Human Behavior and Environmental Sustainability

Book excerpt: Environmental sustainability is a necessity for all countries worldwide, and it is strongly related to human quality of life. Given that sustainability problems largely result from human-environment interactions, social and behavioral research is developing as a necessary complement to natural-science and technological studies of environmental problems. To demonstrate this, the various authors address key theoretical, methodological and policy-making questions about the behavioral dimensions of environmental sustainability. Successively considered are the appreciation of environmental risk, citizens’ annoyance from environmental noise, the evaluation of urban environmental quality, the restorative significance of nature experiences, fundamental behavioral processes and environmental motivations, and unsustainable-behavior change and the roles of technology therein. The usefulness of multidisciplinary research is emphasized. Finally explicated is psychology’s drive and potential for analyzing and supporting environmental sustainability as a long-term human social and economic interest.