Boj proti podnebnim spremembam kot problem obsežnega kolektivnega delovanja

Climate change is the biggest challenge of our time. Its consequences include global warming, frequent and more destructive natural disasters, ocean acidification, rising sea levels, destruction of ecosystems and the loss of biodiversity. Besides the environmental degradation, climate change will have negative effects on the global economy and the health and living conditions of communities all over the world. Urgent action is needed to mitigate climate change, however, all the responses and mitigative efforts have been so far unsuccessful in reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, the main anthropogenic driver of climate change. This master thesis aims to uncover and understand some of the reasons behind the individual inaction regarding this issue. It hypothesizes that this is due to the collective action problem structure of climate change mitigation. To test this hypothesis, it is shown climate change has all characteristics of a large-scale collective action problem: large number of involved actors, spatial and temporal distance, and high levels of complexity. These give rise to the stressors that impede factors that influence individual cooperative behaviour, such as anonymity, lack of accountability, risk and uncertainty, cognitive limitations, and emotional detachment. Further interdisciplinary research is needed to better understand (and hopefully solve) the conflict between individual short-term and collective long-term interests in the collective problem of climate change mitigation.Podnebne spremembe so največji izziv našega časa. Njihove posledice so globalno segrevanje, pogostejše in bolj uničujoče naravne nesreče, zakisljevanje oceanov, dviganje morske gladine, uničevanje ekosistemov in izguba biotske raznovrstnosti. Poleg degradacije okolja podnebne spremembe negativno vplivajo tudi na svetovno gospodarstvo ter zdravje in življenjske razmere ljudi po vsem svetu. Za ublažitev podnebnih sprememb je potrebno nujno ukrepati, vendar so bili doslej vsi odzivi neuspešni pri zmanjševanju emisij toplogrednih plinov, ki so glavni antropogeni dejavnik podnebnih sprememb. Namen tega magistrskega dela je odkriti in razumeti razloge za neukrepanje posameznikov v zvezi s to problematiko. Predpostavljamo, da je razlog za to struktura problema kolektivna delovanja, ki jo ima blaženje podnebnih sprememb. Za preverjanje te hipoteze smo prikazali, da imajo podnebne spremembe vse značilnosti obsežnega problema kolektivnega delovanja: veliko število vključenih akterjev, prostorsko in časovno oddaljenost ter visoko stopnjo kompleksnosti. Posledica teh so stresni dejavniki, na primer anonimnost, pomanjkanje odgovornosti, tveganje, negotovost, kognitivne omejitve in čustvena odmaknjenost, ki negativno vplivajo na kooperativno vedenje posameznikov. Nadaljne interdisciplinarne raziskave so potrebne za boljše razumevanje konflikta med posameznikovimi kratkoročnimi in kolektivnimi dolgoročnimi interesi pri blaženju podnebnih sprememb kot problemu kolektivnega delovanja