Understanding the spiritual motivations of religious people who take climate friendly actions

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2021-05
Authors
Brown, Emma
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Chan, Catherine
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Natural Resources and Environmental Management
Masters of Environmental Management
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Litton, Creighton
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In the face of irreversible damage from climate change, more individuals and organizations need to advocate for and take climate-friendly actions. Further, 85% of the world and 83% of Hawaii’s citizens are religious according to the Pew Research center, and religion is a factor proven to influence climate change behaviors and beliefs. Understanding how religious beliefs affect climate friendly actions, therefore, can help to better promote such actions among a large population. This project aimed to understand what motivates religious individuals to take action on climate change and to provide resources for religious people and organizations based on the findings. To accomplish the objectives, this study used findings from the published literature in combination with in-depth, semi-structured interviews, including individuals from all major faith groups. Interviews were transcribed and coded in NVivo, and analyzed with the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) method that focused on the respondents’ lived experiences. The IPA revealed that motivating factors for these participants included: emotions about nature and Divine, relative sense of self, and religiously explicit content. It also pointed to various frameworks of such motivation, including humanitarian, sacredness of nature, righteousness, simplicity, and economic frameworks. Specific recommendations were made to both religious individuals and religious environmental leaders, providing motivational tips and ideas for action based on the results.
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Phenomenology, Interpretative, Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), Semi-structured interview, Spiritual ecology, Climate Actions, Hawaiʻi
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19 pages
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