Climate indicators and COVID-19 recovery: A case of Wuhan during the lockdown

AbstractVisual climate indicators have become a popular way to communicate trends in important climate phenomena. Producing accessible visualizations for a general audience is challenging, especially when many are based on graphics designed for scientists, present complex and abstract concepts, and utilize suboptimal design choices. This study tests whether diagnostic visualization guidelines can be used to identify communication shortcomings for climate indicators and to specify effective design modifications. Design guidelines were used to diagnose problems in three hard-to-understand indicators, and to create three improved modifications per indicator. Using online surveys, the efficacy of the modifications was tested in a control versus treatment setup that measured the degree to which respondents understood, found accessible, liked, and trusted the graphics. Furthermore, we assessed whether respondents’ numeracy, climate attitudes, and political party affiliation affected the impact of design improvements. Results showed that simplifying modifications had a large positive effect on understanding, ease of understanding, and liking, but not trust. Better designs improved understanding similarly for people with different degrees of numerical capacity. Moreover, while climate skepticism was associated with less positive subjective responses and greater mistrust toward climate communication, design modification improved understanding equally for people across the climate attitude and ideological spectrum. These findings point to diagnostic design guidelines as a useful tool for creating more accessible, engaging climate graphics for the public.

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Analysis of Pneumonia Occurrence in Relation to Climate Change in Tanga, Tanzania

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18094731 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (9) ◽

pp. 4731

Author(s):

Samweli Faraja Miyayo ◽

Patrick Opiyo Owili ◽

Miriam Adoyo Muga ◽

Tang-Huang Lin

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Negative Binomial ◽

Health Management ◽

Severe Pneumonia ◽

Positive Association ◽

Negative Binomial Regression ◽

Health Management Information System ◽

Cold Temperatures ◽

Climate Indicators ◽

And Control

In 2018, 70% of global fatalities due to pneumonia occurred in about fifteen countries, with Tanzania being among the top eight countries contributing to these deaths. Environmental and individual factors contributing to these deaths may be multifaceted, but they have not yet been explored in Tanzania. Therefore, in this study, we explore the association between climate change and the occurrence of pneumonia in the Tanga Region, Tanzania. A time series study design was employed using meteorological and health data of the Tanga Region collected from January 2016 to December 2018 from the Tanzania Meteorological Authority and Health Management Information System, respectively. The generalized negative binomial regression technique was used to explore the associations between climate indicators (i.e., precipitation, humidity, and temperature) and the occurrence of pneumonia. There were trend differences in climate indicators and the occurrence of pneumonia between the Tanga and Handeni districts. We found a positive association between humidity and increased rates of non-severe pneumonia (incidence rate ratio (IRR) = 1.01; 95% CI: 1.01–1.02; p ≤ 0.05) and severe pneumonia (IRR = 1.02; 95% CI: 1.01–1.03; p ≤ 0.05). There was also a significant association between cold temperatures and the rate of severe pneumonia in Tanga (IRR = 1.21; 95% CI: 1.11–1.33; p ≤ 0.001). Other factors that were associated with pneumonia included age and district of residence. We found a positive relationship between humidity, temperature, and incidence of pneumonia in the Tanga Region. Policies focusing on prevention and control, as well as promotion strategies relating to climate change-related health effects should be developed and implemented.

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Microfossils as Climate Indicators

Science Activities Classroom Projects and Curriculum Ideas ◽

10.1080/00368121.1985.10112900 ◽

1985 ◽

Vol 22 (3) ◽

pp. 22-25

Author(s):

Warren E. Yasso

Keyword(s):

Climate Indicators

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Developing and Demonstrating Climate Indicators for Monitoring the Changing Water Cycle

Advances in Meteorology ◽

10.1155/2016/5481731 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 2016 ◽

pp. 1-18 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Xia Feng ◽

Paul Houser

Keyword(s):

Water Cycle ◽

Spatial Scales ◽

Atmospheric Moisture ◽

Spatial Correlations ◽

Climate Indicators ◽

Terrestrial Water ◽

The Mean ◽

Atmospheric Moisture Content ◽

Daily Total

In this study, we developed a suite of spatially and temporally scalable Water Cycle Indicators (WCI) to examine the long-term changes in water cycle variability and demonstrated their use over the contiguous US (CONUS) during 1979–2013 using the MERRA reanalysis product. The WCI indicators consist of six water balance variables monitoring the mean conditions and extreme aspects of the changing water cycle. The variables include precipitation (P), evaporation (E), runoff (R), terrestrial water storage (dS/dt), moisture convergence flux (C), and atmospheric moisture content (dW/dt). Means are determined as the daily total value, while extremes include wet and dry extremes, defined as the upper and lower 10th percentile of daily distribution. Trends are assessed for annual and seasonal indicators at several different spatial scales. Our results indicate that significant changes have occurred in most of the indicators, and these changes are geographically and seasonally dependent. There are more upward trends than downward trends in all eighteen annual indicators averaged over the CONUS. The spatial correlations between the annual trends in means and extremes are statistically significant across the country and are stronger forP,E,R, andCcompared todS/dtanddW/dt.

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