Humans currently face unprecedented environmental challenges that threaten the well-being of both people and the natural systems that sustain us. This dissertation explores the role of nonmaterial values in how individuals and communities understand, experience, and communicate the importance of nature in the face of environmental degradation by using harmful algal blooms in the St. Albans Bay region of Lake Champlain as a case study. In the first chapter, I analyze local newspaper coverage of harmful algal blooms to understand the use of nonmaterial values compared to other value frames both over time and in news vs. opinion articles. I also explore the impact of blooms on these values. I find that nonmaterial values constitute almost half of all value frames, with mentions increasing over time and more likely to appear in opinion pieces. My results also show that harmful algal blooms have impacted nonmaterial values, and that the public perceives a trade-off between nonmaterial values associated with the Lake and those derived from agricultural landscapes. The second chapter focuses on the role of nonmaterial values in the ecological grief process, using qualitative data from semi-structured interviews. I find that harmful algal blooms have affected some, but not all, nonmaterial values associated with Lake Champlain. I also observe connections between nonmaterial values and different dimensions of the ecological grief process, including coping responses and factors that moderate grief. The third chapter uses an online survey to investigate how three videos with different value framings — economic benefits, individual cultural benefits, and collective cultural benefits — affect individual concern, behavioral intentions, and action. I also examine how political orientation, lakefront residency, personal relevance, information recall, place attachment, and socio-demographics influence the effectiveness of these messages. The messages did not affect any outcome except when also considering lakefront residency, and I identified other factors that may influence behavior, including negative reactions to specific messages and feelings of ecological grief. This interdisciplinary research draws from the study of human-nature relationships, environmental communication and media studies, social psychology, environmental education, and environmental management to provide new insights into the experience and communication of nonmaterial values in response to ecosystem losses. Researchers and communities can use these findings to guide their understanding of what is at stake and use that knowledge to design more effective strategies for protecting the well-being of people and the planet.
Diana Marie Hackenburg (Wed,) studied this question.