Climate Justice: The Role of Human Values in Effective Communication and Inspiring Action
Values are crucial influences on the choices people make and what people believe in. Climate change is an important issue that requires support and action. Recently, there has been an increased focus on climate justice. Climate justice is the intersection of climate change, human rights, and social justice. This includes proximity to environmental toxins or pollutants and the lack of access to affordable housing and healthcare. At Seattle Global Shapers, I created a web page with information on climate justice and links to donate or volunteer to climate justice initiatives. The aim of this study was to determine if there were similarities or discrepancies between the values of advocates of climate justice and advocates of climate change. To accomplish this task, I distributed a survey with 19 questions based on the Schwartz Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ). The values measured were self-direction, hedonism, stimulation, security, achievement, universalism, power, conformity, tradition, and benevolence. The results were calculated, showing that climate justice advocates and climate change advocates shared similar scores in all these values as well as in the value dimensions “openness to change”, “selftranscendence”, “self-enhancement” and “conservation” with the “self-transcendence” having the highest score. Appealing to the shared values of the two groups with the highest scores can potentially improve methods of communication and increase engagement in climate justice initiatives. Understanding human values in the context of climate justice communication is an important step in fighting against climate injustices in the world.
