Climate Change as a Cultural and Behavioral Issue: Addressing Barriers and Implementing Solutions

Abstract

At the core, environmental issues like climate change are not primarily technological or economic, but behavioral and cultural. While technological and economic activity may be the direct cause of environmentally destructive behavior, individual beliefs, cultural norms and societal institutions guide the development of that activity. Unfortunately, in addressing environmental problems, we tend to overlook these social dimensions and focus strictly on their technological and economic aspects. We do this in the realm of societal politics, and in the realm of organizational design. This article will redress this lack of attention by considering the social dimensions of a specific issue in the sustainability agenda – climate change. In particular, this article will attend to the social and psychological barriers that exist within individuals and organizations to addressing the issue and offer practical suggestions for overcoming them.