Climate-change information, health-risk perception and residents' environmental complaint behavior: an empirical study in China

Exploring mechanisms affecting environmental risk coping behaviors: evidence from China

Environmental risk issues pose a threat to human life and well-being. In order to reduce environmental risks, environmental risk response strategies have become increasingly vital. As the group most affected by environmental risks, the public environmental risk coping behaviors affect the effectiveness of environmental risk management. However, the public adoption of such behaviors mainly depends on their willingness. Therefore, the key to effective governance lies in guiding the public to voluntarily adopt appropriate environmental risk coping behaviors. The theory of environmental psychology provides relevant references for this. The internal psychological motivations of the public (including attitudes and subjective norms etc.) affect their choices of environmental risk behavior. The main purpose of this research is to explore the determinants underlying environmental risk coping behaviors using extending the theory of planned behavior by additional constructs (trust, risk perception, interaction satisfaction). The research applies a questionnaire survey method to collect data from the public living in the vicinity of two locations in China-an industrial area and a waste incineration plant in a Chinese city. The result of SEM shows that the public's trust in governments has a positive influence on the intention to collaborate, while the public's trust in the government and enterprises is negatively correlated with their intention to engage in confrontational behavior. Also, there is a positive correlation between confrontational intention and confrontational behavior, while the intention to cooperate may not necessarily result in collaborative behavior. Risk perception is not related to trust and the intention to collaborate, but it positively affects the intention to confront. The reason for the public to willingly take collaborative actions is not because they have perceived a high level of risk, and the public's high trust in the government can enhance their intention to take collaborative actions. It is thus clear that government credibility plays an important guiding role in public risk responsive behavior. The research findings provide policy recommendations for guiding public environmental risk coping behavior.

The mediating role of pro-environmental attitude and intention on the translation from climate change health risk perception to pro-environmental behavior

Climate change is a serious environmental issue appearing in China. As a public service institution operating around the clock, the negative impact of hospitals on the environment is evident, promoting their workers' pro-environmental behavior (PEB) through increasing climate change health risk perception (CHRP) is an effective method to protect the environment and achieve sustainable development. This study investigates how CHRP shapes pro-environmental attitude (PEA), pro-environmental intention (PEI), and pro-environmental behavior (PEB) among hospital workers. Using structural equation modeling (SEM) to determine the chain of causation from CHRP to PEB among hospital workers. The result shows that CHRP positively affects PEA and PEI, and PEI positively affects their PEB. In addition, although CHRP has no significant direct effect on PEB, it can play a crucial indirect effect through the mediating role of PEI. Moreover, the result of multiple regression shows that there are significant differences regarding PEA, PEI, and PEB.

Addressing the influencing path of social noise exposure risk perception on noise mitigation behavior

Noise interference has become a common health risk in population-densified urban areas where social noise occurs frequently. However, the influence of an individual's perception of social noise exposure risk on reactive behavior remains unknown. This study developed an integrative psychosocial perspective-based model that includes constructs from two theoretical frameworks (the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Value-Belief-Norm theory) to analyze noise risk perception and behavioral intention for social noise mitigation. Haidian District, Beijing, was selected as the case study area and 300 questionnaires were distributed. The results showed that personal attributes had significant effects on residents' noise exposure risk perception and noise-mitigation behavioral intentions. Noise perception, as represented by awareness of consequences and ascription of responsibility, was significantly related to noise mitigation behavioral intention. Awareness of consequences directly positively influenced behavioral intention (β = 0.235, p < 0.001) and indirectly positively influenced behavioral intention through the mediating effect of the ascription of responsibility, which accounted for 24 % of the total effect of awareness of consequences on behavioral intention. This study provides valuable insights into the risks of social noise and encourages adaptive measures to reduce it.

Why do health-risk awareness and materialism drive consumers' acceptance intentions for smart green buildings?

As the threat of global warming to human beings has gradually received attention, this article introduces the terror management theory to explain whether health risk awareness will affect their willingness to accept smart green buildings and that relationship is positively regulated by death anxiety. In addition, this article introduces the concept of materialism to propose that consumers will also accept smart green buildings due to the influence of materialism. This article interviewed two consumers and two professors in Taiwan, and verified the three hypotheses of this article through qualitative coding analysis. This article also used quantitative research methods to verify the theoretical model. This article not only introduces the cross-cutting contributions between terror management theory, materialism and smart green buildings, but also helps the construction industry develop strategies to attract consumers.

Climate Change and Mental Health: A Review of Empirical Evidence, Mechanisms and Implications

Anthropogenic climate change is an existential threat whose influences continue to increase in severity. It is pivotal to understand the implications of climate change and their effects on mental health. This integrative review aims to summarize the relevant evidence examining the harm climate change may have on mental health, suggest potential mechanisms and discuss implications. Empirical evidence has begun to indicate that negative mental health outcomes are a relevant and notable consequence of climate change. Specifically, these negative outcomes range from increased rates of psychiatric diagnoses such as depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder to higher measures of suicide, aggression and crime. Potential mechanisms are thought to include neuroinflammatory responses to stress, maladaptive serotonergic receptors and detrimental effects on one's own physical health, as well as the community wellbeing. While climate change and mental health are salient areas of research, the evidence examining an association is limited. Therefore, further work should be conducted to delineate exact pathways of action to explain the mediators and mechanisms of the interaction between climate change and mental health.

Threats of COVID-19 arouse public awareness of climate change risks

Public climate change awareness is indispensable to dealing with climate change threats. Understanding whether and how the COVID-19 pandemic impacts on individuals’ climate change risk perception would thus be critical to green economic recovery. We conducted a longitudinal survey study in China when the pandemic was at its height and when it was mitigated. The cross-lagged analysis confirmed our assumed “arousal” effect of perceived COVID-19 risks on climate change risk awareness. We further tested and verified the proposed “dual-pathway” mechanisms of affective generalization (i.e., negative affective states aroused by COVID-19 “spillover” to the assessment of climate change risk) and cognitive association (i.e., the outbreak of COVID-19 awakens people’s recognition of the human-nature-climate issues) via multiple mediation analyses. Our results implied that climate policies could be integrated into pandemic control, and that the public should be more awakened to confront multiple crises with proper guidance.

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Public COVID-19 risk perception arouses their climate change awareness

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A longitudinal survey in China was conducted to verify this arousal effect

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Generalized negative affect states explain the effect

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Cognitive association also explains the effect

Climate Change and Mental Health: A Scoping Review

Climate change is negatively impacting the mental health of populations. This scoping review aims to assess the available literature related to climate change and mental health across the World Health Organisation's (WHO) five global research priorities for protecting human health from climate change. We conducted a scoping review to identify original research studies related to mental health and climate change using online academic databases. We assessed the quality of studies where appropriate assessment tools were available. We identified 120 original studies published between 2001 and 2020. Most studies were quantitative (n = 67), cross-sectional (n = 42), conducted in high-income countries (n = 87), and concerned with the first of the WHO global research priorities-assessing the mental health risks associated with climate change (n = 101). Several climate-related exposures, including heat, humidity, rainfall, drought, wildfires, and floods were associated with psychological distress, worsened mental health, and higher mortality among people with pre-existing mental health conditions, increased psychiatric hospitalisations, and heightened suicide rates. Few studies (n = 19) addressed the other four global research priorities of protecting health from climate change (effective interventions (n = 8); mitigation and adaptation (n = 7); improving decision-support (n = 3); and cost estimations (n = 1)). While climate change and mental health represents a rapidly growing area of research, it needs to accelerate and broaden in scope to respond with evidence-based mitigation and adaptation strategies.

Associations between perceived environmental pollution and health-related quality of life in a Chinese adult population

BACKGROUND

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) measures are being used in increasingly diverse populations. However, there have no known studies to date to examine the associations between perceived environmental pollution and HRQoL in a Chinese population. This study aimed to report the associations between air, water, noise pollution and HRQoL among Chinese adult population.

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey data was used from East Asian Social Survey 2010 with a sample of 3866 Chinese populations regarding environmental pollution. HRQoL was computed by SF-12 and reflected by physical and mental component summary score (PCS & MCS). Ordinary least regression analyses were used to examine associations between perceived environmental pollution and PCS and MCS scores. Models in SPSS PROCESS were selected to demonstrate the moderating and mediating effects.

RESULTS

Only considering one pollutant, perceived air pollution and perceived water pollution had significant associations with PCS and MCS scores. Perceived noise pollution had significant associations with PCS scores. Perceived air×noise, air×water, noise×water, and air×noise×water pollution had significant associations with PCS and MCS scores. Conditional (moderated) mediation showed that there were no moderating effects and mediating effects of perceived one pollutant on another pollutant.

CONCLUSIONS

Co-occurring perceived environmental pollution were mainly associated with progressive increase in PCS and MCS scores among the Chinese adult population. These results suggested that some effective policies should be carried out to improve environmental quality in Chinese adult population.

Addressing climate change through a market mechanism: a comparative study of the pilot emission trading schemes in China

The questions of how to mitigate climate change and its impact on human health are currently high on the Chinese agenda for future development. The emission trading scheme (ETS) has become one of China's most important instruments to address climate change through a market mechanism. In the wake of the evolution from regional pilots to a nationwide scheme, it is inevitable to be confronted with tremendous political-economic-institutional challenges. To facilitate a smooth start-up of the upcoming nationwide ETS, this study provides a systematic overview of seven ETS pilots, involving the detailed comparison of ETS design and the in-depth evaluation of market performance, both internal and external performance, based on trading data. Then, the achievements and deficiencies of seven ETS pilots are summarized, several challenges for the current time are discussed, and policy proposals for China's national-level ETS are navigated further coupled with international experience. This study finds that China's ETS pilots, from the short-term perspective, are successful, especially in the reinforcement of China's capacity to develop a market-based scheme in an economy that still cherishes many non-market endowments. However, deficiencies lie in both the internal and external market performance, such as the carbon price lacking a signal function, insufficient incentives for compliance, too low market liquidity, and much too high market fragmentation. Moreover, the retrospective examination of China's ETS pilots suggests that a nationwide ETS should at least be based on an extension of the cap duration from single year to several years, uniform rules on monitoring/reporting/verification and allowance allocation, and the improvement of institutional foundation.

Public risk perception and willingness to mitigate climate change: city smog as an example

Climate change harms people's health and ecosystems. Encouraging the public to adopt behaviors that help to combat climate change can, at the same time, contribute to efforts to control and solve related serious environmental problems. This study aims to ascertain the way in which the public perceives risks related to climate change and adopts behaviors to respond to the issue. Using city smog as an example, this study proposes a conceptual model that integrates the theory of planned behavior (TPB), smog knowledge and risk perception. It aims to elucidate determinants of smog-reduction behavior. Data were obtained through questionnaire surveys. The results confirm the relationships among the core variables of the TPB and risk perception. Firstly, they confirm that TPB is an effective model for predicting responses to city smog, and secondly, they show that risk perception is significantly positive in predicting attitude and behavioral intention. In addition, our analysis confirms that knowledge about smog is a positive antecedent variable in risk perception, attitude, and perceived behavioral control. The paper contributes to the extension of the TPB model and to the enrichment of its application in the context of city smog. It also has practical implications both for people experiencing city smog, and for authorities such as local governments and environmental organizations. Governments and organizations need to make efforts to spread information concerning the harmful effects of city smog, because in doing so they can strengthen people's intention to participate in smog-reduction behavior.