Universities and Climate Change Mitigation: Advancing Grassroots Climate Policy in the US

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 485-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Knuth ◽  
Brandi Nagle ◽  
Christopher Steuer ◽  
Brent Yarnal
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
The Us ◽  
Change Mitigation

Demoralizing: integrating J.D. Peters’ communication “chasm” with Niklas Luhmann’s (1989) ecological communication to analyze climate change mitigation inaction

Kybernetes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob A. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Binary Codes ◽  
Social Implication ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Us ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation Policy ◽  
Ecological Communication ◽  
Change Mitigation

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explain the US society’s insignificant mitigation of climate change using Niklas Luhmann’s (1989) autopoietic social systems theory in ecological communication. Specifically, the author’s analysis falls within the context of Luhmann re-moralized while focusing on particular function systems’ binary codes and their repellence of substantive US climate change mitigation policy across systems. Design/methodology/approach The author achieves this purpose by resituating Luhmann’s conception of evolution to forgo systems teleology and better contextualize the spatial-temporal scale of climate change; reinforcing complexity reduction and differentiation by integrating communication and media scholar John D. Peters’s (1999) “communication chasm” concept as one mechanism through which codes sustain over time; and applying these integrated concepts to prominent the US climate change mitigation attempts. Findings The author concludes that climate change mitigation efforts are the amalgamation of the systems’ moral communications. Mitigation efforts have relegated themselves to subsystems of the ten major systems given the polarizing nature of their predominant care/harm moral binary. Communication chasms persist because these moral communications cannot both adhere to the systems’ binary codes and communicate the climate crisis’s urgency. The more time that passes, the more codes force mitigation organizations, activist efforts and their moral communications to adapt and sacrifice their actions to align with the encircling systems’ code. Social implications In addition to the conceptual contribution, the social implication is that by identifying how and why climate change mitigation efforts are subsumed by the larger systems and their codes, climate change activists and practitioners can better tool their tactics to change the codes at the heart of the systems if serious and substantive climate change mitigation is to prevail. Originality/value To the author’s knowledge, there has not been an integration of a historical communication concept into, and sociological application of, ecological communication in the context of climate change mitigation.

Coaxing Climate Policy Leadership

2012 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 463-479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Vanderheiden
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Response ◽  
International Policy ◽  
Cooperative Scheme ◽  
Change Mitigation ◽  
The U.S

The United States and China have recently been called upon to exercise more leadership in developing an effective international policy response to climate change, but without giving attention to either the risks inherent in taking on such a role or the mechanism by which leading can mobilize others to act in response. Here, I understand leadership as action by a sufficiently powerful actor in a cooperative scheme that is capable of triggering reciprocal actions by followers on behalf of that scheme, and argue that such leadership can be coaxed by potential followers through pledges of reciprocal action that are made conditional upon prior action undertaken by a leader. In the context of the current international impasse over post-Kyoto climate change mitigation commitments, I identify means by which leadership by the U.S. or China might be induced by such conditional pledges, potentially allowing some obstacles to international collective action on climate change mitigation to be overcome.

scholarly journals Different Countries, Common Support for Climate Change Mitigation: The Case of Germany and Poland

Climate ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Zbigniew Bohdanowicz
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Emotional Response ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
Carbon Tax ◽  
The Public ◽  
Climate Policies ◽  
Common Support ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
Change Mitigation

There are numerous studies assessing the influence of individual sociological, political, and demographic factors on attitudes towards climate change. However, there is still a need for a deeper understanding of the reasons behind these attitudes and for research based on results from more than one country. This study empirically examines a range of psychosocial and demographic determinants of support for climate policy (renewable energy, energy efficiency and carbon tax) in Germany and Poland (n = 1969). The results show that the societies of both countries, despite significant differences in income, culture and political stance on climate change, similarly support implementation of climate policies. For both countries valid predictors of support are: awareness, emotional response to climate crisis, sense of control, and belief in effectiveness of solutions; the study also shows predictors relevant in only one country. Factor analysis identified similar dimensions of attitudes toward climate change in both countries. The main findings show that support for climate policy is high in both countries and that the public is ready to accept more ambitious climate goals. Despite the differences between the countries, a coherent climate policy seems justified. The study also shows differences between the countries and provides recommendations for policymakers.

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