Overview of Working Group 4:

Public Attitudes, Ethical Issues, and Decision Making

Elke U. Weber

Jerome A. Chazen Professor of International BusinessProfessor of Psychology

Director, Center for Research on Environmental Decisions

Purpose of WG4

• To support GROCC participants with social science expertise on– Public attitudes towards climate change (CC)

• CC phenomena• Mitigation and adaptation policies

– Ethical issues raised by CC prospects and mitigating and adaptive actions

– Social decision making processes

WG4 Members

• From social science, policy research, and philosophy/ethics and religious communities– Academic disciplines represented

• Biology, ecology, economics, education, law, philosophy, political science, psychology, and sociology

•

• International representation and expertise– Cultural variation in attitudes and values

• Bios and Contact Information in Meeting Packet

Donald Brown• Current position

– Director, Pennsylvania Consortium for Interdisciplinary Environmental Policy

– Senior Counsel for Sustainable Development, PA Department of Environmental Protection

• Past experience– Project Manager for UN Organizations, US EPA Office of

International Environmental Policy– University instructor of philosophy, environmental law,

sustainable development

• Areas of expertise– Integration of environmental ethics, science, economics, and law

• Selected Publications– American Heat: Ethical Problems with the United States

Response to Global Warming– Author of Buenos Aires Draft Declaration on the Ethical

Dimensions of Climate Change (2004)

Cassandra Carmichael

• Current position– Director, Eco-Justice Program, National Council of Churches

• environmental ministries of 36 member denominations representing 120,000 churches nationwide

• Past experience– Director of faith-based outreach at the Center for a New

American Dream – Environmental consultant, Evangelical Lutheran Church in

America – University instructor in environmental education

• Areas of expertise– environmental ethics– environmental education

Steven A. Cohen• Current position

– Director, MPA Program in Environmental Science and Policy and Executive MPA Program, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University

– Director, Office of Educational Programs, Earth Institute, Columbia University

• Past experience– Vice Dean, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia

University – Policy analyst and consultant, US EPA– US EPA Advisory Council on Environmental Policy and

Technology• Areas of expertise

– Public management innovation, public ethics, and environmental management.

• Selected Publications – Understanding Environmental Policy (forthcoming) – Strategic Planning in Environmental Regulation (2005)

Thomas Dietz• Current position

– Director, Environmental Science and Policy Program, Associate Dean for Environmental Science and Policy, Professor of Sociology and of Crop and Soil Sciences, Michigan State University

– Chair, US NRC Panel on Public Participation on Environmental Assessment and Decision Making

• Past experience– Founding Co-Director, Department of Environmental Science

and Policy, George Mason University – President of the Society for Human Ecology

• Areas of expertise– environmental change– interplay between science and democracy in environmental

issues• Selected Publication

– The Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change (forthcoming, MIT Press).

Bob Edgar• Current position

– General Secretary, National Council of Churches – Issues Director, Eco-Justice Program, National Council of

Churches – Board of Trustees, National Religious Partnership for the

Environment – Board of Directors, Environmental and Energy Study Institute

• principal resource for Congress on environmental and energy

• Past experience– Member of US Congress (1975-1987)

• Author, Community Right to Know provisions of Super Fund legislation

• Chair, Congressional Clearinghouse on the Future

• Areas of expertise– environmental ethics

Christiana Figueres

• Current position– Founder and Director, Center for Sustainable Development in

the Americas (CSDA)

• Past experience– Negotiator, UN Framework Convention for Climate Change and

Kyoto Protocol • promoter of Latin America's participation in the Climate Convention

– Recipient of Hero for the Planet award from National Geographic and the Ford Motor Co.

• Areas of expertise– Policies and financial instruments in the field of sustainable

energy

• Selected Publication– Institutional Capacity to Integrate Economic Development and

Climate Change Considerations (2004, Interamerican Development Bank)

Adela J. Gondek

• Current position– Adjunct Professor of Environmental and Public Affairs, MPA

Program in Environmental Science and Policy, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University

• Past experience– Professor, Department of Political Science, Columbia University – Legislative Aide, Massachusetts Senate

• Areas of expertise– public ethics– environmental ethics

• Selected Publication– The Dialectic of Religion and Politics

Paul G. Harris• Current position

– Associate Professor of Politics and Director, Project on Environmental Change and Foreign Policy, Lingnan University, Hong Kong

– Research Fellow, Centre of Urban Planning and Environmental Management, University of Hong Kong

• Areas of expertise– global environmental politics– environmental foreign policy– international environmental justice

• Selected Publications– Climate Change and American Foreign Policy (St. Martin's

Press)– Global Warming and East Asia (Routledge)– Confronting Environmental Change in East and Southeast Asia

(UN University Press/Earthscan)

Thomas Heyd• Current position

– Professor of Philosophy, University of Victoria, Canada

• Past experience– D.A.A.D. Professor in Environmental Resource Management

and World Heritage Studies, Universität Cottbus, Germany– OAS Fellowships to

• Patagonia, Argentina• Centre for Studies in Religion and Society, University of Victoria• Japan Foundation at Konan University, Kobe• Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University

• Areas of expertise– environmental ethics– environmental aesthetics

• Selected Publication– Environmental Consciousness and Action

Dale Jamieson• Current position

– Professor of Environmental Studies and Philosophy, New York University

– Laurence S. Rockefeller Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching, University Center for Human Values, Princeton

• Past experience– Henry R. Luce Professor in Human Dimensions of Global

Change, Carleton College – Report to US EPA: Cultural Barriers to Behavioral Change:

General Recommendations and Resources for State Pollution Prevention Programs

• Areas of expertise– environmental ethics and philosophy– environmental justice and global change

• Selected Publication– Morality’s Progress: Essays on Humans, Other Animals, and the

Rest of Nature ( Oxford, 2002)– A Companion to Environmental Philosophy (Blackwell, 2001)

Jon Krosnick• Current position

– Frederic O. Glover Professor in Humanities and Social Sciences, Stanford

– Director, Stanford Methods of Analysis Program in the Social Sciences

– Associate Director, Institute for Research in the Social Sciences

• Past experience– Instructor of courses on survey methodology around the world at

universities, corporations, and government agencies– Expert testimony

• Areas of expertise– attitude formation and change– psychology of political behavior– survey research methodology

Anthony Leiserowitz• Current position

– Research Scientist, Decision Research– Adjunct Professor of Environmental Studies, University of

Oregon– Principal Investigator, Center for Research on Environmental

Decisions, Columbia University

• Past experience– Education Coordinator, Aspen Global Change Institute

• Areas of expertise– environmental risk perception– influence of popular representations of risk in society– global sustainability values, attitudes, and behaviors

• Selected Publication– National and international surveys on roles of affect, imagery,

values and worldviews in American climate change risk perceptions, policy preferences and behavior are underway

Robert Pollack• Current position

– Professor of Biological Sciences and Adjunct Professor of Religion, Columbia University

– Director, Center for the Study of Science and Religion, Earth Institute, Columbia University

• Past experience– Dean, Columbia College– Senior Consultant for the Director, Program of Dialogue on

Science, Ethics, and Religion, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

– Advisory Boards• John Templeton Foundation• Program in Religion and Ecology of the Center for the Study of

World Religions, Harvard University

• Areas of expertise– Intersection of science and religion

• Selected Publication– Signs of Life: the Language and Meanings of DNA

Renate Schubert• Current position

– Professor for Economics and Director, Center for Economic Research, Swiss Federal Institute for Technology (ETH), Zürich

– Chair, Scientific Council to the German Government on Global Environmental Changes (WBGU)

– Member, Swiss Federal Economic Policy Commission• Past experience

– Swiss Council for Development and Cooperation • Areas of expertise

– gender differences in risky financial decisions– energy economics and environmental economics– risk analysis

• Selected Publication– Entgelte für die Nutzung globaler Gemeinschaftsgüter –

Sondergutachten des Wissenschaftlichen Beirats der Bundesregierung Globale Umweltveränderungen (WBGU, Berlin 2002)

Paul Slovic

• Current position– President, Decision Research– Professor of Psychology, University of Oregon

• Past experience– President, Society for Risk Analysis

• Areas of expertise– human judgment and decision making– psychological risk dimensions– role of affect in decisions

• Selected Publication– The Perception of Risk (2000, Earthscan)

Elke Weber • Current position

– Jerome A. Chazen Professor of International Business and Professor of Psychology, Columbia University

– Director, Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, Earth Institute and Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy, Columbia University

• Past experience– Member, National Research Council panels on human

dimensions in global change– President

• Society for Mathematical Psychology• Society for Judgment and Decision Making

• Areas of expertise– judgment and decision-making under risk and uncertainty– cultural differences in risk taking– measurement of risk

• Selected Publication– The Drama of the Commons (2002, NRC Press, Co-Editor)

Jonathan Wiener• Current position

– William R. and Thomas L. Perkins Professor of Law, Professor of Environmental Policy, and Professor of Public Policy Studies, Duke University

– Faculty Director, Duke Center for Environmental Solutions

• Past experience– Service in first Bush and Clinton administrations

• Council of Economic Advisers • Office of Science and Technology Policy • Environment Division, Department of Justice

– University Fellow, Resources for the Future

• Areas of expertise– US and international environmental law and risk regulation

• Selected Publication– Reconstructing Climate Policy (AEI Press 2003)

Possible list of WG4 topics• Roundtable members already generated a list of

questions and issues for WG4 elucidation yesterday

– Why is the US public such a consumer society? (How) can we change that?

– How does the public (and its public officials) view climate change? Why don’t they see what climate scientists see? Why don’t they believe the climate scientists the way roundtable members do?

– If the public believes climate change is a risk, why aren’t they willing to act to reduce it or ask their public officials to contain it?

– How can we ensure that we respond to climate change in a way that is consistent with democratic and moral concerns and norms?

What’s different about the Risks Posed by Climate Change?

• Still distant (geographically and in time) for most of us– Statistical (abstract) risk rather than concrete threat– Mismatch in time scale for detection and for defensive action

• Not a linear phenomenon– Feedback loops at multiple levels– Potential for surprises (abrupt changes)

• Global issue that requires a complex response– Complex Criteria

• Technical and economic feasibility• Intergenerational equity concern• International, historical equity concerns• Socioeconomic equity concerns

– Poorest are hit the worst, morally not acceptable– Complex Action Alternatives

• Portfolio of approaches – Both short-term and medium- and long-term actions

Template for Going Forward

• What are the challenges?– WGs: science/social science perspectives– Roundtable members: frontline intelligence

• What do we know about them?– Expert briefs or white papers from one or more WGs

• How can we/should we overcome them?– Roundtable members and WGs

What do we know about public risk perception and response?

• Important role for emotions– Affective reactions focus our (limited) attention and serve as early

warning systems• Evolution prepared us to deal with the type of risks we encountered on the

plains of Africa 10,000 years ago– Immediate personal dangers that required rapid responses: fear or worry– Threats to collective wellbeing and cooperation: guilt or outrage when social

obligations are violated

• Psychological risk dimensions– Identified in 1960s to explain public’s negative reaction to nuclear power

• Immediacy and vividness of threat (degree of dread or worry)• Perceptions of control

• Tendency for simple responses– We do something about those risks that “keep us awake at night”

• When we do, we want to act immediately– Desire for simple (deterministic) information that directs action– Single action bias

Challenges for Public Attitudes and Reactions to Climate Change

• Education needed to appreciate and understand nonlinear effects and their risks– Human mental model of change is linear

• Hard to appreciate even simple nonlinear phenomena like compound interest

• Overcome attitude—behavior gap– Make possible consequences of climate change concrete and

tangible• By personal or vicarious experience

– Jim Hansen’s Common Sense Climate Change Index helps to identify regions where change is visible

• By simulations and analogies– Work on educating the young

• (Consumption) habits are hard to break – “infrastructure” constraints and delays of a mental type

– Integrate climate change risks with other concerns• Air and water pollution, global security and development• Need for multiple outcome dimensions to create integrative

bargaining solutions

Framing of Problem and Solutions• Framing matters at an abstract level

– Are we dealing with an economic, a legal, or a moral problem? • Problem framing affects generation and evaluation of alternatives

– cost/benefit analyses not applicable for problems once they are identified as moral issues (slavery, child labor) (Robert Socolow)

– Are we taking defensive action or looking for creative opportunities?

• Climate change mitigation is not “bad for business” just “different for business”

– Requires thinking “out of the box”– Every dollar spent by some company is a dollar earned by another

company

• Framing matters at a concrete level– Outcomes are evaluated relative to reference points (Prospect

theory)• What is the correct reference point (comparison) to evaluate the

cost of some climate change mitigation?– The cost of no action or the EV of the costs of unmitigated climate

change damage

Moral and Ethical Considerations• Ethical Issues

– Presence of all stakeholders at the table• Who will speak for future generations?• Who will speak for the poor?

– Representatives of religious communities?– Representatives of countries that have large numbers of

vulnerable citizens?» Vulnerable both by exposure and by adaptive resources

• Who will compensate the poor for damages or opportunity costs incurred by them?

– Methods by which action alternatives are generated and evaluated

• Economic tools (cost/benefit analysis, risk-risk analysis, etc.) make unspoken assumptions that need to be examined

– Whose costs, whose benefits?– What to do about time discounting?

Template for Going Forward

• What are the challenges?– WGs: science/social science perspectives– Roundtable members: frontline intelligence

• What do we know about them?– Expert briefs or white papers from one or more WGs

• How can we/should we overcome them?– Roundtable members and WGs

Send questions, comments, requests for WG4 assistance

to

euw2@columbia.edu