KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
 
Kim-Pong Tam 's research examines humans' connection to nature and their
responses to global environmental change (e.g., climate change). He is currently
investigating (i) how people construe their relationship with nature and the emotional and behavioral implications of such construal; (ii) the cross-national variations in phenomena regarding environmental attitude and pro-environmental behavior; (iii) the socio-political dynamics behind individuals' appraisal of and responses to environmental problems; and
(iv) the various factors behind individuals' support for climate change mitigation and adaptation policies.
He has published papers on these topics in prestigious journals in related fields such as Global Environmental Change, Climatic Change, Environment and Behavior, Journal of
Environmental Psychology, and Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. He is
currently an associate professor at the Division of Social Science, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He is also serving as an associate editor for both Asian Journal of Social Psychology and Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology, and
an editorial board member for both Journal of Environmental Psychology and PsyEcology.




Daniel Stokols presentation examines emerging directions of environmental
psychology in the context of contemporary global challenges including climate change,
public health pandemics, sociopolitical polarization and violence, and our sprawling and
largely unregulated cybersphere. Thematic shifts in the theoretical and empirical concerns
of environmental psychology are viewed across two historical periods: the Great Acceleration of human progress during the second half of the 20 th Century, and the
Anthropocene Epoch of human impact on the earth system during the early 21 st Century.
Examples of these conceptual and empirical shifts are examined in relation to several
subareas of environment-behavior research including environmental cognition, environmental evaluation and assessment, human spatial behavior, environmental stress research, ecological psychology, and the promotion of environmentally-supportive behaviors and lifestyles. Major challenges facing environmental psychology include:
(1) the urgency of curtailing environmentally-destructive actions committed knowingly and intentionally by influential leaders and elected officials; (2) identifying opportunities for promoting ecological sustainability and societal cohesion across different environmental scales ranging from educational programs to nurture individuals’ pro-environmental values; sustainability practices implemented in local behavior settings such as homes, workplaces, and schools; municipal, state and national laws aimed at protecting the environment and international treaties to reduce global carbon emissions; and (3) broadening people’s place identities and emotional attachments to encompass not only their local environments and social ties, but also their connections to the global environment and cultures different from their own.