Investigating similarities and differences in individual reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis

Abstract

How can individuals’ responses to the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic be used to inform constructive responses for climate action? We present an exploratory, mixed-methods investigation ( N = 1784 US adults) into similarities and differences in individuals’ reactions to COVID-19 and climate change in June 2020. Participants identified many similarities between the issues, indicating that both are harmful to public health, politically polarizing, have global impacts, and have solutions. Participants also perceived many differences between the two threats: many perceived COVID-19 as medical, natural, and on a shorter timescale, while many perceived climate change as environmental, human caused, and on a longer timescale. Emotional reactions to each topic predict topic-relevant behaviors, but more strongly, and with a broader range of emotional reactions, for climate change than COVID-19. Open-ended responses show that hope was elicited for both issues in response to contemplating taking collective and individual actions, and despair was elicited for both issues in response to perceiving that others do not take the issues seriously. Finally, participants perceived that they were engaging in relatively more COVID-19 mitigation behaviors and some climate change mitigation behaviors than others (i.e., the “better-than-average” effect). Many participants believed others were relatively unconcerned about both threats because of the invisibility of the threats, ignorance, and elite cues (e.g., then-President Trump downplaying the threat). Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10584-021-03143-8.

Has the COVID-19 pandemic strengthened confidence in managing the climate crisis? Transfer of efficacy beliefs after experiencing lockdowns in Switzerland and Austria

“…Realizing both COVID-19 and climate as pressing crises that call for extensive collaborative efforts increases climate-related self-efficacy, a positive outlook of feeling hopeful and motivated, and, most pronounced, participatory efficacy. This resonates with previous research that perceiving the climate crisis an urgent and important issue increases self-efficacy (Tabernero and Hernández, 2011 ) and that the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis are perceived as similar threats (Bostrom et al, 2020 ; Geiger et al, 2021b ). Consistent with a potential awareness-raising function of similarity of threat, we do not find any significant influence of similarity of action on efficacy beliefs: Similarity of action refers to short-term and governmental intervention and so does not highlight the role oneself could or should play.…”

“…The climate crisis is considered to be better understood, however, and people think that they can contribute more to mitigating the COVID-19 crisis, and feel a greater moral responsibility to do so, compared to the climate crisis. In Geiger et al ( 2021b ), U.S. citizens report more perceived similarities between the two crises than perceived differences. Emotional evaluation of the crises had greater explanatory power for crisis-related behaviors in the case of the climate crisis than in the case of the COVID-19 crisis; however, both studies remain at a descriptive level and do not investigate possible transfer processes between the two crises.…”

Losses, hopes, and expectations for sustainable futures after COVID

“…This could highlight how reflecting on our response to one challenge can inform our response to the other; for example, the costs of delaying action can far outweigh the costs of early intervention in both cases (Manzanedo & Manning, 2020). This discourse should also center on our ability to act, both individually and collectively, which can feed into feelings of hope that can fuel action (Geiger et al, 2021;Ojala, 2012). The pandemic has shown that broad support for inconvenient measures can be achieved if the measures are seen as effective in mitigating an imminent threat (Kallbekken & Saelen, 2021).…”

Public expectations about the impact of COVID-19 on climate action by citizens and government

“…This suggests that policy makers could exploit this perceived link between the two problems to promote public support of climate policies and introduce stricter measures for climate change mitigation (see also [ 38 ]). It should be noted, however, that people also perceive various differences between climate change and the pandemic [ 39 ]. Incidentally, one of our topics (1T2) further suggests that some people see no connection between the pandemic and climate action.…”