Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies

How diversity plays into going to the beach.

Invisible barriers have kept people of color at bay.

Climate Lab, a new YouTube series by Vox and the University of California that explores the behavioral science of climate change and attempts to mitigate it, is a smart idea for a series.

“In terms of behavioral change, we need two things,” said Magali Delmas, a professor at the Institute of Environment and Sustainability at UCLA and the Anderson School of Management. “We need first to increase awareness, and then second, we need to find the right motivations for people to change their behavior.”

What I learned through Climate Lab, a new video series I’m hosting in partnership with the University of California and Vox, is that most climate change messaging is filled with doom and gloom. This has the opposite effect in getting us to care and take action. Human nature is hard-wired for optimism, and we shut...

Magali Delmas, a professor at the Institute of Environment and Sustainability at UCLA and the Anderson School of Management is on the hunt for these motivations, looking for simple ways to make climate change personal.

IoES and Department of English Professor Ursula Heise has been awarded this year’s British Society for Literature and Science (BSLS) prize for best book in the field of literature and science published in 2016. Her book, “Imagining Extinction: The Cultural Meanings of Endangered Species,” explores extinction, endangered species and wildlife conservation through the lens of culture and...

Jon Christensen, an adjunct assistant professor at UCLA’s Institute on the Environment and Sustainability, found the condition of the ocean and beaches is personally important to 90 percent of Californians. Another survey of people at Southern California beaches found people want clean sand and water. 

“There are historically patterns of visitation and discrimination … where people feel they’re welcome (at some beaches) and where they might not feel as welcome (at others),” said Jon Christensen, a researcher at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA who co-authored the study.

 “In our research we found that the cost of staying overnight at the coast can be a real burden for some Californians,” said Jon Christensen, a researcher at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. 

“This new research shows that we are at a tipping point where deciding to visit the coast is a close call for most Californians, given the cost,” said Jon Christensen, lead investigator for the study at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.