Environmental Engagement of Older Adults

This article is a truncated historical overview of the elderly’s involvement in environmental issues. Starting with Scriptural archetypes and leaping centuries forward to sketch the biographies of some people who in old age wished to preserve, conserve or replenish Nature’s bounty. Seniors presently have special roles to play in defining common ground in the environmental movement. “Green seniors” willing and capable of expressing the wisdom of years can leave an important legacy by actualizing their gifts of elderhood.

In this article, the authors sketch the outlines of a new institutional arrangement intended to promote extensive engagement of older Americans in contributions to their communities throughout the nation. The American Community Environmental Services would deploy large cadres of older people and some younger people, both as employees and as volunteers, in careers devoted to achieving short-and long-term environmental goals. As the authors describe, their plan for adequate attention to the environment, especially climate change, requires the creation of an institution that goes beyond volunteering and rather is based on paid-career environmental jobs.

Interest in civic engagement focused on the natural environment has grown dramatically, as has the population of older adults. This article explores the potential for increased environmental volunteerism among older adults to enrich the lives of volunteers while benefitting the community and environmental quality. Curiously, this convergence has been relatively neglected by researchers and program developers. The authors review existing literatures on trends in volunteerism, motivations, benefits, and barriers to participation, with a special focus on elements most relevant to older adults. Based on this review, the authors identify a number of critical areas of research, and pose key research questions.

Sustainable development is challenged by the exponential growth of the older population, which threatens available resources. In this paper, the authors question current negative views in the ageing debate by considering the ageing process from a philosophical perspective. By focusing on frailty, a feature that is usually associated with old age, the authors show that ageing can be the means to highlight the constitutive vulnerable condition of human beings which makes them exposed to others. As a result, the authors redefine the relationship between the human and the natural world as one of co-constitution and reciprocal sustenance and promotion. They claim, on the basis of social media behavioral analysis, that the elderly could be involved in care practices of other human beings and especially of nature, contributing actively to sustainable development.

Since the 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, a global shift in consciousness has taken place around the urgency of the Earth’s climate crisis. Amidst growing panic, teenagers are emerging as key leaders and mobilizers, demanding intergenerational justice and immediate action. They are, however, often depicted as lone revolutionaries or as pawns of adult organizations. These representations obscure the complex and important ways in which climate justice movements are operating, and particularly the ways in which dynamics of age intersect with other axes of power within solidarity efforts in specific contexts. This article explores these dynamics, building on analyses of intersectional and intergenerational solidarity practices. Specifically, it delves into detailed analysis of how the Seattle group of the Raging Grannies, a network of older activists, engaged in Seattle’s ShellNo Action Coalition, mobilizing their age, whiteness, and gender to support racialized and youth activists involved in the coalition.

This study examines the effects of participating in a 12-week environmental volunteering program on the physical performance of older adults across different age groups. The authors conducted a pretest-posttest pilot study with a single group. The intervention consisted of twice-weekly recycling activities and once-weekly rehabilitation exercise at community-based care centers. After the program, the participants showed significantly great improvements compared to baseline in all outcome measures. This innovative environmental volunteering program conducted in a local Taiwanese community can be a sustainable and feasible model to improve physical performance in the participants, the subgroup aged >75 years in particular. It also provides a potential avenue for researchers and policymakers to address environmental and aging-related issues.

This review examines the current state of environmental volunteerism for older adults. Three types of volunteering were identified: greening, recycling, and project-oriented. Their shared factors included physical activity, social connection, and meaningful purpose. Environmental volunteerism associated with benefits in physical health, mental wellbeing, social capital, and personal empowerment with no apparent drawbacks. Retired people find a purpose to live, opportunities for socialization and physical activity, and increased self-esteem in the process. The motivations for initiation and continued engagement were found to be socialization, generativity, usefulness to others, and pro-environmental attitude. Environmental volunteerism may be a positive model for older adults, society, and environment. Policymakers can encourage more older adults to engage in environmental volunteering with concerns of motivations, found by this study.

Older adults provide a long view of understanding environmental engagement from their early beginnings to their current community activities. This study draws on interviews with self-described environmentalists and follows a life course analysis that employs social work values and practice skills as they work towards environmental justice in their Midwestern communities. The authors conclude that the older adults of this second generation of environmentalists offer valuable lessons for social workers with regard to environmental justice, while at the same time contributing insights into older adult volunteering and addressing the challenge of a generational gap in participation in their community organizations.

Getting the growing population of older adults actively involved in issues of climate change requires moving away from a deficit- and loss-focused view of later adulthood. A new narrative should be adopted, recognizing the many contributions older adults can make to addressing the climate crisis. These contributions arise out of concerns for the health and well-being of the next generations and draw on older adults' legacy thinking, lifelong experiences, professional expertise, and ability to work in multigenerational contexts. Such a new narrative recognizes older adults as a "natural resource" and important "human capital."

This article documents the growing involvement of older adults in applied environmental concerns. The article further links this growing involvement to efforts undertaken by various educational forces, many located in the higher education arena. Education is viewed as contributing to individual empowerment. This empowerment is the rationale for senior engagement and changing society's perception of seniors and their rightful roles as stewards and contributors to future sustainability.

The empirical study featuring in this paper is contextualized within the statistics provided by a national survey on older volunteerism. Older volunteers are nowadays viewed as a valuable resource, a reliable and experienced labor pool. In Malta, many persons aged 60 and above volunteer many hours each month in local environmental organizations in their goal to preserve the earth for future generations even though they will not personally see the benefits. Through the data emanating from a qualitative survey this paper highlights the possible positive returns accruing from green volunteering in later life which are of a physical, cognitive, and social nature. It thus argues that there is a potential for a greater number of older people to volunteer in green nongovernmental organizations. It is on this basis that a number of policy options and action strategies to improve the engagement of older persons in green volunteering are recommended.

The objective of this pilot study was to investigate the feasibility of an environmental volunteering program involving park restoration and social activities for older people. Older people face a series of challenges, ranging from social isolation and depression to a lack of exercise, as well as the difficult task of creating new meaning to deal with a decrease in vitality and new social relationships, interests, and commitments. From this perspective, this pilot study aimed to contribute to highlighting if or how these aspects can be positively correlated with organized activities associated with caring for public green spaces. Positive correlations were found between increasing moderate physical activities, walking, and The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) positive feelings. A pro-environmental attitude of the elderly emerged from the qualitative data.

This article examines attempts at one life-plan community to involve older residents in mitigating the effects of global warming and environmental degradation, and, drawing upon lessons learned during the author's long career in the disability advocacy arena, offers guidance on involving older people in confronting the threats posed by climate change.

Although an important and influential demographic, older people have largely been forgotten about in the field of climate change communication and engagement. Despite the United Kingdom (UK) having an ageing population, little is known about how best to involve them in the climate conversation. Based on Climate Outreach's Narrative Workshop methodology, this research contributes towards addressing this gap in the literature by providing some evidence towards what language, values and framing could work well with older people in England, as well as areas to potentially avoid and explore further. The findings of this research demonstrate the importance of community, consideration, responsibility, and an international outlook to the research participants, as well as their views that governments and organizations hold important power in relation to climate change.

Many older adults care about the legacy they leave for their descendants. Yet today's elders are unintentionally leaving a legacy of a future climate that will not enhance the lives of future generations. Exactly the reverse, and the Earth will not be like the one they inherited from their ancestors. Our generation can be said to have made a mess of things for future generations. How can older adults work to build a better climate legacy? This question has become a guiding one for the authors and other elders as they apply their time and expertise to building a better future climate.

Indigenous peoples' diversity and intricate knowledge systems rooted in place-based ecologies have the potential to dismantle institutional barriers and structural disparities, finding relevant ways to reinforce climate justice in their communities. Climate vulnerabilities of some Indigenous communities are being offset by the strength of elder's knowledge, input, and decision-making into valuable adaptation and mitigation strategies. The wisdom of Indigenous elders provides a unique cultural perspective to the changing climate, which may better help characterize the effects of environmental shifts for a more relatable approach to communicating long-term impacts and initiating action.

The baby boom generation will be reaching old age from 2010 to 2030, a time when the human species will need to make enormous changes in response to global warming, species extinction, and other environmental threats. This future, population aging with environmental challenge, is entirely foreseeable. What is unpredictable is how we will respond. This article examines the question, what kind of world will we be leaving to our children and our grandchildren? What is our collective legacy of our time on earth? The author looks at reasons that people do act in behalf of a collective future and envisions the 'eco-elder,' who will embrace a more expansive form of generativity that can inspire creation of a world we can leave behind.

The author argues that today's elders, more than any other age group, bear responsibility for the threat of global warming and climate change, and they need to acknowledge that responsibility. This statement may sound shocking to advocates for the aging. The author states the need to reject excuses that would make elders into victims but never into responsible agents. On the contrary, among all age groups, elders bear major responsibility for climate change because they have contributed to it more than any other age group. Moreover, they are a critical force, with voting power and other resources, who could be agents for acting to prevent the damage that has come about, with that damage to afflict future generations beyond the generation of elders alive today.

Numerous studies of U.S. audiences have examined people’s opinions about anthropogenic climate change and possible response options. Typically, they find that younger adults tend to be more interested in climate change than older people, on average are more concerned, and want to see actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prepare for the impacts of climate change. These insights have led some to either deliberately or unconsciously write off older Americans in terms of targeted engagement. Concern is lower, and due to a shorter remaining lifespan, motivation to fight for a livable future may also be lower. On the other hand, many members of the older age groups are said to hold firm values about civic engagement, vote in greater numbers than younger Americans, and have more time to give to climate activism. So, is it really justified to ignore older Americans when it comes to engaging people on climate change?

Older adults are vulnerable to the effects of climate change, but they represent an enormous resource in efforts to prevent and mitigate its impact. This article summarizes the benefits and barriers associated with environmental activism by older adults. Benefits include enhancing older adults' health, self-efficacy, and generativity, and providing volunteers for environmental organizations and communities. Barriers to widespread engagement of older adults include their lower levels of support for pro-environmental policies and less concern about climate change, and their systematic lack of access to environmental volunteer opportunities. It also outlines efforts to mobilize climate change activism targeted to elders, and addresses barriers grounded in ageism.

Awareness of environmental challenges is increasing at the local, regional and national levels, as society faces such issues as comprised water quality, air pollution, toxic waste, the challenges of sustainable growth, and the negative consequences of global climate change. These problems are directly associated with the health and well-being of individuals and the quality of life within communities. In this article, the authors argue that the older population can constitute a special resource for environmental action in the form of volunteerism and civic engagement.

The threat of global climate change is increasing the incidence of disease, extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and shortages of water and food. If atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gasses grow unabated, it is predicted that widespread ecosystem collapse will ensue. Older people are among those most at risk to climate change because some decreased mobility and changes in physiology, and often more limited access to resources. They are more vulnerable to the effects of temperature extremes and have a significantly higher mortality risk in extreme weather events. The changing climate further will increase vector-borne diseases, compromise agriculture, reduce the availability of fresh water, and decrease habitability of human population centers. Thus, older vulnerable populations will face adaptive challenges to their new environments. Equally critical to efforts to address climate change is expanding and promoting opportunities for older people to act on their own behalf and that of others.

This study tested the hypothesis that volunteering in environmental organizations in midlife is associated with greater physical activity and improved mental and physical health over a 20-year period. The study used data from two waves (1974 and 1994) of the Alameda County Study, a longitudinal study of health and mortality that has followed a cohort of 6,928 adults since 1965. Midlife environmental volunteering was significantly associated with physical activity, self-reported health, and depressive symptoms. This population-based study offers the first epidemiological evidence for a significant positive relationship between environmental volunteering and health and well-being outcomes.

In this article, the authors examine the growing phenomenon of environmental volunteering in later life, including the extent and the possible beneficial effects on older individuals. They explore the approach of environmental organizations toward older volunteers and suggest ways that they can make the most of such involvement. The article is based on data from a series of studies (including large-scale surveys and smaller in-depth interview projects) the authors conducted to shed light on the causes and consequences of environmental volunteering in later life.

Retirees in Service to the Environment (RISE) is a program designed to promote participation of older people in volunteering for the environment. Based on principles of adult learning and best practices for the development of effective volunteer programs, RISE engaged older individuals in environmental volunteering and involved them in community stewardship activities. The authors describe program assessment, benefits to the community, and effects on participants. The program successfully recruited individuals new to environmental volunteering and substantial hours of volunteer time were provided to communities. The innovative structure combined with local relevance of the RISE program has the potential to expand older adults' engagement in environmental volunteerism.

In this article, the author frames why we need to focus more attention on an important and growing resource, older adults, to help respond to a pressing and growing problem, climate change. Along the way, data is briefly reviewed on the growing consensus on the need for action, why the next few years are especially important, and strategies for moving older adults from anxiety to action on climate change.

Older adults are an untapped resource for leading sustainability change. This study assessed a pilot study of a Sustainability Ambassadors Training Program for older adults. The pilot training program was conducted with a sample of 14 older adults over a single day, with some follow-up activities for participants at home. A brief researcher-devised empowerment scale was administered pre- and postworkshop. Quantitative data revealed that sustainability empowerment increased from pre- to post-training sessions and was related to the number of sustainability actions participants thought were achievable. The data suggest that such a brief training workshop can both yield personal change and potentially provide opportunities for a peer network to facilitate change within communities.

The environment is a natural connector of generations; younger people and older people are looking for ways to improve the state of the natural world in which we live. This article describes the benefits of intergenerational environmental programs and shows why this work is compelling for both environmental and intergenerational practitioners. The authors highlight a number of creative and successful programs that serve as inspiration for those interested in expanding into this field and provide recommendations for developing intergenerational programs.

The aim of this paper is to use Erikson's approach to human development, and specifically generativity, as a framework by which to explore older people's experiences of environmental stewardship activities. Using data from a large qualitative study of environmental volunteer residents in the coastal fringes of Queensland, Australia, the paper provides important, illustrative, empirical support for Erikson's theory of generativity in later life. Findings suggest that older people are much more likely to connect their environmental actions with the longer-term future, and express a need to leave a lasting legacy for future generations. Whilst the work presented here is only a small, localized study, use of Erikson's theory of human development as a framework helps demonstrate the importance of a generative response in later life.

Retirees offer a promising resource to help address contemporary environmental crises. In this chapter, the authors use the Reasonable Person Model (RPM) as a framework to examine environmental stewardship among retirees. Drawing on both qualitative and quantitative data from the Retirees in Service to the Environment (RISE) program developed at Cornell University, the authors consider how program design characteristics consistent with RPM are likely to lead to positive outcomes (e.g., making a difference or generativity and social connection or participation). They employ RPM holistically in their analysis (model building, being effective, meaningful action), with particular focus on the themes of understanding, competence, participation, and making a difference.

The natural environment has been a missing part of the context in public policy forums and educational programs when discussing the implications of an aging society. The authors believe that stewardship and the sustainability of natural resources should be considered in addition to economics and health care when addressing the themes of well-being and quality of life for future generations. This article presents on overview of the usage of the concept environment in aging studies and presents critically important concepts such as sustainability, stewardship, natural capital, carrying capacity, and ecological footprint in recognizing the relevancy of including the natural environment in discussions about our aging society. The authors propose directions for future research and discuss advocacy and organizational activities related to ecology and aging studies.

Long time horizons and social distance are viewed as key psychological barriers to proenvironmental action, particularly regarding climate change. The authors tested whether individuals’ motivation to leave a positive legacy can be leveraged to increase engagement with climate change and other environmental problems. In a pilot study, the authors found that individual differences in legacy motivation were positively associated with proenvironmental behaviors and intentions. In a subsequent experiment, the authors demonstrated that priming legacy motives increased donations to an environmental charity, proenvironmental intentions, and climate-change beliefs. Domain-general legacy motives represent a previously understudied and powerful mechanism for promoting proenvironmental behavior.