events.
Belief in Progress
There is a great belief in progress inherent in Western cultures, which began to thrive thanks to the rising impact of manufacturing on the living in these societies. Scholars note that there are “three promising areas of research that can inform efforts to answer the question of how to generate enduring change — deep engagement, general mental models, and social norms — and propose a research agenda aimed at generating enduring motivation to act on climate change” (Goldberg et al., 2020). No, less importantly, the belief in progress is reflected in numerous scientific discoveries aimed at stopping climate change.
Nationalism
The climate change movement is closely related to the ideas of social equality. In the US, the climate change movement has obtained the characteristics of nationalism through the spread of right-wing populism. Fiorino (2022) says that growing political polarization is cost by such populist agenda, “, especially on climate and the environment, and a sorting of long-standing worldviews along party lines, leading to the election of a president with a nationalist, backward-looking agenda” (p. 801). In other words, the issues of nationalism can be raised by the state governments as a tool for gaining attention to political parties and individuals, but generally do not entail genuine national messages.
Equality
Social equality is among the central concepts of the climate change movement. This movement appeared because of increased attention to the people’s social rights after WWII, during the 1990s and 2000s. Social equality is inherent in most social values listed above, including the sense of achievement, work ethic, public morality, humanitarian concerns, social control, individualism, and belief in progress. Social equality is also a separate important value used as a motivational appeal in climate change campaigns.
External Conformity
During the development of the climate change movement, a lot of social welfare issues were introduced into environmental protection campaigns. These social welfare issues are often concerned with external conformity, such as the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as required by the Kyoto Protocol. The UN, nature, and wildlife protection organizations pay close attention to the steps taken by various communities to reduce the consequences of global warming.
Conclusion
Thus, the historical background and social values underlying the social movement against climate change were discussed. The climate change movement appeared when scientists began to observe the first significant changes in the earth’s climate caused by greenhouse gas emissions and other human activities. The movement became a symbol of the 2000s and 2010s and made an input into the social values of global social equality. As a result of the climate change movement, a greater emphasis was put on the economic aspects of the issue and more people began to make individual efforts to decrease the pace of climate change.
References
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