Harnessing Spirituality and Science: The Impact of Diverse Epistemic Frameworks on Climate Action

Mainstream attempts to enhance climate concern and action often identify non-scientific, spiritual, or otherwise non-empirical perceptions of climate change as a key hindrance to progress. Yet while scientific knowledge has consolidated an extensive understanding of environmental changes, there has been growing recognition of indigenous knowledge systems at the international level through initiatives such as the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and by environmentalist movements and academics. Indigenous knowledge, which is deeply rooted in local ecosystems and long-term observations, provides insights into sustainable practices and resilience strategies that are typically overlooked and marginalized by dominant scientific paradigms. In our study, we challenge this notion, arguing that an awareness of these different knowledge frameworks is essential to understanding and motivating attitudes and actions towards the climate crisis. Drawing upon an original, representative 2023 survey of climate attitudes in the Philippines, we use multiple regression to investigate how four different epistemic frameworks relating to climate attribution (pro-scientific, religious, spiritual, or denialist anti-climate science) impact motivation to take pro-climate action (e.g., voting, protesting, changing behaviors). Findings suggest that although all three pro-climate frames are linked to increased overall action, individuals who interpret extreme weather by drawing upon spiritual and religious frameworks—specifically, the belief that humans are disrupting the natural balance of “Mother Earth,” or that climate change is a punishment from God—are the most likely to engage in pro-climate protests. Thus, emotional and spiritual connections, such as the reverence for Mother Earth and God may be even more powerful motivators for collective climate action than scientific facts alone. Robust to social, political, and economic demographics, as well as objective climate exposure, results underscore the need to acknowledge and integrate multiple epistemologies in times of the Anthropocene in support of more inclusive and effective climate action across diverse communities.