Religion Does Matter for Climate Change Attitudes and Behavior
August
Religion Does Matter for Climate Change Attitudes and Behavior
Mark Morrison 0 1
Roderick Duncan 0 1
Kevin Parton 0 1
0 1 School of Management and Marketing, Charles Sturt University , Bathurst, New South Wales , Australia , 2 Institute for Land, Water and Society, Charles Sturt University , Bathurst, New South Wales , Australia , 3 School of Accounting and Finance, Charles Sturt University , Bathurst, New South Wales , Australia
1 Editor: Kristie L Ebi, University of Washington, UNITED STATES
Little research has focused on the relationship between religion and climate change attitudes and behavior. Further, while there have been some studies examining the relationship between environmental attitudes and religion, most are focused on Christian denominations and secularism, and few have examined other religions such as Buddhism. Using an online survey of 1,927 Australians we examined links between membership of four religious groupings (Buddhists, Christian literalists and non-literalists, and Secularists) and climate change attitudes and behaviors. Differences were found across religious groups in terms of their belief in: (a) human induced climate change, (b) the level of consensus among scientists, (c) their own efficacy, and (d) the need for policy responses. We show, using ordinal regression, that religion explains these differences even after taking into account socio-demographic factors, knowledge and environmental attitude, including belief in man's dominion over nature. Differences in attitude and behavior between these religious groups suggest the importance of engaging denominations to encourage change in attitudes and behavior among their members.
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Competing Interests: The authors have declared
that no competing interests exist.
Views on climate change and policy relating to climate change in the Australian population are
extremely diverse [1]. In forming their views, people are influenced by many factors, including
both situational variables and their own socio-economic and socio-political status [2]. In this
paper we focus on religious affiliation as a potential determinant of attitudes to climate change
and climate change policy.
Research conducted, principally in the United States (US) and Europe, has indicated that
religious affiliation is a key factor to take into account in developing climate change policy and
designing messages about policy [3]. Based on an examination of teachings of nine major
religions, covering issues such as other-person centeredness and environmental stewardship,
Posas [4] argued strongly that religions from Bahá’í to Buddhism and from Islam to
Christianity should be able to influence their members to bring an ethical dimension which is
sympathetic to climate change policy. White [5] contended that there is a link between a
Judeo-Christian perspective and a desire for dominion over nature, and that it was this
dominion attitude which explained the scale of environmental destruction in the modern world. This
dominion perspective has its basis in Genesis 1:26, ‘Then God said, “Let us make mankind in
our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the
sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the
ground”‘. In the US, a number of studies have revealed that this perspective manifests itself in a
conservative Christianity effect, under which those who have a strong literal interpretation of
the bible have a lower concern about the environment and a stronger belief in their own
efficacy in controlling outcomes (e.g. [6, 7]). This effect has a considerable influence when
measuring the overall level of denial of climate change and the perceived need for policy. While clearly
embedded in this discussion are the theological positions of the major religions, our focus
throughout this paper is on climate change attitudes and behavior of those claiming affiliation
with particular religious groups.
The literature also reveals that there are important differences between countries in the
influence that religious affiliation has on ways of looking at climate change issues [8]. This fact
points to a need to consider the religious issues within a particular country context. There has
been little attention given to these issues in Australia, and consequently one objective of the
current paper is to examine how religious make-up affects attitudes and behavior in relation to
climate change and climate change policy. Moreover, there are important features of the
Australian situation that suggest that it is a country worthy of study. Dramatic societal change will
be required there to achieve substantial carbon emission reductions. Although it is only a
moderate carbon emitter in aggregate terms (ranked 17th in the world), in per capita terms it is the
world’s second highest emitter [9]. Also it is particularly dependent on the coal economy and
will require considerable structural ch (...truncated)