scholarly journals RMetS National Meeting - Avoiding myth, mayhem and myopia: the challenge of climate science communication

Weather ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 98-99
Author(s):  
Zara Qadir
Keyword(s):  
Science Communication ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
National Meeting

Science communication and mediatised environmental conflict: A cautionary tale

2021 ◽  
pp. 096366252098513
Author(s):  
Claire Konkes ◽  
Kerrie Foxwell-Norton
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Environmental Conflict ◽  
Cautionary Tale ◽  
James Cook ◽  
Social Sphere ◽  
Tenured Position

When Australian physicist, Peter Ridd, lost his tenured position with James Cook University, he was called a ‘whistleblower’, ‘contrarian academic’ and ‘hero of climate science denial’. In this article, we examine the events surrounding his dismissal to better understand the role of science communication in organised climate change scepticism. We discuss the sophistry of his complaint to locate where and through what processes science communication becomes political communication. We argue that the prominence of scientists and scientific knowledge in debates about climate change locates science, as a social sphere or fifth pillar in Hutchins and Lester’s theory of mediatised environmental conflict. In doing so, we provide a model to better understand how science communication can be deployed during politicised debates.

Climate science and YouTube: deniers, memes, and Trojan horses

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Search Engine ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽  
Educational Video ◽  
Video Content ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World

<p>YouTube is the world's second largest search engine, and serves as a primary source of entertainment for billions of people around the world. Yet while science communication on the website is more popular than ever, discussion of climate science is dominated by - largely scientifically untrained - individuals who are skeptical of the overwhelming scientific consensus that anthropogenic climate change is real. Over the past ten years I have built up an extensive audience communicating science - and climate science in particular - on YouTube, attempting to place credible science in the forefront of the discussion. In this talk I will discuss my approach to making content for the website, dissect successful and less successful projects, review feedback from my audience, and break down my process of converting research into entertaining, educational video content.</p>

scholarly journals Opinions of 12 to 13-year-olds in Austria and Australia on the worry, cause and imminence of Climate Change

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inez Harker-Schuch ◽  
Frank Mills ◽  
Steven Lade ◽  
Rebecca Colvin
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Adult Population ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Age Group ◽  
School Students ◽  
Cultural Worldview ◽  
Change Policy ◽  
Positive Climate

AbstractAlthough we are in the third decade of climate science communication as a discipline, and there is overwhelming scientific consensus and physical evidence for climate change, the general public continues to wrestle with climate change policy and advocacy. Early adolescence (12 to 13 years old) is a critical but under-researched demographic for the formation of attitudes related to climate change. This paper presents opinions on the worry, cause, and imminence of climate change that were collected fromn=463 1styear secondary school students (12-13 years old) in public secondary schools in inner-urban centres in Austria and Australia. Overall, 86.83% of eligible respondents agreed that climate change was probably or definitely something we should worry about, 80.33% agreed that climate change was probably or definitely caused by humans, and 83.17% agreed that climate change was probably or definitely something that was happening now. The respondents’ opinions were also compared to their respective adult population, with Australian 12-13 year olds showing strong positive climate-friendly attitudes, both in comparison to their adult population, and to their Austrian peers. In addition, although the opinions of Austrian 12-13 year olds were quite high, they did not reflect the higher climate-friendly opinions of their adult community. Our results suggest that socio-cultural worldview or socio-cultural cognition theory may not have the influence on this age group as it does on the respective adult population – and, if they are affected, there are attitudes or factors in this age group which resist the opinion-influence from their mature community. These findings are significant as early adolescents may be pivotal in the climate science communication arena and investigating their opinions with regard to climate change may offer an unexplored and under-utilised target for future communication efforts and climate literacy programmes.

The Truth About Denial

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Bardon
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Motivated Reasoning ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Overwhelming Evidence ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Way

It is a striking—yet all too familiar—fact about human beings that our belief-forming processes can be so distorted by fears, desires, and prejudices that an otherwise sensible person may sincerely uphold false claims about the world in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. When we describe someone as being “in denial,” we mean that he or she is personally, emotionally threatened by some situation—and consequently has failed to assess the situation properly according to the evidence. People in denial engage in motivated reasoning about their situation: They (sincerely) argue and interpret evidence in light of a preestablished conclusion. One significant type of reason-distorting emotional threat is a threat to one’s ideological worldview. When group interests, creeds, or dogmas are threatened by unwelcome factual information, biased thinking becomes ideological denialism. (One critical example of such denialism is the widespread denial of settled climate science.) Denial can stand in the way of individual well-being, and ideological denialism can stand in the way of good public policy. This book is a wide-ranging examination of denial and denialism. It offers a readable overview of the social psychology of denial, and examines the role of ideological denialism in conflicts over public policy, politics, and culture. Chapters focus on our philosophical and scientific understanding of denial, denial of scientific consensus, denialism in political economy, and denialism in religious belief. An afterword examines proposals for improving science communication in light of findings about motivated reasoning and denial.

scholarly journals AGU Hosts Leadership Summit on Climate Science Communication

Eos ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 92 (13) ◽  
pp. 112-112
Author(s):  
Ann Cairns
Keyword(s):  
Science Communication ◽  
Climate Science

scholarly journals From Doubt to Distrust: Reassessing the Partisan Climate Gap

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dylan Bugden
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Alternative Hypothesis ◽  
Decomposition Analysis ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Environmental Sociology ◽  
Sociological Study ◽  
Conservative Movement ◽  
Political Partisanship

Nowhere is the partisan politicization of science more pronounced than on the subject of climate change, with Republican and Democratic voters divided on whether climate change exists and how to address it. Existing research explains the partisan climate gap through a process of manufactured doubt, with a network of corporate and conservative organizations using their considerable resources to deny the reality of climate change and its anthropogenic causes, and to spread denial of climate science among conservative and Republican voters. I argue that this explanation is incomplete and increasingly unable to address the contours of the contemporary partisan climate gap. Building on existing research in science and technology studies, environmental sociology, and political partisanship, I explore an alternative hypothesis for the partisan climate gap: distrust in science. I apply a Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition analysis to a large non-probability sample of Democrats and Republicans (n = 1808). Results show that lower levels of trust in science among Republicans explains a larger amount of the partisan climate gap than does climate science denial. Rather than being purely a product of manufactured doubt, contemporary climate partisanship is largely the product of manufactured distrust, reflecting an anti-science conservative movement that predates and extends beyond the climate change countermovement and its efforts to deny climate science. I conclude by discussing how focusing on manufactured distrust, in conjunction with manufactured doubt, can enrich the sociological study of climate change and science communication.

Youth as Climate Change Messengers: A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 814-823
Author(s):  
Jill Hendrickson Lohmeier ◽  
Shanna Rose Thompson ◽  
Robert F. Chen ◽  
Stephen Mishol
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
General Public ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Science Learning ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Science Content ◽  
The Public

Artwork created by children can effectively communicate science content, especially for topics that are of universal concern for the public but may cause apprehension, like climate change. This commentary describes artwork from a youth art contest about climate change in which the winning art was displayed on public buses. Young artists learned about climate science while creating images that adults and youth easily engaged with in public spaces. Thus, we suggest that connecting youth with science through art, and then using youth-generated art to engage the general public in science learning can be an effective vehicle for science communication.

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