Facilitating Climate Change Responses A Report of Two Workshops on Knowledge from the Social and Behavioral Sciences (2010) / Chapter Skim
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1 Public Understanding of Climate Change
1 Public Understanding of Climate Change
Pages 7-26
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From page 7... ...
Anthony Leiserowitz's research describes "six Americas," each characterized by a unique set of understandings of and responses to climate change, some sharply at variance with climate science. Susanne Moser puts these differences in perception, understanding, and behavior in a broader context of societal forces.
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From page 8... ...
Finally, the research reported by Riley Dunlap shows how an organized climate change denial "counter-movement" linked to conservative political institutions and elements of the fossil fuel industry has worked to influence public understanding and how an increasing ideological polarization in U.S. public opinion on the topic has followed their efforts.
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From page 9... ...
. These groups vary in terms of how much they believe global warming is a reality, how concerned they are, and how motivated they are to take action.
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Public opinion polls in the United States and some other countries show that respondents see greater harm from global warming coming to animals, plants, and people and things that are far away from them than to those close to them (see Figure 1-1)
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From page 11... ...
. A great deal A moderate Only a little Not at all Don't know amount Your People People in People You Plant and Your Future family in other in the US generations developing personally animal community countries industrialized species of people nations N = 2,164 FIGURE 1-1 Perceived degree of harm from global warming to various entities, perceived by U.S.
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From page 12... ...
Mass media can do less than they once could, and they are not good at direct persuasion, fostering behavior change, promoting two-way communication, dealing with issues in depth, or resolving conflicts, although some of these are much needed in climate change policy. Finally, Moser offered a list of what climate change is not, as a way to explain why it is hard to keep the topic on the public agenda.
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From page 13... ...
Moser replied that an economic framing cuts across the population and that, for some audiences, an environmental justice frame can engage people with climate change. However, she doubted that there is a single frame that would work for everybody.
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From page 14... ...
However, there was decreased expectation of sea level rise and of shorter, milder winters globally -- both changes in opinion that are opposite to scientific expectations. An open-ended question about the most effective actions to help prevent global warming yielded the same most common response as in 1992 -- reduce driving.
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From page 15... ...
emissions are due to materials management, suggesting that recycling makes a huge difference, contrary to an implication of the presentation. PERCEPTIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE RISKS Elke Weber4 Columbia University Elke Weber began by noting that people study risk perception because of its importance in responding to hazards.
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People tend to overweight rare events when they are described symbolically, so rare potential climate events could get a strong reaction. However, when people learn from personal experience, recent rare events are overweighted, but those that have not been experienced tend to be ignored.
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CLIMATE CHANGE DENIAL AND CONSERVATISM Riley Dunlap Oklahoma State University Riley Dunlap began with the observation that the U.S. conservative movement has had a significant impact on debates over climate change.
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From page 18... ...
In fact, several figures in climate change denial were previously heavily involved in challenging the evidence concerning the harmful effects of tobacco smoke. The small number of contrarian scientists who have challenged mainstream climate science now have been augmented by a wide range of actors in the conservative movement.
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From page 19... ...
The climate change denial books take issue with each of the major IPCC claims: that global warming is occurring and will continue, that human activities releasing greenhouse gas emissions are a major cause of the warming, that global warming produces harmful impacts on human and natural systems, and that a response is called for if harmful consequences are to be avoided. Nearly half of the 59 books published in the 2000s still question the warming trend, almost 90 percent challenge the attribution of climate change to human activities, and close to three-fourths are skeptical about negative impacts.
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From page 20... ...
On the question of whether global warming is due more to human or natural causes, the trend since 2001 has been flat, but again there has been a growing divide between Republicans and Democrats, with the gap growing Percentage FIGURE 1-2 Percentages of Democrats and Republicans who believe the ef fects of global warming have already begun to happen, from Gallup poll data, 2001-2008. SOURCE: Dunlap and McCright (2008, Figure 1)
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From page 21... ...
Dunlap concluded by saying that, in addition to focusing on mental models and other cognitive phenomena impeding effective climate change communication, social scientists need to pay attention to the increasing flow of messages that are undercutting mainstream climate science. Lack of public acceptance of climate science does not occur by happenstance or stem predominantly from cognitive limitations; it is clearly affected by the perceived uncertainty concerning climate change that is purposefully and effectively generated by the climate change denial movement.
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Roger Kasperson asked whether it is realistic to expect any major change in the American public's views. Niepold said it is, because federal science agencies are working hard on the issue and will monitor change, focusing on particular target groups.
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From page 23... ...
and 20 percent of time doing writing has now been flipped, with reporters under intense and continual pressure to "feed the beast" of both their print and online outlets, including such electronic media as Twitter and Facebook. Ward emphasized the importance of having climate change issues reported beyond the science and environment pages given that the issue can affect education, business, religion, travel, national security, and other news beats.
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Andrews suggested that the conversation had evidenced an absence of positive ideas for framing climate change, for example, in terms of energy policy needs, economic development, and so forth. He noted that there are business allies for action on climate change.
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Recent analyses from the Stanford Energy Modeling Forum suggest that it is no longer possible to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, "unless we continue to pump out aerosols." He said that because of the caveat about aerosols, it is incorrect to simply say that the 2 degree target has already been overshot. Moser suggested that no single message can adequately convey an understanding of climate change, noting the need to consider mitigation and adaptation together.
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From page 26... ...
26 FACILITATING CLIMATE CHANGE RESPONSES to the huge financial opportunities in solving the climate problem. Cities, states, the federal government, many civic and environmental groups, and religious groups also are engaging.
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