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Israel and Climate Change: a National Portrait of Inaction

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Israel and Climate Change: a National Portrait of Inaction Israel and Climate Change: A National Portrait of Inaction Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of “DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY” by LuCy MiChaels Submitted to the Senate of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev 23.10.2012 Beer-Sheva v Israel and Climate Change: A National Portrait of Inaction Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of “DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY” by LuCy MiChaels Submitted to the Senate of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Approved by the advisors Approved by the Dean of the Kreitman School of Advanced Graduate Studies ___________________________________________________ vi 23.10.2012 Beer-Sheva This work was carried out under the supervision of Prof. Alon Tal (principal advisor) Dr. Yaakov Garb Dr. Tally Katz-Gerro, Haifa University In the Albert Katz International School of Desert Studies The Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University vii Research-Student's Affidavit when Submitting the Doctoral Thesis for Judgment I, Lucy Michaels, whose signature appears below, hereby declare that (Please mark the appropriate statements): _X__ I have written this Thesis by myself, except for the help and guidance offered by my Thesis Advisors. ___ The scientific materials included in this Thesis are products of my own research, culled from the period during which I was a research student. ___ This Thesis incorporates research materials produced in cooperation with others, excluding the technical help commonly received during experimental work. Therefore, I am attaching another affidavit stating the contributions made by myself and the other participants in this research, which has been approved by them and submitted with their approval. Date: ___23.12.2012______________ Student's name: ___Lucy Michaels___________ ! Signature: __________________ or of the School …………… Date ………….… viii Israel and Climate Change: A National Portrait of Inaction Author: Lucy Michaels Advisors: Professor Alon Tal, Dr Yaakov Garb, Professor Tally Katz-Gerro (Haifa University). This dissertation explores why, despite overwhelming scientific evidence, countries are still failing to take appropriate action to address climate change. It uses Israel as a case study to highlight how modern democracies and the general public (s) use resonant discourse, rooted in local worldviews and beliefs, to justify their failure to promote climate change legislation and to adopt climate-friendly behaviour. The dissertation employs a mixed-method approach to present a rich and complex national portrait of Israeli climate change (in) action. It draws on both quantitative methods (survey analysis and media content analysis) and interpretative methods (a critical frame analysis of key texts including policy documents, official government statements and protocols, conference and interview transcripts and news articles). The quantitative findings offer strong support for the interpretative findings. The dissertation presents evidence for how pre-existing societal worldviews and beliefs are coloring Israeli perceptions and discourse around climate change. It illustrates how internationally identifiable responses to climate change receive local expression. For example, one prominent discourse relates to the Middle East conflict and the belief that Israelis have ‘more important things to worry about’, reflecting the widely identified ‘finite pool of worry thesis’. Specific religious and national groupings also hold specific beliefs about climate change that are influencing their responses. For example, the mainstream Jewish Israeli belief in Israel’s scientific and technological prowess encourages a sense of techno-optimism about climate techno-fixes; ‘climate fatalism’ in the generally disempowered Arab public; ‘climate skepticism’ among Russian immigrants influenced by the Russian media; and climate change as an opportunity for Orthodox Jews to critique materialistic secular lifestyles. The dissertation also illustrates how specific policy discourses about climate change allow policymakers to be seen to pursue climate policy, while actually pursuing wider goals: from economic growth and national security to improving Israel’s brand image and boosting the environmental credentials of the political Right. Lastly, the research offers an analytic framework to assess how likely it is that current Israeli discourses around climate change will motivate appropriate and scientifically validated action. This ‘frame resonance’ framework illustrates that although some of ways in which climate change is framed in Israel may be very resonant (either for society as a whole or for specific groupings) none of the current framings promote the thoroughgoing changes that are truly necessary to address climate change. Abstract This dissertation explores why, despite overwhelming scientific evidence, countries are still failing to take appropriate action to address climate change. It uses Israel as a case study to highlight how modern democracies and the general public (s) use resonant discourse, rooted in local worldviews and beliefs, to justify their failure to promote adequate climate change legislation and to adopt climate-friendly behaviours. The dissertation employs a mixed-method approach to present a rich and complex national portrait of Israeli climate change (in) action. It draws on both quantitative methods (survey analysis and media content analysis) and interpretative methods (a critical frame analysis of key texts including policy documents, official government statements and protocols, conference and interview transcripts and news articles). The quantitative findings offer strong support for the interpretative findings. The dissertation presents evidence for how pre-existing societal worldviews and beliefs color Israeli perceptions and discourse around climate change and illustrates how widely identifiable responses to climate change receive local expression. For example, one prominent discourse relates to the Middle East conflict and the belief that Israelis have ‘more important things to worry about’, reflecting the well-known ‘finite pool of worry thesis’. Specific religious and national groupings also hold specific beliefs about climate change that are influencing their responses. For example, the Jewish Israeli belief in Israel’s scientific and technological prowess which promotes techno-optimism about techno-fixes; ‘climate fatalism’ among the disempowered Arab public; ‘climate skepticism’ among Russian immigrants to Israel influenced by the Russian media; and as an opportunity for Orthodox Jews to critique materialistic secular lifestyles. Some discourse also allows policymakers to be seen to pursue climate policy while actually pursuing wider goals: from economic growth and national security to improving Israel’s brand image and boosting the environmental credentials of the political Right. Lastly, the research offers an analytic framework to assess how likely it is that current Israeli discourses around climate change will motivate appropriate and scientifically validated action. This ‘frame resonance’ framework illustrates that although some of ways in which climate change is framed in Israel may be very resonant (either for society as a whole or for specific groupings) none of the current framings promote the thoroughgoing changes that are truly necessary to address climate change. ix Acknowledgements Everything is in God’s hands, except for the heat and the cold. Talmud Avoda Zara 3b Many individuals have contributed to and supported the research presented herein, and I would like to gratefully acknowledge their contributions. I would like to offer special thanks to my three academic supervisors who have supported and believed in this project: Professor Alon Tal who kindly accepted me as his doctoral student, inspired me with confidence and to think creatively, gave invaluable writing advice as well as many unique opportunities to broaden my academic experience; Dr Yaakov Garb who contributed his breadth of knowledge and academic rigour to this dissertation and always encouraged me to sharpen my thinking; and Dr Tally Katz-Gerro for her incisive comments and for helping to resolve some sticky theoretical and methodological issues. I would also like to thank Dr Anthony Leiserowitz of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication who hosted me for the 2009 Fall semester at the Forestry and Environmental Studies School at Yale University as a Fulbright Doctoral Dissertation scholar. I am grateful for his enthusiasm and the time he dedicated to my project. I would also like to thank Maccabi Healthcare who made the 2010 survey data available; Tally Katz-Gerro who made the 2010 Haifa survey data available; and the Heinrich Böll Foundation, who part-funded the 2009 survey research. My academic research was fully funded by a New Immigrant Scientist grant from the Ministry of Absorption and the Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research. I am ever grateful to my academic colleagues and friends for the intellectual succour and inspiration that have helped to shape this thesis: Shiri Bass-Specktor, Adi Inbar, Merav Katz-Kimchi, Shira Leon-Tzchut, David Levy, Naomi Lipstein, Maya Negev, Daniel Orenstein and Na’ama Teschner. I was also fortunate to have Rebecca Spencer as my copy-editor. I also want to thank my friends and comrades in the Israeli environmental movement for involving me so intimately in the their work as a member of the Israeli NGO Delegation to the UNFCCC COP15 in Copenhagen
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