Publications by authors named "Marijn H C Meijers"

Background: Climate change is the 21st century's biggest global health threat, endangering health care systems worldwide. Health care systems, and hospital care in particular, are also major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions.

Objectives: This study used a systematic search and screening process to review the carbon footprint of hospital services and care pathways, exploring key contributing factors and outlining the rationale for chosen services and care pathways in the studies.

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Article Synopsis
  • Scientists did a big survey with over 59,000 people from 63 countries to understand how people think about climate change!
  • They tested different ways to encourage people to believe in climate change and support actions to help the environment!
  • The study includes lots of information and data that can help others learn more about what influences people's actions on climate change around the world!
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Astronauts (and recently businessmen) often express a renewed sense of responsibility for taking care of the environment, after observing the overwhelming beauty of Earth from space. Despite recent attention for this "overview effect", it is unclear whether experiencing the effect directly impacts pro-environmental behaviour. Using a virtual reality experience, the current research tests in two experimental studies the direct impact of an immersive overview effect experience on both short-term and longer term subsequent pro-environmental behaviours (donating to an environmental NGO, consuming less diary and meat).

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Article Synopsis
  • Effective global behavior change is crucial for reducing climate change, but it's unclear which strategies motivate people to shift their beliefs and actions.
  • A study tested 11 interventions on nearly 60,000 participants across 63 countries, finding small effectiveness primarily among non-skeptics and varied results across different outcomes.
  • Key results showed that reducing psychological distance strengthened beliefs, writing a letter to a future generation increased policy support, and inducing negative emotions encouraged information sharing, but no strategy successfully boosted tree-planting efforts.
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The COVID-19 pandemic and climate change are two global crises that require collective action. Yet, the inertia typically associated with behavior change to limit climate change stands in contrast to the speed associated with behavior change to stop the spread of COVID-19. Identifying the roots of these differences can help us stimulate climate-friendly behaviors.

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Since habits formed during childhood are predictive of adult behaviour, children form an important target group when it comes to improving healthy and environmentally friendly food consumption. To explore the potential of immersive virtual reality (VR) in this respect, we conducted a semi-structured interview study ( = 22) among children aged 6-13 years. This study consisted of two parts: (1) a VR experience and (2) a semi-structured interview to investigate (1) to what extent children are able to recall and understand information about the impact of food products on their health and the environment when provided to them as pop-ups in a VR supermarket; (2) what rational and emotional processes are triggered by this information; and (3) what children's expectations about the real-life application and impact of the pop-ups are, and why.

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While it is often assumed that media attention for events, such as international climate change conferences, can influence public opinion, research studying changes in public opinion concerning climate change is scarce. Research on climate change audience segments and the theory of motivated reasoning suggest that media effects depend on the level of audience engagement with climate change. We analyze how exposure to media coverage of the COP21 affected public opinion in the Netherlands.

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