There are a lot of different ingredients necessary to get people to change their behavior as it relates to climate change but primary among them is getting certain demographics to change their definitions about what an environmentalist looks like. I remember on a bike trip through Murphy, North Carolina in rural Appalachia I stopped in a gas station to get a Gatorade and I was thirsty enough that I drank the whole bottle before I left the store. Naturally, I then asked the attendant behind the counter if they had a recycling bin I could put my bottle in. She responded in a way that caught me off guard; something along the lines of “oh honey, we don’t do that up here in Murphy,” said in a smug, self-satisfied way that made it clear that resisting the urban elitist trend of not being wasteful with plastic was a badge of honor in her community. Not recycling was a sign of being a part of the resistance and something to be proud of. 

Not amount of discussion about the perils of climate change and sea level rise would get this person to change her attitude about environmentalism unless her whole community changes its view on what being supportive of the environment means. To her, clearly, “the environmentalist” was a clearly defined trope that she and the people in her community do not identify with. It is something to be ridiculed; a heel. It is much easier for me to identify with being an environmentalist since I live in an area with lots of people that think that’s a good thing. 

This is the basic idea behind “cultural cognition,” the idea that the way we process information is shaped to a large degree on the beliefs and values of those around us. Thus, changing people’s attitudes about climate change requires a reshuffling of how demographic groups like that community in Murphy identify with environmentalism. And this isn’t as hard as it sounds. Rural communities where anti-environmentalist sentiment runs particularly strong often have deep connections to the natural world, and to place. While there may be fewer rock climbers out in the sticks, there are plenty of people that spend just as much time recreating outside when they go hunting. And hunting, in our country, is the largest funder of conservation initiatives at the state level. 

Clearly there is a connection between rural identity and protecting outdoor wilderness experiences. Taking this connection one step further– that climate change is a threat to traditional ways of life in rural America– may not be as hard as it seems. If we can broaden the environmentalist image to include a more rural, conservative understanding of the environment, we might have a chance at changing communities’ minds about how they identify with the environmental movement and, therefore, addressing climate change.