Impact of Religious Affiliation on Ethical Values of Spanish Environmental Activists (original) (raw)

Ethics-Based Environmentalism in Practice: Religious-Environmental Organizations in the United States

Debates over the " death of environmentalism " juxtapose two approaches to environmental advocacy: an issues-based environmentalism that relies on technocratic, legal, scientifi c, policy-oriented and issue-specifi c advocacy activities and an ethics-based environmentalism that has as its primary focus the promotion of deep-seated changes in individual and societal values and behavior as they pertain to stewardship of the earth. Th e latter is presented both as a critique of the former and as a road map for a more eff ective environmental movement. Th is study documents the practice and challenges of ethics-based environmentalism through an analysis of the religious-environmental movement in the United States. Interviews with forty-two U.S.-based religious-environmental organizations revealed that the majority of these groups see themselves as engaged in an ethics-based environmen-talism grounded in frameworks that tie God to nature and emphasize action, community, and justice. Groups also identifi ed some of the challenges inherent in ethics-based environmental advocacy, including the need to confront societal norms, work on long time horizons, access funding, recruit support, and measure and document success.

Relationships between religion, moral foundations, and environmentalism in young adult Catholics

Journal of Religious Education

The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating role of moral foundations in the relationship between religion and environmentalism. The online survey data was collected from 616 young adult Catholics from Poland aged 19–25, who are likely to be affected by climate change more than any other generation before them. Regression analysis showed that the relationship between religion and environmentalism can be predicted by the opposing paths of spirituality (positively) and religious fundamentalism (negatively). Analysis of multiple mediator models showed that the relationship between religion and climate care can be mediated by complex moral profiles that can influence each other and jointly contribute to the development of environmentalism. Analysis of specific indirect effects showed that care/harm and fairness/cheating play a special role in promoting climate care. The results suggest that religious attitudes, along with moral values, may play a significant role in solving c...

Activating values for encouraging pro-environmental behavior: the role of religious fundamentalism and willingness to sacrifice

Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 2019

A number of theories and hypotheses attempt to understand what influences pro-environmental behaviors. In social psychology, the values-beliefs-norms (VBN) theory is one of the most common approaches used to explain pro-environmental behaviors. But different sets of concepts have often been used in work based on large public opinion surveys. Here, we add to the VBN theory several variables-Christian religious fundamentalism, willingness to sacrifice, trust in scientists, biotechnology beliefs-that have been used in the public opinion literature in a step toward a more integrative theory. A sample of 518 U.S. adults completed an online questionnaire to provide data. Results confirm that, in the USA, biospheric altruism values had substantial indirect effects on pro-environmental behavior via willingness to sacrifice for biodiversity loss. But climate change beliefs and willingness to sacrifice for climate change did not exert direct or indirect effects on pro-environmental behavior. Interestingly, religious funda-mentalism increased pro-environmental behavior net of other factors including political ideology, again acting primarily through biospheric altruism values. We hope that our findings encourage steps toward more integrated theory and the testing of more comprehensive models.

Religion and Environmental Worldviews

2014

This study examined religions role in forming an environmental worldview. It was hypothesized that the more religious one is the more anthropocentric their worldview would be. It is imperative to find what influences values so steps can be made to promote proenvironmental behavior. If religion is found to influence one’s behavior and worldview, the social structure of religion could be a possible avenue for encouraging an ecocentric worldview. A survey was conducted and dispersed at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, targeting college-aged students. It was found that although religion does influence behavior, it cannot be concluded that religion influences environmental worldviews. Introduction The purpose of this study was to examine religions role in forming an environmental worldview. An environmental worldview is “what people believe is right and wrong environmental behavior” (Miller, 2008). In understanding the role religion has, it can then be determined if religious social s...