Abstract:
Sri Lanka is a country that struggles to deal with the negative consequences of climate change
caused by increased levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. There is a need to reduce the
gap between man and nature while improving the quality of life (QoL). The current study aimed
at finding possible relationships between nature connectedness, GHG emission, and perceived
quality of life at individual level. According to our knowledge, this was the 1st attempt taken
by a Sri Lankan research group to investigate possible links between GHG emissions,
connectedness to nature and quality of life. A preliminary cross-sectional study was carried out
with rigorously screened 30 individuals (mean age = 44 + 2 years). Participants in the present
study included a group of meditation practitioners from a largescale study on “meditation,
mindfulness and health”. Data were collected to assess perceived quality of life under 5
domains: a) overall perception of QoL, b) physical QoL, c) psychological QoL, d) social
relationships associated with QoL and e) environmental QoL; the latter was assessed through
a person’s attitude towards the environment or connectedness to nature and GHG emissions
under electricity consumption and travelling. Bivariate correlational analyses revealed a
significant negative relationship between GHG emission due to travelling and psychological
QoL (r = 0.51, p < 0.05). Except GHG emission due to electricity consumption, other
environmental variables were linearly correlated with overall QoL. Even though the findings
of the current study have limitations in terms of generalizability due to a non-probability
sampling, the methodology of the current research opens doors to investigate QoL in
environmental research. Our study findings indicate that ensuring the perceived QoL at the
individual level may lead to a reduction in GHG emissions while promoting nature
connectedness. Hence, this research highlights the importance of considering the perceived
quality of life as a determinant of connectedness to nature and GHG emission at the individual
level.
