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Transforming values and beliefs

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Introduction

Another huge topic!

I’ve started with why values and beliefs are so important, and how they fit with other targets of climate action.

The material I’ve found really helpful here is a paper by an academic called Karen O’Brien who has developed a way of thinking about the transformations we need to take place if we are to meet the 1.5oC target1.

Although this is what I’ve planned, if something interesting or puzzling crops up along the way we can follow that thread instead. At any point, if you’re thinking, “wait a minute, I don’t get that”, or feel you (or we) need a moment to stop and absorb the idea, please interrupt me.

Why introduce another model?

The reason I like this paper is that I think it complements the model we already have, of coping and change being a process or journey. On that journey, taking action is part of both the coping and changing phase and part of living in the climate crisis.
That model doesn’t specify what action we need to take. Karen O’Brien takes on that question and wrote a paper exploring what it would take to keep to the 1.5oC.
I like her way of describing what needs to be done because:

  • It is honest about the need for drastic change.
  • I like the idea of transformation. It reflects the scale of the work to be done and at least includes the possibility of a transformation to something better.
  • It provides a short list of three areas for action. It’s easy-to-remember and I’m hoping it’ll help me to go beyond the obvious personal actions when brainstorming ideas.
  • It shows how our everyday lives and personal actions are connected to bigger systems and changes.

Three spheres of transformation

In her work, Karen O’Brien says the climate crisis is a social challenge, that technological solutions are not enough, and that we need transformations in three areas:

  • our values, beliefs and worldviews.
  • our systems and structures.
  • transformations in how we do things practically.

How the spheres interact with each other

  • The personal sphere influences what is thought to be valid, realistic or desirable personally and politically.
  • The personal sphere includes our assumptions and perceptions of the world – including social structures.
  • The personal sphere justifies ideology, policy and action.
  • Ideology, policy and action reinforce beliefs in the personal sphere.
  • Practical changes can trigger changes in the other spheres.
  • The other two spheres can produce obstacles to practical changes.

She calls the sphere concerned with our beliefs, values and worldview the personal sphere. I find this a little confusing as we often talk about personal vs collective action, and worldviews can be individual or shared, so I’ve gone with selves, to include both individual and shared, personal and collective. Maybe the sphere of ideas, or philosophical sphere would be plainer still.
The second sphere is concerned with systems and structures. Karen O’Brien calls it the political sphere because it is through politics that a lot of debate and policy-making happens. Again, I think that might cause a little confusion for us, as most people associate politics with political parties, so I’ve swapped it out for social.

The final sphere is the practical sphere – the things we do, the technologies we use, and the changes we make to our behaviour and practices.
The outer, largest sphere is our selves because that sphere has the biggest influence and most potential.

We need transformation in all three spheres to tackle the climate crisis.

We can look for levers in all three spheres to make transformations happen.

Karen O’Brien imagines these three areas as spheres nested inside each other, interacting and affecting each other. If that’s hard to imagine, picture the earth with its crust, mantle and core).

Transforming our selves: beliefs, values and worldviews

  • We’re not always conscious of our beliefs and worldview, especially when they are shared by almost everyone around us.
  • Our beliefs can act as a filter, shaping our perception of the world, including what is possible, and what is desirable. This matters for climate action (self-fulfilling prophesies).
  • Changes in the personal sphere, in our beliefs values and worldviews has the biggest potential to create change.
  • Questioning and criticising assumptions and beliefs and engaging people’s agency. We could open up more agency, personally and collectively, by thinking about and looking for possibilities in all three spheres.

How can we transform our values, beliefs and worldview?

  • Creating opportunities to stretch our imaginations, and to see ourselves as interdependent socially, and ecologically, to see ourselves connected to, and responsibility for the future not just ourselves here and now.
  • Questioning and reflection.
  • Conversation.
  • Engaging with other perspectives and viewpoints.
  • Action (by doing things that express beliefs and values).
  • Policy and regulation express beliefs, values and worldviews.
  • Stories, and how we frame them.

Conversation starters

  • Take any of the above statements – reflect and discuss
  • What shared values and beliefs are dominant in society? How are they enabling/ preventing transformation?
  • Our personal values and beliefs can be threatened or collapsed by learning about the climate crisis. Was this your experience?
  • Do you believe such a deep transformation is necessary, or possible?
  • What do you make of the idea that change in the self/ideas sphere of transformation is the most powerful?
  • Karen O’Brien says we shouldn’t try to impose our beliefs and values on others but try to create opportunities for people to question and reflect on assumptions and beliefs. We should recognise that people have the capacity to create change, and engage them as “agents of change”. What do you think?
    Karen O’Brien quotes “[The 1.5oC target] will not happen simply as a by-product of unintended social change; if this is to be our future, it will be brought about by the conscious actions of people acting collectively to bring it about’” What do you think?
    “Directly recognizing and engaging people as agents of change can drastically speed up low-carbon transformation processes because everyone is part of a system and everyone has a sphere of influence” What do you think? What systems do you belong to? What/who’s in your sphere of influence? Do you feel like an “agent of change”?
  • We could also discuss specific values, beliefs, ideologies, etc, and the climate crisis.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Panu Pihkala, for his correspondence and the article on meaning and eco-anxiety. Thanks to Karen O’Brien for the open-access article.
O’Brien, Karen. “Is the 1.5°C Target Possible? Exploring the Three Spheres of Transformation.” Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, Sustainability governance and transformation 2018, 31 (April 1, 2018): 153–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2018.04.010.
“Meaning and Eco-Anxiety – Eco-Anxious Stories,” July 4, 2023. https://ecoanxious.ca/stories/meaning-and-eco-anxiety/.

Pihkala, Panu. “The Process of Eco-Anxiety and Ecological Grief: A Narrative Review and a New Proposal.” Sustainability 14, no. 24 (January 2022): 16628. https://doi.org/10.3390/su142416628.

  1. The paper was published in 2018. I don’t know if anyone is still optimistic about our chances, but we’ll leave that question for another time. ↩︎

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