Climate seminars
The seminars consist of lectures, responses, and questions from the audience. The purpose of the talks is to highlight how psychology can contribute to issues of ecology, environment, and climate.
Here you will find recordings and slides of previous seminars
Previous
Åshild Lappegard Hauge will present and discuss theories about why people prefer natural environments and the effects of nature on us. Furthermore, she will explore biophilic design and showcase examples of how nature can be incorporated into architecture. Lastly, she will reflect on how research and theories on environmental preferences relate to the Architectural Uproar (arkitekturopprøret) and the dissatisfaction people often feel with new architecture.
This seminar is designed to elucidate the essential intersection between academic equity and climate justice, emphasizing the vital contribution of psychological insights in formulating strategies that are not only efficacious but also inclusive and equitable. In the sphere of climate action, academic equity pertains to the equitable allocation of opportunities, resources, and platforms across the domains of education and research related to climate science and environmental studies. The application of psychological principles plays a crucial role in tailoring adaptation and mitigation strategies to climate change, thereby acknowledging and addressing the myriad historical, cultural, economic, and political factors that not only propel climate change but also influence the development of solutions. This approach underscores the complexity of climate action, advocating for a multidimensional strategy that integrates psychological understanding with a broad spectrum of interdisciplinary insights to forge equitable and effective responses to climate change.
His research focuses on the motivations and social processes that predict environmental behaviors such as reducing meat consumption, flying, voting, and protesting. He will talk about public opinion on climate change and recent advances in measuring and conceptualizing pro-environmental behavior. Most previous studies assumed that pro-environmental behavior is a coherent psychological variable, but recent work suggests behaviors are external, diverse, and have different causes. He will also share a resource of free, open datasets and promote the diamond open-access journal Global Environmental Psychology (free for authors and readers).
It is widely acknowledged that climate change has significant implications for species diversity, natural resources, wind patterns, and weather conditions. However, the true extent of climate change's impact on us, as psychologists, and the individuals we assist, remains a pertinent question. In this lecture, we will explore how the climate crisis influences the mental well-being and daily lives of psychologists.
The lecture will be delivered by Tuva Bræin, who serves as the Chair of the Climate Committee within the Norwegian Psychological Association. Tuva holds a professional background as a trained psychologist and has authored a master's thesis and professional articles addressing psychological barriers related to climate change acceptance. Currently, she is employed as a clinical psychologist at the General Psychiatric Section at Søndre Oslo DPS.
Excessive meat consumption in affluent societies is a core global sustainability challenge. But meat consumption patterns prove very difficult to change. In Norway, where meat is a highly contested and polarising topic, increasing shares of the population are onboard with the idea of reducingtheir meat intake. Yet consumption levels do not decrease. In this talk, Arve Hansen discusses why meat consumption patterns in Norway are so stubborn, taking the experiences of active meat reducers as a main starting point. In doing so, he discusses both psychological and socio-material approaches to (changing) meat consumption. The talk draws on findings from the project MEATigation, which among other things has resulted in a special issue on meat and a paper on the Norwegian pølse.
Andrea began her career on sailboats, mountaintops, and swamps, teaching environmental education to school children and adults in the USA. She interspersed outdoor education with work for the US Forest Service as a Ranger and Fisheries Technician. In the mid-1990s, she trained as a geographer at the Department of Geography, University of Minnesota (2001). She was a MacArthur Fellow in an interdisciplinary global studies training program and held National Science Foundation Graduate Student awards, and a Fulbright award in Nepal for her research. After finishing her Ph.D., Andrea had a faculty position as an Environmental Geographer at the University of Edinburgh from 2002-2012. In 2012 she joined the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and helped found their Environmental Social Science research program. In 2015 she moved to the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences as Chair of Rural Development in the Global South before coming to the University of Oslo in February of 2019.
Many people are worried about climate change. They are concerned not only about the impacts, but also our inability to respond at the rate, scale, speed, and depth that is called for by international agreements. Climate anxiety, climate trauma, and climate depression are rapidly becoming part of our vocabulary. A growing field of research on transformative change looks at how we can shift systems and cultures at scale to meet the 2030 Agenda, and emphasizes the need to think, act, and design differently. How do we do this? In this talk, I will discuss the practical, political, and personal spheres of transformation and present a relational approach to scaling solutions to climate change. I’ll argue that we need to make a “quantum leap,” which involves a recognition that each of us matters more than we think.
Christian Klöckner is a professor of social psychology (2010) and quantitative methods at NTNU (2012). Previously, he studied and obtained a Ph.D. in psychology with a specialization in environmental psychology at the Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany (1992-1999, 2001-2005). Since 2011, he has been a research leader at the Department of Psychology at NTNU and is part of the research group "Consumption, environment, and traffic"
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Climate spillover effects from large scale infrastructure changes.
Aslak Fyhri is a writer and researcher at the Institute of Transport Economics. He has dr. philos degree in environmental psychology, and has been the editor of one of the few Norwegian book publications on this subject. He has been featured in the media for his research into cycling, especially electric bikes.
As climate change, habitat loss, and extinction of species go from bad to worse, it seems that politics, ethics, and business-usual combine to reinforce the multiple crises rather than slow, let alone stop them. This being so, is it necessary, or even imperative, to seek alternatives? If so, how radical should they be? Do groups like Extinction Rebellion point in the right direction? And what are the pitfalls?
Elin will give a talk on the 6th Assessment report of the IPCC as well as the process of writing it. She will also discuss the role of psychology and social science in the report and if IPCC can ever be able to appropriately summarize the social science research on climate governance.