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    Do climate anxiety and pro-environmental behaviour affect one another? : a longitudinal investigation : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the qualification of Doctor of Clinical Psychology at Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2024) McLean, Tamara Alice
    Anthropogenic climate change poses a serious threat to psychological wellbeing. One particular negative emotional response gaining scholarly attention is climate anxiety: anxious feelings arising from climate change, even among people not yet personally impacted by this global environmental crisis. Research suggests that climate anxiety might be implicated in pro-environmental behaviour. Specifically, climate anxiety may motivate individuals to act in ways that, if widely adopted, could mitigate the damage caused by climate change. Furthermore, there is a common assumption that these sustainable behaviours will alleviate climate anxiety, creating a mutually beneficial cycle where pro-climate actions increase and distressing anxiety is eased. However, these ideas are not well supported by empirical and theoretical evidence. This study aimed to test the hypotheses that 1) climate anxiety causes pro-environmental behaviour to increase over time, and 2) pro-environmental behaviour causes climate anxiety to decrease over time. A sample of 700 Australian and New Zealand adults was recruited via the online research platform Prolific and surveyed monthly on five occasions. Data were analysed using a random intercept cross-lagged panel model, which controlled for stable, between-person differences while focusing on dynamic within-person changes over time. The study found no evidence of a causal relationship between climate anxiety and pro-environmental behaviour. Higher levels of climate anxiety at one wave were not significantly associated with higher levels of pro-environmental behaviour at the following wave, and higher levels of pro-environmental behaviour at one wave were not significantly associated with lower levels of climate anxiety at the next wave. Furthermore, levels of climate anxiety were very low across the sample, indicating that climate anxiety, experienced at a level that causes clinically significant emotional and cognitive impairment, is relatively rare. These findings suggest that climate anxiety is unlikely to have the helpful side effect of increasing an individual’s engagement in pro-environmental behaviour, but neither will it deter a person from taking action. Moreover, taking action is unlikely to reduce climate anxiety. Further scholarship is needed to investigate climate anxiety and its complex relationship with pro-environmental behaviour.
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    "Values that are to be safeguarded" : meeting the challenge of improving the health of waterways on agricultural land : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Ecology at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2019) Prickett, Miriama Rebecca
    Aotearoa New Zealand’s waterways are valued for many reasons. However, nationally, their health has been declining. Animal agriculture is a significant contributor to this decline. The country’s largest farm, Molesworth Station, is managed to safeguard its cultural, conservation, recreation, historical and farming values. For this reason, managers of the station’s farming operation sought information on possible impacts of current animal agriculture on the habitat and water quality of Molesworth’s streams and rivers, and recommendations on monitoring and improving the health of its waterways over time. This thesis found the health of streams and rivers on Molesworth to be good. It provides recommendations on monitoring and management, including areas where action could be taken to address the likely impacts of fine deposited sediment on waterways. Given both the scale of Aotearoa New Zealand’s animal agriculture, and its impact on freshwater quality and habitat, improving the health of waterways will require an increase in pro-environmental behaviour from farmers and will need to be sustained. This thesis also looks beyond Molesworth Station to investigate the influence of basic human values on pro- environmental behaviour in Aotearoa New Zealand’s agricultural sector. It suggests that prioritisation and priming of certain basic human values are likely to suppress pro- environmental behaviour and posits that targeted values-sensitive communication could play a role in encouraging and increasing pro-environmental behaviour to meet the challenge of improving the health of waterways on agricultural land.
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    Living with tension : pursuing ecological practice in an Aotearoa/New Zealand eco-village : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Social Anthropology at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2017) Williams, Fraser
    This research explores the experiences of an eco-village in Aotearoa/New Zealand, called Whakatipu, as they pursued ecologically ethical lifestyles. I stayed in Whakatipu and undertook participant observation for a month, working alongside residents, and interviewed eighteen of the thirty-eight people who live there. I use Bourdieu’s theory of practice to analyse how eco-villagers pursued their ideals in practice, with the aim of ascertaining whether elements of their experience could help others, such as myself, pursue ecological living. A key concept from Bourdieu’s framework is habitus, which helps to describe the naturalized, strategic way-of-being in the world that eco-villagers had developed. My findings illustrate that despite having strong motivations for ecological living, and the economic capacity to embark on this project, eco-villagers were unable to achieve many of their ideals. A common statement was ‘sustainability is not possible.’ All eco-villagers faced challenges to their ability to achieve an ecological lifestyle, and had to make compromises. Different people made different compromises, which contributed to conflict. Such challenges existed, in part, because the societal context that Whakatipu was embedded in was characterized by a consumer-capitalist ideology that eco-villagers simultaneously rejected, but remained reliant on. Rather than considering themselves to have failed, eco-villagers developed a habitus that enabled them to move towards their ideal ecological lifestyle, despite their inability to completely achieve this lifestyle. These experiences demonstrate the need for context to be considered in discussing the efforts of individuals to put their values into action. Ecologically ethical living cannot simply be the result of individual action and responsibility. Furthermore, rigid conceptions of ethical ‘success’ or ‘failure’ do not account for the attempts of individuals, with diverse backgrounds and worldviews, to lead better lives in constrained circumstances. Ecologically ethical living at an individual level is not simply a matter of failure or success, but is better understood as efforts that create progress towards an ideal.
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    Environmental activism and the Internet : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Sociology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1999) White, Clem
    Environmentalism is used as a case study to investigate the value of the Internet for activism, protest and social change. The effectiveness of the Internet for helping environmental groups to achieve their goals and the implications of this medium for the future of the environmental movement are explored. An online (Internet) survey of environmental groups who are currently using the Internet was conducted. Two hundred and forty four requests to take part were emailed to environmental groups, eight of which were returned with invalid email addresses. Over the course of a three month period 79 completed surveys were collected, giving a response rate of 33%. Other methods utilised include face-to-face, telephone and email interviews with environmental group representatives, content analysis of Internet sites and the construction of a database of online environmental groups. Secondary data is also drawn upon extensively. This thesis examines the Internet's role in helping environmentalists achieve more with limited resources, network across wide geographic distances and create new forms of collective action. The changing role of other media and the ways in which the Internet may be influencing the dynamics between environmental groups and their opponents are also explored. Difficulties with this mode of communication must also be acknowledged. The concentration of Internet use in already privileged sectors of society may mean that participants in mainstream environmentalism are likely to have access, but it may also mean that the medium holds less promise for emerging ecojustice groups. It is also true that computers and network infrastructures are major causes of environmental harm, so it may appear contradictory to use these to try to protect the environment. This research suggests that the Internet offers a great deal of opportunity for environmental groups, but it also supports elements of contemporary society that many environmentalists oppose - increased consumerism, unfettered globalisation and direct environmental harm by its very existence. Activists should approach the Internet with optimism but not complacency. Those who seek to preserve aspects of the medium that promote community and democracy should endeavour to advance an alternative construction of the medium to that which is prevalent in the mainstream media.