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E-International Scientific Research JournalISSN: 2094-1749 Volume: 2 Issue: 4, 2010LIFESTYLES OF CITY BARANGAY RESIDENTSASSOCIATED TO CLIMATE CHANGEDaylinda Luz R. Laput and Jay D. TelenResearch Director, Jose Rizal Memorial State University, Dipolog Campus, Dipolog CityDean, Student Affairs and Services, Jose Rizal Memorial State University, Main Campus,Dapitan CityAbstractThis study determines the lifestyles associated to climate change among the residents inthe city barangays of Dipolog and Dapitan. Results revealed that the study is dominated withstudents and young professionals with ages 11 to 29 years old whose behaviors and practicesin the workplace, at home and workplace combined, in social and economic interactions, andin the home seemed to have mitigated and aggravated the impact on climate change. Lifestylesof respondents in the workplace ranked highest. It was also found out that there was nodifference on the lifestyles at home, in the workplace, in social and economic interactions, inthe home and workplace combined between professionals and non-professionals in Dipologand Dapitan cities. It concludes that practices of office workers and homemakers prove to haveincreased or aggravated the effect of climate change yet they have compelling reasons to bevalue-focused in some ways like being organized, health conscious and comfortable. Itrecommends that lifestyles of residents in highly urbanized areas have to be subjected to somebehavior modifications. Private and joint adaptations have to be enforced to reduce themagnitude of harm brought about by environmental changes. And the government needs toinitiate policies on joint adaptation, to carefully design efficient responses which treat arisingproblems associated to climate change.Keywords: climate change, mitigating, aggravating lifestylesIntroductionClimate change has indeed remained a dynamic and alarming issue in almost allconventions of men, since it demands an increasing sense of urgency. Many have now felt andexperienced the impact of climate change to the environment, public health, the globaleconomy, global security, and the civil society.Convincingly, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2001)enumerated some of the occurrences that indicate climate change and these include thespreading of disease, plant and animal range shifts and population changes, coral reefbleaching, downpours, heavy snowfalls and flooding, droughts and fires. According to them,these are only a few of the increasing body of observations which give a collective picture of awarming world and other changes in the climate system.334
E-International Scientific Research JournalISSN: 2094-1749 Volume: 2 Issue: 4, 2010The excerpts of McCosker (2009) from a summary of the 2009 Copenhagen Accord onGlobal Climate Change and an examination of Australia's position on the environment,explicitly expressed that climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. Ourstrong political will must be emphasized to urgently combat climate change in accordance withthe principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.John Holdren (2007), President of the American Association for the Advancement ofScience, further added that we basically have three choices - mitigation, adaptation, andsuffering. We are going to do some of each. The question is what the mix is going to be. Themore mitigation we do, the less adaptation will be required, and the less suffering there willbe.This phenomenon could be attributed to the behaviors, practices and lifestyles of thepeople who have dwelt and continually exploited the natural resources and have constantlydone activities that pose threats to the environment. Only men could find ways to mitigate orperhaps totally solve these threatening environmental conditions. Thus, this paper anchored onsome theories that would somehow help elucidate some concepts on people’s behaviors andpractices and the consequences that they may bring to their personal lives, to the lives of othersand to the environment as a whole. One of which is the Social Cognitive Theory of Banduraand Mischel (1999) cited by Pervin & John (2001) that emphasizes the social origins ofbehavior and the importance of cognitive thought processes in all aspects of humanfunctioning-motivation, emotion, and action. The theory suggests that behavior can beexplained in terms of an interaction between the person and the environment. People areinfluenced by environmental forces, but they also choose how to behave. The person is bothresponsive to situations and actively constructs and influences situations. People selectsituations as well as being shaped by them; they influence the behavior of others as well asbeing shaped by the behavior of others. According to social cognitive theory, behavior issituation-specific and people have distinctive patterns of behaving in situations.The theory further proposes that behavior change is affected by environmentalinfluences, personal factors, and attributes of the behavior itself. Each may affect or be affectedby either of the other two. A central tenet of social cognitive theory is the concept of selfefficacy.A person must believe in his or her capability to perform the behavior (i.e., the personmust possess self-efficacy) and must perceive an incentive to do so (i.e., the person's positiveexpectations from performing the behavior must outweigh the negative expectations).Additionally, a person must value the outcomes or consequences that he or she believes willoccur as a result of performing a specific behavior or action.This is also supported with the theory of reasoned action which states that individualperformance of a given behavior is primarily determined by a person's intention to perform thatbehavior. This intention is determined by two major factors: the person's attitude toward thebehavior (i.e., beliefs about the outcomes of the behavior and the value of these outcomes) andthe influence of the person's social environment or subjective norm (i.e., beliefs about whatother people think the person should do, as well as the person's motivation to comply with theopinions of others). The theory of planned behavior adds to the theory of reasoned action theconcept of perceived control over the opportunities, resources, and skills necessary to performa behavior. The concept of perceived behavioral control is similar to the concept of selfefficacy-- person's perception of his or her ability to perform the behavior. Perceivedbehavioral control over opportunities, resources, and skills necessary to perform a behavior isbelieved to be a critical aspect of behavior change processes.335
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