Faith for the Planet : Perceptions amongst religious and spiritual leaders of sustainability communication - the case of Faith for Ecocide Law

Sammanfattning: The climate crisis is one of the biggest challenges humanity has ever faced, posing severe threats to people around the world. Increased awareness about this crisis as well as a growing call for a more sustainable world can be noted not only by scientists and activists but also in the political and economic sector as well as within religious communities. Making Ecocide - the destruction of the planet - an international crime could be a crucial step in tackling the climate crisis. Research has shown that communication is a powerful tool to create awareness and shape public opinion about sustainable development and the environment. Sustainability communication is a small but growing field in media and communication research (Weder et al. 2021: 2). However, research on audiences of sustainability communication, particularly on specific groups other than the general public, has been scarce.  This study analyzes spiritual and religious leaders’ perceptions of the Ecocide Law, their understanding of the mediated communication through the interreligious coalition ‘Faith for Ecocide Law’, and the influence of the communication on their attitudes and behavior towards the support of the law. For this purpose, semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with religious and spiritual leaders in Sweden. The results illustrate that the Ecocide Law is perceived as a powerful tool to fight environmental degradation and is highly supported by the religious leaders that were examined. Their support is motivated by worldviews, beliefs, values, and an understanding of nature as part of the holy creation, as well as humanity’s responsibility to protect it. Additional factors such as thorough pre-existing knowledge about environmental issues, sociodemographics, and a close relationship with nature influenced the perceptions and understanding of the communication. Furthermore, media technologies turned out to play only a small role as the informants, albeit frequent media consumers, became aware and supportive of the Ecocide Law through face-to-face communication with leading Ecocide Law activists. A thorough search of the existing academic literature indicates that this study is amongst the first to examine religious leaders’ perceptions of the Ecocide Law as well as the coalition Faith for Ecocide Law and of the communication on their digital platforms (LinkedIn, YouTube, Website) and emphasizes the need for sustainability communication to more specifically target key actors that can influence decision-making for sustainable development. Therefore, this study lays the ground for further research.