Social psychology and climate protection

There are some psychological barriers that prevent people from taking action on climate change. These include the fact that the causes and consequences of climate change are distant and intangible for many people and thus a psychological distance is built up, that the fear of climate change paralyzes people and they get the impression of not being able to make a difference, that people do not see themselves as responsible and that people associate losses with habitual changes.

This module describes these various psychological barriers and provides approaches on how to overcome them. In the second part of the module, transformative engagement is explained in more detail, which aims to change social structures through active action. In addition, different activities for the context of schools are outlined.