Climate Justice and Action Special Interest Group
Affiliated 2020
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Contact Information
Robyn Walser
California, USA
2024 SIG Leaders
Martin Wilks (vice president)
Rationale:
Climate change and ecological emergency, in the light of the degradation of the environment, extinction of species, and the expected mass climate migration, is one of the most important and pressing issues of our time. The contextual behavioral sciences can join the call to action by promoting theory and practice of behaviour change relevant to our climate emergency and its fallout. Our mission is to create a forum for discussion and action on the contributions CBS can make toward supporting sustainability, reduced consumption, climate justice, and action in the service of reducing climate change through individual, organizational, and public policy action. As such, the CJA will work to develop a perspective in CBS that understands global ecology as the context within which human (sapient) and sentient behaviour emerge and adapt.
Mission:
1. Develop and inform our respective members of ACBS and the public about the climate crisis and its redress; performed in ways allowed by ACBS policy and emphasizing scientific research and consensus on its causes and short- and long-term harms, including climate justice concerns, and the need for immediate personal and societal action;
2. Collaborate with other organizations interested in similar work, with ACBS Board approval, working with indigenous and other marginalized communities threatened by the climate crisis, using the principles of CBS, advocating for their rights, mitigating the negative physical and mental health impacts of climate change, increase community resilience, and activate hope through action.
3. Encourage ACBS members and other mental health leaders to be vocal advocates concerning the necessary preparatory and responsive adaptations to the climate crisis and to invest more in research and practice in this area, including a focus on eco-anxiety and other mental health fallout;
4. Advocate for universities and other entities to include the formation of CBS research and projects related to societal challenges due to climate crisis;
5. Use CBS to explore the development of public awareness campaigns to encourage individuals and communities to adopt behaviors to help prepare for, recover from, and adapt to gradual climate change and acute climate crisis events; Further, as a part of this campaign, support workshops, training, and contemplative practices related to climate change and the interrelationships of organisms and their environment (e.g., climate migration and mental health, “the ecological self,” etc.);
6. Encourage, whenever possible and through multiple avenues (including prosocial design initiatives), governmental, educational, health, and corporate leaders to use more psychological science in designing policies that promote sustainable, mitigating, and regenerative climate action.
Forthcoming and Ongoing SIG Activities
- SIG Listserv
- SIG Facebook Group - CBS Warriors Climate Justice and Action SIG
- List of SIG resources - for SIG members contribution and dissemination
- Sub-Committee comms: subcommittees.climatejusticesig@gmail.com proposals/participation