Before we go discuss environmental identity, I would like to go back a bit to talk about a term that is more familiar to us: Identity.
Identities can be considered as internalized structures we have in our brain, used to sort out information about ourselves. A person can have several identities along different dimensions:
· Personal (Self-concept)
· Personal (Self-concept)
· Social (Roles we hold in the society, such as being a mother, daughter, student, female, Christian, Chinese etc.)
· Material (Identifying ourselves based on the tangible things we possess, such as a car or a house. The material self is useful in understanding why some people associate affluence or material wealth with happiness, contributing to consumerism and environmentally unfriendly behaviors)
These identities inform us about who we are, how to think or feel, as well as how to react across different settings.
The Environmental identity presents yet another dimension of how we identify ourselves. Based on ideas from deep ecology, an environmental identity can be defined as “a sense of identity that transcends the individual and encompasses one’s position as part of a living ecosystem”.
There seems to be a tendency for us to incorporate our environment into our sense of self. If so, there will be important consequences on how our environmental identity will affect our behaviors towards the environment. Based on research, people with higher environmental identity are more likely to be supportive of managing forest areas for environmental quality, and they also perceived the need for more regions to be protected.
Through this website, I hope to explore the various aspects of environmental identity and see how efforts can be made to environmentally sustainable behaviors through this identity.