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Int. J. Global Warming, Vol. 12, Nos. 3/4, 2017
Power plant workers’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviour on climate change Constantina Skanavis* Department of Environment, University of the Aegean, University Hill, 81100 Mytilene, Greece Email:
[email protected] *Corresponding author
Evangelos Manolas Department of Forestry and Management of the Environment and Natural Resources School of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, Democritus University of Thrace, 193 Pantazidou Street, 68200 Orestiada, Greece Email:
[email protected]
Aristea Kounani Department of Environment, University of the Aegean, University Hill, 81100 Mytilene, Greece Email:
[email protected]
Konstantinos Fergadis Local Power Station, Public Electrical Company (DEH), T.S.P. Skyros DEH S.A., Aherounes, 34007, Skyros Island, Greece Email:
[email protected] Abstract: This paper assesses the knowledge, attitudes and behaviour of the workers in the local station of the Greek Electric Company at Skyros Island in Greece on the issue of climate change. The research was carried out in January 2015. The methodology used was interviews through questions formed as a result of the study of the relevant bibliography on knowledge, attitudes and behaviour on environmental issues and particularly issues related to climate change. The findings showed that there was a misunderstanding of the term of global climate change. Most of the time power plant workers’ attitudes seemed to be environmentally friendly, nevertheless their behaviour appeared to be influenced by their personal interests and benefits, rather than the global well-being. Keywords: global climate change; GCC; environmental behaviour; power plant workers; environmental attitude; Greece.
Copyright © 2017 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.
Power plant workers’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviour on climate change 387 Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Skanavis, C., Manolas, E., Kounani, A. and Fergadis, K. (2017) ‘Power plant workers’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviour on climate change’, Int. J. Global Warming, Vol. 12, Nos. 3/4, pp.386–413. Biographical notes: Constantina Skanavis is a Professor in Environmental Communication and Education at the Department of Environment, University of the Aegean, Mytilene, Greece. She is also the Head of the Research Centre of Environmental Education and Communication. She joined the University of the Aegean 15 years ago. Before that she was a Professor at California State University, Los Angeles; she has developed several courses on issues of environmental health and education. She currently teaches environmental education, environmental communication and environmental interpretation courses in undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She has numerous publications on an international basis and has given presentations all over the world. Evangelos Manolas is an Associate Professor at the Department of Forestry and Management of the Environment and Natural Resources at the Democritus University of Thrace, in Greece. Aristea Kounani is a PhD candidate in Environmental Communication and Education, and a Senior Researcher at the Research Unit of Environmental Communication and Education at the Department of Environment, University of the Aegean, Mytilene, Greece. Konstantinos Fergadis is a Mechanical Engineer in the local station of the Greek Electric Company at Skyros Island in Greece. He is also the acting supervisor for a variety of the company’s daily activities, maintenance tasks and support mechanisms.
1
Introduction
Rapid technological change and industrialisation improved tremendously human living standards. In addition to economic growth there have also been major improvements in health. For example, life expectancy in Europe has risen from around 40 years at the beginning of the 19th century to nearly 80 years today. Such achievements have led to a world population increase, which means that the needs of energy are multiplied. The availability of modern forms of energy after 1900, especially electricity, has been important for these positive developments. The quality of life of individuals has improved in many ways, including developing countries (Markandya and Wilkinson, 2007). Since the beginning of the 21st century, the subject of energy futures and the environment has been greatly debated in many nations in the developed and developing world. The danger posed by climate change in particular has put to the world a range of difficult policy dilemmas and choices in this arena. Energy policy is critical to dealing with climate change because energy generation and use, for transportation, home and industrial applications, is the most important source of anthropogenic greenhouse gasses currently being emitted to the Earth’s atmosphere (Pidgeon et al., 2008).
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Global climate change (GCC) will have profound consequences for the quality of life of hundreds of millions of human beings. The prospect of human-induced climate change shows that humankind is in a position to greatly influence the global environment. The Third Assessment Report (TAR) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2005) firmly established climate change as a political issue on the global agenda. The Fourth Assessment Report estimated it to be ‘very likely’ that human activities have contributed significantly to the observed temperature increase in the recent half century. GCC, therefore, constitutes a great challenge for humanity to mitigate or adapt to. However, before appropriate actions toward a more sustainable society can occur, there has to be a common awareness of potential problems. In this respect, knowledge of GCC plays an important role. The development, acceptance and dissemination of knowledge, constitutes the basis for groups in society to reach understanding and take action (Sundblad, 2008). Scientists produce new findings and their knowledge improves continuously. Thus, what once was nearest to the truth may later be regarded less probable. Although scientists produce new findings, society relies on people using the existing knowledge to engage in appropriate behaviour in the interest of all. Thus, it is vital for the public, as well as for scientists, that existing and new knowledge is communicated. Journalists have a role in transferring the necessary information. Unfortunately, journalists have to deal with circumstances, which may hinder the realisation of such a goal. For example, a journalistic text cannot provide the required space and is normally focused on news. Consequently, there are problems in communicating complicated issues, which may lead the receivers of information to develop beliefs, which are distorted or simplified. Even if scientific knowledge of GCC is presented correctly, there are subjective judgements to be made. One of these is about the degree of which people have confidence in their own knowledge. Another judgement is whether or not the information is considered a risk. Such assessments are important for purposes of processing GCC information and for acting upon climate change knowledge. A risk judgement may also generate further attention (Sundblad, 2008). There are many attributes of information about climate change, which may impact risk perception. One of these is scientific uncertainty. Hardly any scientific ‘fact’ is 100% certain. Another characteristic is the future orientation of climate events, e.g., with regard to consequences of climate change. Consequences which cannot yet be perceived may be considered as not requiring immediate attention. In addition, the occurrence of future events may be regarded as uncertain. The fact that people differ in the judgements they make may be attributed to differences in their knowledge base, in their confidence in their own knowledge or in the ways they react to information characteristics. However, even though evaluative differences exist between people, it is important that all groups in society reduce their ignorance and perception of uncertainty by acquiring valid knowledge (Sundblad, 2008). Public opinion about climate change has become increasingly well documented, e.g., Eurobarometer (2009), Leiserowitz et al. (2010), Lorenzoni and Pidgeon (2006) and Upham et al. (2009). Awareness about climate change is very high, and a number of surveys have shown that the British, European and North American public view climate change negatively and express substantial concern about it. For example, surveys in 2005 (Poortinga and Pidgeon, 2003) and 2007 (Eurobarometer, 2007) found that around 90% of British citizens were concerned about climate change. However, climate change is still a low priority issue when contrasted with other issues such as the economy, education, or
Power plant workers’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviour on climate change 389 the threat of terrorism (Upham et al., 2009). In addition, in recent years, the level of concern about climate change is lower, accompanied by an increase in the number of people who state uncertainty about the reality of anthropogenic influence on the climate (Leiserowitz et al., 2010). Frequently, communication campaigns focusing on how people should feel and act are not likely to have a straightforward effect on an individual’s behaviour or to make him more active by appealing to his moral concerns (Botetzagias et al., 2014). Personal norms are internalised social norms and, therefore, emphasising communication of social norms might stimulate this internalisation. In general, people are more likely to engage in actions to preserve the environment – in particular to combat climate change: a
the more they see such actions as bringing benefits to themselves, society, and the natural world
b
the more they get more emotionally aroused, feeling fear, anger, etc. with regard to environmental threats.
Such judgements and emotions are formed in the framework of their values, e.g., whether they give priority to moral or to utilitarian outcomes. Thus, messages providing information about the implications of climate change need to be framed in the framework of values central to particular audiences. Providing people with information, which arouses their concern about the dangers of climate change is unlikely, by itself, to stimulate effective action. If concern is to convert into action, people must see themselves as sharing personal responsibility for the issue and must be informed about specific actions that they can take and support to combat climate change. According to several surveys, the opinion that the more that people saw bad consequences as being the result of global warming, the more willing they were to act voluntarily and to support legislation to combat climate change. People may be willing to act to combat the negative implications of environmental changes, which affect them personally, affect a larger social unit, or affect the biosphere. Perceptions of greater personal risk or threat, e.g., to one’s health or one’s family have been shown to increase people’s willingness to take pro-environmental actions. Organisations and communities can encourage positive initiatives by creating opportunities and incentives for individuals to act. They can also make individual efforts a part of broader social efforts of the community, work organisations, religious groups, etc. so that individuals have the support of neighbours and friends as they attempt to protect their environment (Patchen, 2006). Environmental consciousness is an important factor in the formation of responsible environmental behaviour. The mass media can fortify the extent of environmental consciousness of the community through provision of environmental information (Skanavis and Sakellari, 2007). In addition, environmental communication programs, which aim to focus on responsible environmental behaviour of citizens, must concentrate on strengthening the participants’ decision making skills and critical analysis abilities. Communication programs should be tailored to the needs of each specific community, taking into account their unique characteristics, their values, the hierarchy of their priorities and mostly the residents’ relationship with the environment (Skanavis et al., 2014). GCC is a symptom of a society, which is not sustainable. However, before effective actions toward a more sustainable society can occur, there has to be a common awareness
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of potential problems. In this framework, knowledge of GCC plays an important role. The development, acceptance and dissemination of knowledge provide the basis for groups in society to reach mutual understanding and engage in appropriate behaviour (Sundblad, 2008). The purpose of this paper is to assess the knowledge of a group of workers in a local electricity power station regarding GCC, their family’s knowledge and, generally, the knowledge of their entire social network. Moreover, the paper examines how knowledge of climate change influences this group of people and the extent to which the delay of future consequences is important with regard to efforts to mitigate the impact of climate change. This research is important because it identified gaps in the understanding of how people benefiting from working at an electric power plant view the related environmental consequences in their field of operation. The resulting data can assist in environmental policy development and can initiate a national database.
2
Research methodology
2.1 Research area The research area was the local power plant of the Greek Electric Company (Public Power Corporation S.A.) at Skyros Island in Greece. Public Power Corporation S.A. is the largest Greek electricity generator providing electricity to approximately 7.5 million customers. The company holds significant assets in lignite mines, power generation, transmission and distribution. It is the largest industrial group of companies in Greece with 20.821 employees in 2011. Most of the country’s electricity is generated at power plants in Northern Greece, in close proximity of the majority of the lignite mines, which is the primary fuel source. Some of the islands near the mainland are connected to the mainland’s transmission system through submarine cables. The remaining islands are served by autonomous ‘oil-fired’, generating power plants. Also, in some of the islands, the demand is covered by wind powered facilities. Skyros Island is the southernmost island of the Sporades Group of islands, of Aegean Sea. It lies about 35 km east of Euboea, and is the largest island of the Sporades (210 km2), with a population of about 3,500 residents. The local station of the Greek Electric Company at Skyros Island is located in Acherounes area. The construction of its facilities was completed in 1977. The purpose of the operation of the local electric power station is the production of electricity needed to meet the consumption needs of the entire island (domestic, industrial, agricultural, municipal, etc.). The generated electricity is transferred to the distribution network of Skiros and serves all consumers through the electrical installations in the region. The electricity is generated by six internal combustion engines, which burn fuel oil as diesel. The local power station of the Greek Electric Company at Skyros Island employs 14 workers, working in alternating shifts. The reason why that particular power plant was chosen to be studied in this research, is because Skyros Island is a small and isolated island, well-known for its state of art electrical company substation and it has been in the recent publicity as the island where a tremendous number of wind turbines could be installed, creating a series of environmental consequences.
Power plant workers’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviour on climate change 391
2.2 Research instruments The data, as supplied below, were collected in January 2015, through personal interviews with the workers of the local electricity power plant of the island of Skyros. The questions were derived from other research projects (Abdel-Monem et al., 2014; Mings, 2008; Kuckartz, 2009; Lynn and Longhi, 2011; Loureiro et al., 2012; Murphy, 2004; Manolas et al., 2010) where questionnaires were used as the investigation and assessment tools, and were tailored to the respective group and addressed the understanding of the term ‘climate change’ knowledge and perceptions of the subject as well as projected effects on the country. All interviewers were asked the same sets of questions, in the same order, and each interview lasted over two hours. The questions, the total of which was 39, were divided into three groups in order to assess firstly workers’ knowledge, secondly their attitude and finally their behaviour with regard to issues related to climate change.
2.3 Research sample The sample, as mentioned above, was workers of the Local Station of the Greek Electric Company at Skiros Island in Greece. The workers were all men, aged 30–51 years. Almost all of them had the same educational level (high school) and the majority of them were married with children. All interviewees did not read the interview questions before the interview. A total of 11 interviews were conducted.
3
Results
3.1 Knowledge about climate change All the employees (100%) think that they do know what the term ‘climate change’ means. The main sources of their information relating to climate change are: a
‘internet’ in a percentage of 55%
b
‘media’ in a percentage of 36%
c
‘regional and international organisations’ in 9%.
91% of them think that ‘climate change’ is a change in the climate that occurs as a result of human pollution and 9% that is just a change in the climate due to natural causes. When they were asked if they could name some of the effects of climate change, 36% of them answered that the most important effect was ‘global warming’, 28% ‘health epidemics’, 9% ‘the rising temperature’ and 9% ‘the ozone depletion’. Subsequently, when they were asked to describe their views about climate change 64% said that climate change is happening mostly because of human activity such as burning fossil fuels, 27% said that ‘climate change is happening equally because of human activity and natural changes’ and 9% said that ‘climate change is happening but there is not enough evidence to determine its causes’. The workers’ opinion regarding the most serious problems the world is facing was ‘poverty, lack of food and drinking water’ (73%), ‘a major global economic downturn’ (18%) and ‘the increasing of world’s population’ (9%). 50% thought that ‘climate change’ was the second most important problem. 28% of them
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thought that their region would be affected by rising global temperature, 27% that they would be affected by extreme weather, 9% that they would be affected by ‘global warming’ and the last 9% by ‘the health epidemics’. The workers’ beliefs about which problem was the most serious are presented, in a scale from 1 (less important) to 10 (most important), in Table 1. Table 1 10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
Opinions about the most serious environmental problems (in a scale 1–10)
Global warming
37%
Ozone depletion
18%
Melting of ice
9%
Climate change
27%
Sea level rise
9%
Ozone depletion
9%
Global warming
9%
Climate change
37%
Sea level rise
9%
Ozone depletion
19%
Global warming
18%
Sea level rise
19%
Ozone depletion
28%
Melting of ice
28%
Global warming
9%
Sea level rise
19%
Melting of ice
18%
Global warming
18%
Climate change
9%
Sea level rise
19%
Melting of ice
18%
Global warming
9%
Climate change
19%
Sea level rise
9%
Ozone depletion
19%
Melting of ice
9%
Sea level rise
9%
Ozone depletion
9%
Melting of ice
18%
2
Sea level rise
9%
1
Climate change
9%
Power plant workers’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviour on climate change 393 When they were asked what represents their opinion regarding how the climate works, 82% answered that ‘the Earth’s climate is slow to change and global warming will gradually lead to dangerous effects’, 9% thought, that ‘Earth’s climate is random and unpredictable’ and the other 9% that ‘there will be dangerous effects, if climate change is large’. 46% of the workers believed that ‘climate change is a very important problem which will have serious consequences ‘for future generations’, 27% ‘for our generation’ and the last 27% ‘for the next generation’. In a question on whether or not they believed they were well informed about these consequences, their family’s knowledge on climate change, their friends’ knowledge, their colleagues’ knowledge and the residents of their region knowledge, their opinion, in a scale from 1 (not well informed) to 10 (very well informed), is presented in Figure 1. Figure 1
Workers’ opinion regarding knowledge about the consequences of GCC (see online version for colours)
The workers, subsequently, were asked about the factors which contribute to the problem of climate change. Their assessment in a scale from 1 (less important) to 10 (the most important), are presented in Table 6. In the question about how most of the electricity is generated in Greece, they all (100%) said that electricity in Greece, is generated ‘by burning fossil fuel, such as coal and oil’. After this question, they were asked whether or not they knew how much the electricity power plant they were working for contributes to climate change and to the environmental degradation of their region, 54.5% said they knew and the rest 45.5% said they did not.
3.2 Attitude to climate change After the group of questions assessing knowledge on climate change, the next group of questions aimed at assessing the workers’ attitude on this serious environmental problem. Subsequently, the workers were asked why they still worked at the electric power plant, since they were aware of the level of their plant’s contribution to climate change and to the environmental degradation of the region: 46% said that they ‘believe their plant does not contribute significantly’, 36% that ‘they have no other choice’, 9% ‘for
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economic reasons (high salaries, allowances, etc)’, and 9% that ‘they did not know the significance of the operating impact of the station into the environment. Then they were asked if they were very concerned about global warming and climate change, and 64% agreed with that, 18% strongly agreed and 18% slightly disagreed. Furthermore, they were asked to assess how much people were concerned or worried about the issue of global warming and climate change in their social network using a scale from 1 (less concerned or worried) to 10 (very concerned). The results are presented in Table 2. Table 2
Workers’ assessment about how people in their network are concerned or worried about GCC issue
Himself
His family
His friends
His colleagues
The residents of his region
8
36%
7
18%
6
28%
5
18%
7 6 5 4 8 7 6 5 0 8 7 6 5 4 2 9 6 5 4 2
18% 27% 36% 19% 9% 9% 46% 27% 9% 9% 18% 28% 27% 9% 9% 9% 18% 55% 10% 9%
Regarding the question whether or not they agreed that their actions to reduce the effects of global warming and climate change in their community would encourage others to reduce the effects of global warming through their own actions, 45% of the workers agreed, 36% slightly agreed, 10% disagreed, and 9% said that they do not know. When the workers were asked who they believed should be responsible for financing adaptation measures 85% answered that the government should and 18% that the private sector should. Then the workers were asked what changes they would be willing to make in order to reduce the country’s vulnerability to climate change impacts and their answers are presented in Figure 2.
Power plant workers’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviour on climate change 395 Table 3
Workers environmentally friendly behaviour via their habits
Leave your TV on standby for the night Switch off lights in rooms that are not being used Keep the tap running while you brush your teeth
Put more clothes on when you feel cold rather than putting the heating on or turn it up
Decide not to buy something because you feel it has too much packaging
Buy recycled paper products such as toilet paper or tissues Take your own shopping bag when shopping Use public transport rather than travel be car
Walk or cycle for short distances
Take fewer flights when possible
Never
36%
Very often
27%
Always
37%
Quite often
9%
Always
91%
Never
36%
No more answer
18%
Quite often
27%
Very often
19%
Not very often
18%
Quite often
27%
Very often
36%
Always
18%
Not very often
55%
Quite often
27%
Very often
9%
Always
9%
Never
18%
Not very often
63%
Very often
19%
Never
72%
Not very often
28%
Never
18%
Not very often
28%
Quite often
27%
Very often
18%
Always
9%
Never
18%
Not very often
19%
Quite often
36%
Very often
18%
Always
9%
Not very often
36%
Very often
10%
Always
54%
Moreover, in order to assess the workers’ environmentally friendly behaviour, the workers were asked about their habits. Their answers are presented in Table 3. Next, the workers were asked to describe their feelings about their lifestyle and the environment. 45% answered that ‘they would like to do a bit more to help the
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environment’ and 55% ‘they are happy with what they do at the moment’. Then they were asked to describe their lifestyle, 9% said that ‘they do not really do anything which is environmental friendly’, 36% that ‘they do one or two things which are environmentally friendly’, 45% that ‘they do quite a few things which are environmentally friendly’ and 10% that ‘they are environmentally friendly in most of the things they do’. Figure 2
Changes workers would be willing to make to reduce the country’s vulnerability to climate change (see online version for colours)
Table 4 is displayed workers’ beliefs for some particular statements related to environment and GCC. Table 4
Workers’ beliefs for the statements presented on the left side of the table
My behaviour and everyday lifestyle contribute to climate change
I do not agree
73.0%
I agree
27.0%
I would be prepared to pay more for environmentally friendly products
I do not agree
28.0%
I agree
72.0%
If things continue on their current course, we will soon experience a major environmental disaster
I do not agree
36.0%
I agree
64.0%
The so-called ‘environmental crisis’ facing humanity has been greatly exaggerated
I do not agree
18.0%
I agree
82.0%
Global climate change is beyond control – it is too late to do anything about it
I do not agree
91.0%
I agree
9.0%
The effects of climate change are too far in the future to really worry me
I do not agree
73.0%
I agree
27.0%
Any changes I make to help the environment need to fit in with my lifestyle
I do not agree
18.0%
I agree
82.0%
It is not worth to me doing things to help the environment if others do not do the same
I do not agree
63.0%
I agree
37.0%
People globally will be affected by climate change in the next 30 years
I do not agree
10.0%
I agree
90.0%
People in Greece will be affected by climate change in the next 200 years
I do not agree
73.0%
I agree
27.0%
Power plant workers’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviour on climate change 397
3.3 Behaviour to climate change The third group of questions had the purpose to identify the workers behaviour with regard to climate change. So, when they were asked if they have generally taken actions aimed at helping to combat climate change, the majority (82%) said that they only decreased their energy consumption at home while the minority (18%) said that although they were supporting public actions, they did not participate in NGOs. Also, a percentage of 55% agreed that in the general public, it was often discussed that some people’s knowledge and attitudes towards climate change were different from their behaviour, and the other 45% slightly agreed. The explanation to this fact was: a
46% for economic reasons (high salaries, allowances, etc.)
b
9% believed that people had not yet found how to implement adaptation measures and did not know how to cope
c
46% did not know the reason.
Then they were asked to state the reasons they believed that most people were not active. The most important reasons are presented in the Table 5. When the workers were asked about their opinion related with policy in developed countries, the majority of them (82%) answered that the policy should be directed toward both objectives: protection of the environment and economic development, a minority of 9% answered that it should be much more directed towards protection of the environment and 9% that it ‘should be much more directed towards economic development’. Then on the question whether or not they thought that any country could do enough against these changes by itself, 55% agreed and 45% disagreed with that. Moreover, on the question if they thought that efforts to solve the problem are a waste of time in the obscene of an international treaty, e.g., Kyoto Protocol, etc., a percentage of 63% said that they do not know, a percentage of 28% agreed and a percentage of 9% disagreed. After this they were asked if they were prepared to support measures, which would contribute to cutting emission of greenhouse gases and to the imposition of environmental taxes and the 73% of them agreed with that while the 27% disagreed. On the other hand, when they were asked if they would support measures which would lead them to stop working on the electricity power plant that they are working, they gave a negative answer. Finally, they were asked who they thought should take the lead in addressing environmental problems, and 55% of them said ‘the government’, 27% said ‘the business’, 9% ‘the local government’ and only 9% said ‘the individuals’. Table 5
Workers’ beliefs about peoples’ non-active behaviour about climate change
Lack of knowledge. People are confused by the complexity of problems The costs of appropriate behaviour are too high. People do not have the money to show the appropriate behaviour. ‘Habits and convenience’. People have acquired their habits during long periods of their lives and they want to keep them. Or others are simply too lazy to change their behaviour. ‘Do not think about it’ – people are living their daily lives, they are not thinking about what they are doing What do I have to do with climate change, that does not interest me, I behave in the same way as ever
28.00% 27.00% 27.00%
9.00% 9.00%
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Conclusions and policy implications
As it was mentioned above, the aim of this paper was to assess the knowledge, attitude and behaviour of a group of workers working in an electricity power station. This was the reason, the questions of the interviews were divided in three categories and so will be the conclusion, which will follow.
4.1 Knowledge about GCC As the results show, workers believed that they knew the real meaning of the term ‘GCC’. This finding is strongly confirmed by the majority of them who answered that the GCC was a change in the climate, which occurs due to human pollution with their beliefs about the most important effects of climate change being global warming, ozone depletion, and the rising temperature. Also, it was confirmed by the majority of the workers that GCC was happening mostly as a result of human activity, e.g., as a result of burning fossil fuels, a minority said that GCC is happening equally because of human activity and natural changes and even a smaller minority that GCC was happening but there are is no evidence why. Obviously, there were differences about GCC regarding knowledge levels in knowledge domains, which could not be attributed to differences due to educational level. Almost all of them had the same educational level. As Sundblad (2008) noticed, even if scientific knowledge is equally disseminated and available for all, different levels of motivation may affect learning as well as the ease with which people remember the information. However, it is possible that the motivation to learn details about climate change varies between groups. Moreover, most of the workers believed that ‘the Earth’s climate is slow to change and global warming will gradually lead to dangerous effects’. Besides, the majority of the workers expressed the opinion that ‘climate change is a very important problem which will have serious consequences for future generations’, although some of them said that the consequences apply to our generation and the next generation. As it is shown in Figure 1, they and their social network too, did not seem to be well informed about these consequences. On the contrary, with regard to assessment of GCC’s impacts there was a misconception. The workers did not consider the problem of climate change as the most serious problem the world is facing, choosing and numbering the first three in importance, and putting others in a higher position, such as ‘the poverty, lack of food and drinking water’ or ‘major global economic downturn’. GCC was thought to be the second serious problem and not from all of them but only for the 50% of the workers. Particularly, as it was shown in Table 1, the most serious problem for workers in a scale of importance, choosing three from a list of five problems (sea level rise, melting of ice caps, global warming, ozone depletion and climate change), were global warming, ozone depletion and melting of ice. On the other hand, Table 6, which presents the workers’ opinion about the most important factors which contribute to the problem of GCC, confirmed the conclusion that they did not understand well the issue and its extent, putting deforestation and chemical products, including CFCs, in a higher position of importance than electricity power plants, although they knew that the electricity, generated in Greece, is based on burning fossil fuels such as coal and oil.
Power plant workers’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviour on climate change 399 Table 6
Workers opinion about the factors that contribute to problem of GCC (in a scale of importance, from 1 to 10)
Industrial activity
Deforestation
Chemical products including CFC’s
Electrical power plants
Means of transport
Central heating
The increase of global population
10
18%
9 8 7 6 5 1 10 9 8 7 6 5 10 9 7 6 5 4 7 6 5 4 0 8 7 6 5 3 9 5 3 0 10 9 8 6 5 0
28% 9% 18% 9% 9% 9% 18% 9% 18% 28% 9% 18% 18% 9% 9% 28% 9% 27% 9% 9% 9% 27% 46% 9% 28% 18% 18% 27% 9% 18% 18% 55% 9% 9% 9% 9% 9% 55%
400 Table 6
C. Skanavis et al. Workers opinion about the factors that contribute to problem of GCC (in a scale of importance, from 1 to 10) (continued)
Increased volcanic activity
7
9%
6
9%
5
9%
4
9%
3
9%
2
9%
0
46%
4.2 Attitude about climate change Most of workers believed that the electric power plant they have been working for, did not contribute significantly to climate change and to the environmental degradation of their region. For those who had the opposite opinion, the reasons were financial and professional. Although they knew the extent of contribution they had no other professional choice, or the salaries were too high to stop doing this job. Their decision of working or not is affected by socioeconomic criteria. As Chatzimnouratidis and Pilavachi (2008) said in their survey, socioeconomic criteria like job creation, compensation rates and social acceptance, affected importantly peoples’ decisions. Job creation is moderately more important than compensation rates. This is because every new job has a positive social effect when compared with funds given for compensation and restoration of harmful effects. With their findings proved that the evaluation of power plants depends on several criteria and weighting, which are specified by people’s culture and experiences, resource availability, financial and social factors leading to the selection of the best choice according to each region’s particularities. Also, as Skanavis and Sakellari (2011) concluded, a point to be considered by local communities is the safeguarding of the value of their area in time to come. Popular tourist destinations, due to increased energy demands, are vulnerable to environmental degradation resulting from overuse of fossil fuels, and this in turn can affect their potential to remain a favourite destination. This is a point that workers did not consider at all. Most workers were concerned about climate change and global warming, but as it is shown in Table 2, the assessment of the workers about the concern of their social network for climate change and global warming, showed that they believed that their social networks had relatively little concern about changes that might occur due to climate change. As it was mentioned by Abdel-Monem et al. (2014), persons who did perceive their social networks as having concerns also indicated higher subjective knowledge. However, subjective knowledge did not predict one’s own concern, and subsequently it did not affect him/her willing to be more active. Although most of workers supported strongly or slightly the opinion that ‘their actions to reduce the effects of global warming and climate change in their community would encourage others to reduce the effects of global warming’, they, nevertheless, expressed the opinion that government is responsible for financing adaptation measures. In Figure 2 and Table 3, it is shown that most of their everyday habits are quite environmentally friendly. Besides, almost half of them were happy with the things they did although they said their lifestyle included doing
Power plant workers’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviour on climate change 401 a few or quite a few things which were environmental friendly. As it is shown in Table 4, they said that every change they had to make to help the environment must fit in with their lifestyle. Contrary to this fact, they said that they really worried about the effects of climate change because they were not too far in the future. The result of all these questions was that the workers were confused about what they had to do or not to do with regard to having an environmentally friendly attitude.
4.3 Behaviour about climate change In this survey, all the interviewees were men and maybe this was an explanation why they did not appear to be more active. As the results showed, the majority of them said that they would be prepared to support measures, which would contribute to cutting the emission of greenhouse gases and the imposition of environmental taxes. Also, they believed that the policy in developed countries should be directed towards both protection of the environment and economic development and support the idea that all countries should cooperate to make environmental friendly changes. In contrast to this, they would not support measures, which would lead to stop working for the electricity power plant they are working for. The majority of them suggested that government, business and industry should take the lead in addressing environmental problems, not people individually. Bord and O’Connor (1997) showed that women perceived specific threats due to global warming as more likely and more serious, and Stedman (2004) reported that women show slightly higher levels of perceived risk of climate change. The existence of a gender effect on affective, but not cognitive risk perception concerning abstract, serious negative consequences may have several explanations. One reason as Loewenstein et al. (2001) asserted, is the ability to form vivid pictures, which some have suggested could account for gender differences and stronger emotional reactions among women. Another reason is a stronger perception of vulnerability among women (Bord and O’Connor, 1997). Thus, a combination of the ability to form vivid pictures and greater feelings of vulnerability may explain why women are more worried than men about climate change. Although the workers are in their majority parents, they did not seem to be more active or concerned about GCC. However, it is said that parents sometimes express worry about the future of their children in discussions about climate change (Sundblad, 2008). According to the literature, most people attributed responsibility for changes at the global and national levels. Responsibility was perceived to lie only very marginally with individuals and families or environmental groups, a significant finding given the impacts household behaviour could have on reduction of greenhouse gases emissions (Norton and Leaman, 2004). Also, Lorenzoni and Pidgeon (2006) suggest that such a pattern of results could reflect perceived low individual efficacy, showing simultaneously that people believe that GCC is a problem too large and complex for individuals to address by themselves. People generally feel they are not personally able to engage in behavioural change unless enabled to do so by institutions with wide ranging powers, while acknowledging their own moral contribution towards climate change and duty to address this (Bickerstaff and Walker, 2002). Also, workers believed that they know all the impacts their electricity power station has on GCC and the environmental degradation of their region but they are still working there because of economic reasons. This fact also confirms the opinion that their behaviour was affected mostly by their personal benefits and not by global benefits.
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Organisations and communities can encourage positive initiatives by creating opportunities and incentives for individual action. They also can make individual efforts a part of broader social efforts of the community, work organisations, religious groups, etc. so that individuals have support and encouragement as they attempt to preserve their environment (Patchen, 2006). Environmental consciousness is a significant factor in the formation of a responsible environmental behaviour. The mass media can fortify the extent of environmental consciousness of the community via release of environmental information (Skanavis and Sakellari, 2007). It has previously been shown that media can play a decisive role in shaping people’s perceptions of GCC, but due to the lack of media interest in the issue, the observations have been influenced by such external sources of information (Byg and Salick, 2009). Hence, there is a need for future public awareness activities on giving basic information about GCC, in order to help not only this group of workers but all the residents of Skyros Island, to understand how this great environmental issue will affect their lives, their region, their country and the planet. Often, communication campaigns telling people how they should feel and behave are unlikely to have a straightforward effect on an individual’s behaviour or to make him more active by appealing to his moral concerns (Botetzagias et al, 2014). Finally, it is important to mention that it would be of particular interest the same case scenario to be surveyed in other, similar, Greek power stations. This would enable us to determine if the specific behaviour observed in workers at the Skyros station is connected to the state of art management of this station. The specific station at Skyros Island is well-known for its environmental innovations. Efficient procedures are enforced in all sections that have to do with maintenance and supportive operations. The local Skyros power station has been recorded as a model station for promoting environmentally friendly behaviour. So the question that could arise, is if the knowledge, attitude and workers’ behaviour is based on their individual personality or it is a result of the specific administration infrastructure.
References Abdel-Monem, T., Pytlikzillig, M.L., Bernadt, K.T. and Wall, N. (2014) Climate Change Survey Measures: Exploring Perceived Bias and Question Interpretation, Publications of Affiliated Faculty, Nebraska Public Policy Center, University of Nebraska Great Plains Research, Fall, Vol. 24, pp.153–168. Bickerstaff, K. and Walker, G. (2002) ‘Risk, responsibility and blame: an analysis of vocabularies of motive in air-pollution(ing) discourses’, Environment and Planning, Vol. A 34, No. 12, pp.2175–2192. Bord, R.J. and O’Connor, R.E. (1997) ‘The gender gap in environmental attitudes: the case of perceived vulnerability to risk’, Social Science Quarterly, Vol. 78, No. 4, pp.830–840. Botetzagias, I., Malesios, C. and Poulou, D. (2014) ‘Electricity curtailment behaviours in Greek households: different behaviours, different predictors’, Energy Policy, June, Vol. 69, pp.415–424, doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2014.03.005.
Power plant workers’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviour on climate change 403 Byg, A. and Salick, J. (2009) ‘Local perspectives on a global phenomenon – climate change in Eastern Tibetan villages’, Global Environmental Change, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp.156–166. Chatzimouratidis, A.I. and Pilavachi, P.A. (2008) ‘Multicriteria evaluation of power plants impact on the living standard using the analytic hierarchy process’, Energy Policy, Vol. 36, No. 3, pp.1074–1089. Eurobarometer (2007) Attitudes on Issues Related to EU Energy Policy – Analytic Report (Flash Eurobarometer 206a), European Commission, Europe. Eurobarometer (2009) Europeans’ Attitudes towards Climate Change, Eurobarometer 69 [online] /http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_322_en.pdfS (accessed 31 March 2015). Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2005) Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage, IPCC special report prepared by Working Group III of the Intergovernmental Panel in Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, New York. Kuckartz, U. (2009) ‘Europeans’ perceptions of climate change and global warming: a micro-macro analysis’, ESA2009 – 9th Conference of European Sociological Association, Lisbon, Research Network 12 ‘Environment and Society’. Leiserowitz, A., Maibach, E., Roser-Renouf, C. and Smith, N. (2010) Climate Change in the American Mind: Americans’ Global Warming Beliefs and Attitudes in June 2010, Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, Yale University and George Mason University, New Haven, CT. Loewenstein, G.F., Weber, E.U., Hsee, C.K. and Welch, N. (2001) ‘Risk as feelings’, Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 127, No. 2, pp.267–286. Lorenzoni, I. and Pidgeon, N.F. (2006) ‘Public views on climate change: European and USA perspectives’, Climatic Change, Vol. 77, No. 1, pp.73–95. Loureiro, M.L., Labandeira, X. and Hanemann, M. (2012) ‘Unrevealing public preferences for climate change policies in Spain: a hybrid’, Mixture Model. Selected Paper prepared for presentation at the Agricultural & Applied. Economics Association’s 2012 AAEA Annual Meeting, Seattle, Washington, 12–14 August. Lynn, P. and Longhi, S. (2011) ‘Environmental attitudes and behaviour: who cares about climate change?’, in Garrington, S.L. (Ed.): Understanding Society: Early Findings from the First Wave of the UK’s Household Longitudinal Study, pp.109–116, Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex, Colchester, UK. Manolas, E.I., Tampakis, S.A. and Karanikola, P.P. (2010) ‘Climate change: the views of forestry students in a Greek university’, International Journal of Environmental Studies, Vol. 67, No. 4, pp.599–609. Markandya, A. and Wilkinson, P. (2007) ‘Energy and health 2: electricity generation and health’, Lancet, Vol. 370, No. 9591, pp.379–390. Mings, L. (2008) Determination of Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices on Climate Change Issues, Environment Tourism Consulting, St. John’s, Antigua. Murphy, T.P. (2004) A Survey of Adult Environmental Knowledge, Attitudes and Behavior, pp.1–94, Minnesota Report Card on Environmental Literacy, Hamline University. Norton, A. and Leaman, J. (2004) The Day After Tomorrow: Public Opinion on Climate Change, Market and Opinion Research International (Social Research Institute), London. Patchen, M. (2006) Public Attitudes and Behavior about Climate Change: What Shapes Them and How to Influence Them, PCCRC Outreach Publication 0601, Purdue Climate Change Research Center. Pidgeon, N.F., Lorenzoni, I. and Poortinga, W. (2008) ‘Climate change or nuclear power – No Thanks! A quantitative study of perceptions and risk framing in Britain’, Global Environmental Change, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp.69–85.
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Poortinga, W. and Pidgeon, N.F. (2003) ‘Exploring the dimensionality of trust in risk regulation’, Risk Analysis, Vol. 23, No. 5, pp.961–972. Skanavis, C. and Sakellari, M. (2007) ‘Assessment of environmental intention of journalists’, Applied Environmental Education & Communication, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp.233–240. Skanavis, C. and Sakellari, M. (2011) ‘International tourism, domestic tourism and environmental change: environmental education can find the balance’, Tourismos: An International Multidisciplinary Refereed Journal of Tourism, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp.233–249. Skanavis, C., Giannoulis, C. and Skanavis, V. (2014) ‘The significance of the environmental communication for the renewable energy governance scenario: who decides for whom’, in Michalena, E. and Hills, J.M. (Eds.): Renewable Energy (RE) Governance: Complexities and Challenges’, Lecture Notes in Energy, pp.351–362, Springer, London. Stedman, R.C. (2004) ‘Risk and climate change: perceptions of key policy actors in Canada’, Risk Analysis, Vol. 24, No. 4, pp.1395–1406. Sundblad, E-L. (2008) People’s Knowledge about Climate Change: Uncertainty as a Guide to Future Commitments, Doctoral dissertation at the University of Gothenburg. Upham, P., Whitmarsh, L., Poortinga, W., Purdam, K., Darnton, A., McLachlan, C. and Devine-Wright, P. (2009) Public Attitudes to Environmental Change: a Selective Review of Theory and Practice, A Research Synthesis for the Living with Environmental Change Programme, Research Councils UK.
Appendix Questionnaire about climate change This survey is addressed to workers in the electricity power plant. It is very important all the questions to be answered with honesty. 1
Gender □ Male
□ Female
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How old are you? _________
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Education background □ Up to high-school □ High-school graduate □ University graduate □ Master degree □ PhD
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Marital status □ Single □ Married □ Married with children
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What is your main job at this electricity power station? (p.g. mechanic, technician, engineer, assistant engineer, etc.) ______________________
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Do you know what the term ‘climate change’ means? □ Yes □ No
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If the previous answer is ‘yes’, what does ‘climate change’ mean to you? □ Change in the atmosphere □ Change tin the climate due to human pollution □ Change in the climate □ Change in temperature □ Change in the weather conditions
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What do you think are some of the effects of climate change? [Choose 5 and put them in an order of importance in a scale from 1 (most important) to 5 (less important)]. ___ Global warming ___ Melting of ice caps ___ Rising temperatures ___ Landslides ___ Ozone depletion ___ Sea level rise ___ Coastal erosion ___ Health epidemics ___ Drought ___ Extreme weather ___ Flooding
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Which of the following best describes your views about climate change? □ Climate change is happening mostly because of natural changes in the atmosphere □ Climate change is happening mostly because of human activities such as burning fossil fuels □ Climate change is happening equally of human activity and natural changes □ Climate change is happening but there is not enough evidence to determine its cause □ Climate change is not happening
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10 Which do you consider are the most serious problems currently facing the world as a whole? (Max three answers) □ Poverty, lack of food and drinking water □ A major economic downturn □ Climate change □ Armed conflicts □ The increasing world population □ The proliferation of nuclear weapons □ The spread of infectious disease □ I do not know 11 Which of the following do you think will affect your region? □ Rising temperatures □ Melting ice caps □ Global warming □ Landslides □ Increasing of taxes □ Sea level rise □ Coastal erosion □ Health epidemics □ Drought □ Extremely weather conditions □ Flooding 12 Using a scale from 0 to 10, capture how serious a problem you think is right now? (Where 0 is no important and 10 is extremely important problem). 0
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Power plant workers’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviour on climate change 407 13 Personally, which of the following represents your opinion about how climate system works? □ Earth’s climate is slow to change. Global warming will gradually lead to dangerous effects. □ Earth’s climate is delicately balanced. Small amounts of global warming will have abrupt and catastrophic effects. □ Earth’s climate is stable. Global warming will have little to no effects. □ Earth’s climate is stable within certain limits. If global warming is small, climate will return to a stable balance. □ If it is large, there will be dangerous effects. □ Earth’s climate is random and unpredictable. 14 Climate change is a very important problem that will have negative consequences for: □ Our generation □ The next generation □ The more distant generations □ Have no negative consequences 15 Personally, how well informed do you think you are or not about the consequences of climate change? (Give a score on a scale 1 to 10, 1 = a little bit informed, and 10 = well informed) 0
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16 Which of the following factors do you think contribute to the problem of climate change (in a scale from 1 to 10), in order of importance? (Choose 5 factors) 0
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___ Industrial activity ___ Deforestation ___ Chemical products including CFC’s ___ Electrical power plants ___ Means of transport ___ Central heating ___ The increase of global population ___ Increased volcanic activity 17 What are the main sources of your information to climate change? □ Media □ Internet □ Regional and international organisations □ NGO’s 18 How is most of the electricity generated in Greece? □ By burning fossil fuels as coal, oil □ With wind farms □ Through solar energy □ At hydroelectric power plants □ I do not know 19 Do you know the electric power plant you are working to, how much contributes to climate change and the environmental degradation of your region? □ Yes □ No 20 If the answer is yes, why are you still working there? □ For economic reasons (high salaries, allowances, etc.) □ I have no other choice □ I did not know the significance of the operating impact of the unit into the environment □ Other_____________________________________________________________
Power plant workers’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviour on climate change 409 21 I am very concerned about global warming and climate change. □ Strongly agree □ Agree □ Slightly agree □ Disagree □ Strongly disagree 22 How concerned or worried are you and people in your social network about the issue of global warming and climate change (using a scale 1–10) 0
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___ You ___ Your family ___ Your friends ___ Your colleagues ___ The residents of your region 23 My actions to reduce the effects of global warming and climate change in my community will encourage others to reduce the effects of global warming. □ Strongly agree □ Agree □ Slightly agree □ Disagree □ Strongly disagree □ I do not know 24 Who should be responsible for financing adaptation measures? □ Governance □ Government via tax payers □ Private sector □ Conservation NGO’s □ Donor agencies □ Other
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25 What changes would you be willing to make to reduce the country’s vulnerability to climate change impacts? □ Supporting the use of less damaging energy sources (example wind energy) □ Supporting national environmental policies □ Driving more fuel efficient vehicles □ Using public transportation □ Driving less □ Reusing sand recycling materials □ Using compact florescent bulbs 26 Have you generally taken actions aimed at helping to fight climate change? □ Reduce energy consumption at home □ Not reduce energy consumption at home □ Participate in NGO, supporting public actions □ Not participate in NGO, supporting public actions □ Not supporting public actions 27 ‘In the general public, it is often discussed that some people’s knowledge and attitudes towards climate change are different from their behaviour’. Do you agree with this gap? □ Agree □ Slightly agree □ Disagree 28 Why do you think this happen?___________________________________________ 29 What do you think is the reason that people are not active? (Choose three answers and put them in numbered significance. The most important figure 1 to the least significant Figure 3.) __ ‘What I have to do with climate change that does not interest me. I behave in the same way as ever’. __ ‘Habits and convenience’. People have acquired their habits during long periods of their lives and they want to keep them. Or others are simply too lazy to change their behaviour. __ Do not think about it – people are living their daily lives, they are not thinking about what they are doing. __ Lack of knowledge. People are confused by the complexity of problems __ Lack of infrastructure’– e.g., persons live in small villages with poor public transport, people cannot behave as they would like to behave.
Power plant workers’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviour on climate change 411 __ The costs of appropriate behaviour are too high. People do not have the money to show the appropriate behaviour. 30 How often do you do each of the following things? Always
Very often
Quite often
Not very often
Never
Leave your TV on standby for the night Switch off lights in rooms that are not being used Keep the tap running while you brush your teeth Put more clothes on when you feel cold rather than Putting the heating on or turn it up Decide not to buy something because you feel it has too much packaging Buy recycled paper products such as toilet paper or tissues Take your own shopping bag when shopping Use public transport rather than travel be car Walk or cycle for short distances Take fewer flights when possible
31 Which of these things best describes how you feel about your current lifestyle and the environment? □ I am happy with what I do at the moment □ I would like to do a bit more to help the environment □ I would like to do much more to help the environment 32 Which of these things best describes how you feel about your current lifestyle? □ I do not really do anything that is environmentally friendly □ I do one or two things that are environmentally friendly □ I do quite a few things that are environmentally friendly □ I am environmentally friendly in most things I do □ I am environmentally friendly in everything I do
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33 You personally agree or do not agree to each of the following statements: I agree
I do not agree
My behaviour and everyday lifestyle contribute to climate change I would be prepared to pay more for environmentally friendly products If things continue on their current course, we will soon experience a major disaster The so-called ‘environmental crisis’ facing humanity has been greatly exaggerated Climate change is beyond control – it is too late to do anything about it The effects of climate change are too far in the future to really worry me Any changes I make to help the environment need to fit in with my lifestyle It is not worth to me doing things to help the environment if others do not do the same People globally will be affected by climate change in the next 30 years People in Greece will be affected by climate change in the next 200 years
34 Do you think that the policy in the developed countries should be: □ Much more directed towards economic development □ Much more directed towards protection of the environment □ Directed toward: both objectives: protection of the environment and economic development 35 Do you think that any country can by itself do enough against these changes? □ Yes □ No 36 Do you think that the efforts to solve the problem are a waste of time in the absence of an international treaty, e.g., Kyoto Protocol □ Yes □ No □ I do not know 37 Are you prepared to support measures which would contribute to cutting the emission of the greenhouse and to the imposition of environmental taxes? □ Yes □ No
Power plant workers’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviour on climate change 413 38 Will you support measures that will lead to stop working of the electricity power plant that you are working? □ Yes □ No 39 Who should take the lead in addressing environmental problems? □ Government □ Individuals □ Business and industry □ Local government □ Scientists □ Environmental groups
