Role of NGOs in Supporting Informational Aspects of Sanospheric Consciousness for Sustainable Development

Lew Gerbilsky, Hanns Moshammer, Juergen Rost, Dennis Kuester, Ninja Raack and Olena Staroseletska

 All knowledge has two dimensions - objective and subjective. Never before has so much objective environmental information been available to mankind but never before has mankind been so overtaxed at integrating such diverse information as use of energy, resource consumption, pollution, environmental health, environmental management, environmental policy etc.. Likewise, it has been very difficult to bridge the gap between objective information and subjective environment-friendly and sustainable behavior. Environmental policy instruments can only be implemented effectively when objectively accurate and up-to-date environmental information is provided continuously and properly understood by its recipients. It appears obvious, that the oversimplified “transmission modelâ€�, in which environmental information systems and the science of environmental informatics are concerned mainly with something, that is generated at a certain point and carried through an information channel (conduit) and then delivered to a receiver, is quite inappropriate because the subjective dimension of the concept of information is missing in this model. Maturana and Varela point out that a model where something such as information is transported from a sender to a receiver is completely misleading (Maturana/Varela 1987). Such an objectivistic model presupposes that actions of the receiver are predetermined mainly by the environmental information itself and not by the structure of receiver’s environmental consciousness, while the importance of information depends not only on which information is transmitted, but also on information processing within the receiver. Information received may trigger (or not trigger) modifications in the receiver’s motivations, intentions and behavior, which are highly dependend on the interpretation made by the structure of receiver’s environmental consciousness and may, or may not, be the ones intended by the sender. Development and application of new, more integrated modeling approaches in environmental informatics must therefore provide not only modeling and simulation of objective ecosystem patterns and ecosystem dynamics, but also mathematical and logical models of the subjective changes that environmental information triggered in the receiver's mind. Environmental information is assumed to contribute to the initiation of an environmental-friendly action and the originators of a message usually assume sufficient background environmental knowledge, motivations and intentions on the part of receivers, even though this may indeed often not be the case. If a message is received by insufficiently prepared receivers, entirely unexpected and different meanings of that message may be generated that will not lead to environment-friendly actions, unless the intentions of senders sufficiently match the internal motivations and intentions of receivers. The dangers of ignorance and skepticism about environmental risks as well as environmental alarmism both apply in that situation. Thus, the development of all facets of environmental consciousness could be seen as a precondition for optimal use of environmental information systems by different users to determine environmental-friendly actions. It should be a crucial success factor for the usage of the environmental information system, that the structure of receiver’s consciousness is appropriately prepared.

 Our integrated conceptual framework argues for integration of two until now separate domains, that of environmental information, existing objectively, and transmitted by environmental information systems; and that of subjective environmental consciousness of users. Historically, these two domains have evolved relatively independently and have traditionally been treated separately, but their integration is of crucial importance for sustainable development and presents a direction of sustainable development where environmental NGOs with their capacity to make links could play an important role. These theoretical considerations are still poorly supported in terms of contemporary environmental informatics, but are of clear practical value while discussing role of NGOs in supporting informational aspect of environmental consciousness. The Aarhus Convention (1998) stressed that European NGOs promoting environmental protection should take part in the environmental decision-making process in order to develop environmental consciousness among the public. In particular, this applied to the topics of how to obtain access to environmental information and to justice in environmental matters. Information about present levels of public awareness (concerning environmental domains such as air and water, including GMOs and potential health impacts) in various European countries could be used by NGOs to aid in establishing their credibility and preparing themselves to support monitoring, assessment and dissemination of information on the environment more effectively. In addition, this knowledge could provide important subjective environmental information to civil society in an internationally standardized format.

Three theoretical models have been developed as one of the main directions of our activity in a framework of the International Society of Doctors for the Environment (ISDE), namely the Integral Health model, the Extended Integrated Action model and the model of the Sanospheric Consciousness. ISDE is a global NGO of medical doctors and scientists focusing on links between human health and environmental factors. Possessing official consultative status with WHO and the UN, ISDE builds local capacities through training, education, awareness-raising and research. The aim of this paper is to apply the use of the new Integral Health (i.e. individual health, population health and ecosystem health) and Sanosphere (biosphere health) modeling approaches to develop an integrated conceptual framework for comparative evaluation and sharing of environmental knowledge. Particular attention is devoted to environmental awareness evaluation and modeling in the contexts of EU-Enlargement and cooperation with CEE countries.

Within our framework for this interdisciplinary research project, we surveyed more than 1500 school and University students from 5 Ukrainian, 2 German, one Austrian and one Lithuanian Cities. Our methodology is based on the approaches of the Integral Health and Sanosphere paradigms and is expanding upon our previous research studies (Gerbilsky/Staroseletska/Tissen 2001a, 2001b, Gerbilsky/Staroseletska 2002, Rost/Gresele/Martens 2001). The extended integrated action model represents seven aspects of the Sanospheric Consciousness: Integration, Information, Motivation, Intention, Volition, Action and Reflection. A combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods was applied in the design and data analyses of this study. The major methodological tasks during the initial stage were to develop a standardized questionnaire for quantitative study of the Integral Health Concept in 3 languages (English, German and Russian), including some items about Sustainable Development and examining the following aspects of environmental consciousness: information, motivation, intention, volition and action.  Concerning these aspects of interaction between environment and health, it is implied that they might be mapped to a subjective dimension in an environmental statistics database, which could facilitate sharing of environmental information within and among nations, and be used in information systems to provide a better understanding of environmental messages by users. The questionnaire measured attitudes toward health in conjunction with the following environmental factors: global warming, ozone layer depletion, GMOs, transport and nutrition. Significant differences among response patterns could be shown for participants from different Ukrainian regions and different countries. Respondents from Western Europe showed a significantly higher level of awareness concerning environmental information on all environmental factors under investigation. Respondents from Eastern Europe were more exposed to environmental factors but significantly less informed, especially on ecosystem health and GMOs issues. These subjective aspects of environmental informatics should be taken into account when evaluating the role of NGOs and other civil society stakeholders providing environmental information for regional risk management systems at a European scale.

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