Personal Experience, Extreme Weather Events, and Perceptions of Climate Change

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher P. Borick ◽  
Barry G. Rabe
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Extreme Weather ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Severe Drought ◽  
Seasonal Temperature ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Weather Events

The factors that determine individual perceptions of climate change have been a focus of social science research for many years. An array of studies have found that individual-level characteristics, such as partisan affiliation, ideological beliefs, educational attainment, and race, affect one’s views on the existence of global warming, as well as the levels of concern regarding this matter. But in addition to the individual-level attributes that have been shown to affect perceptions of climate change, a growing body of literature has found that individual experiences with weather can shape a variety of views and beliefs that individuals maintain regarding climate change. These studies indicate that direct experiences with extreme weather events and abnormal seasonal temperature and precipitation levels can affect the likelihood that an individual will perceive global warming to be occurring, and in some cases their policy preferences for addressing the problem. The emerging literature on this relationship indicates that individuals are more likely to express skepticism regarding the existence of global warming when experiencing below average temperatures or above average snowfall in the period preceding an interview on their views. Conversely, higher temperatures and various extreme weather events can elevate acceptance of global warming’s existence. A number of studies also find that individuals are more likely to report weather conditions such as drought and extreme heat affected their acceptance of global warming when such conditions were occurring in their region. For example, the severe drought that has encompassed much of the western United States between 2005 and 2016 has increasingly been cited by residents of the region as the primary reason for their belief that climate change is occurring. What remains unclear at this point is whether the weather conditions are actually changing opinions regarding climate change or if the preexisting opinions are causing individuals to see the weather events in a manner consistent with those opinions. Notably, the relationship between weather experiences and beliefs regarding climate change appear to be multidirectional in nature. Numerous studies have found that not only do weather experiences shape the views of individuals regarding global warming, but also individuals’ views on the existence of global warming can affect their perceptions of the weather that they have experienced. In particular, recent research has shown that individuals who are skeptical about the existence of global warming are less likely to report the weather recorded in their area accurately than individuals who believe global warming is happening.

scholarly journals Weather Literacy in Times of Climate Change

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 435-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadine Fleischhut ◽  
Stefan M. Herzog ◽  
Ralph Hertwig
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Extreme Weather ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
The Public ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
The Future ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Weather Risks

AbstractAs climate change unfolds, extreme weather events are on the rise worldwide. According to experts, extreme weather risks already outrank those of terrorism and migration in likelihood and impact. But how well does the public understand weather risks and forecast uncertainty and thus grasp the amplified weather risks that climate change poses for the future? In a nationally representative survey (N = 1004; Germany), we tested the public’s weather literacy and awareness of climate change using 62 factual questions. Many respondents misjudged important weather risks (e.g., they were unaware that UV radiation can be higher under patchy cloud cover than on a cloudless day) and struggled to connect weather conditions to their impacts (e.g., they overestimated the distance to a thunderstorm). Most misinterpreted a probabilistic forecast deterministically, yet they strongly underestimated the uncertainty of deterministic forecasts. Respondents with higher weather literacy obtained weather information more often and spent more time outside but were not more educated. Those better informed about climate change were only slightly more weather literate. Overall, the public does not seem well equipped to anticipate weather risks in the here and now and may thus also fail to fully grasp what climate change implies for the future. These deficits in weather literacy highlight the need for impact forecasts that translate what the weather may be into what the weather may do and for transparent communication of uncertainty to the public. Boosting weather literacy may help to improve the public’s understanding of weather and climate change risks, thereby fostering informed decisions and mitigation support.

Extreme Weather Resulting from Global Warming is an Emerging Threat to Farmworker Health and Safety

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 189-190
Author(s):  
Kent E. Pinkerton ◽  
Emily Felt ◽  
Heather E. Riden
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Extreme Precipitation ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Extreme Weather ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Cold Waves ◽  
Warming Climate ◽  
Weather Events

Abstract. A warming climate has been linked to an increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, including heat and cold waves, extreme precipitation, and wildfires. This increase in extreme weather results in increased risks to the health and safety of farmworkers. Keywords: Climate change, Extreme weather, Farmworkers, Global warming, Health and safety.

The Assessment of the Refurbished Reinforced Concrete Buildings in Point of the Climate Change

2014 ◽  
Vol 899 ◽  
pp. 440-445
Author(s):  
Sára Hrabovszky-Horváth
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Reinforced Concrete ◽  
Built Environment ◽  
Adaptive Capacity ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Building Design ◽  
Extreme Weather ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Weather Events

Changes in climate have various impacts on the built environment: e.g. the building design and the materials together with the operation and the maintenance. Therefore, it is extremely important to account for the future weather conditions during both the design of new buildings and the renovation of existing buildings. According to the Hungarian meteorological researches as a consequence of the global warming the climate of Hungary is going to become warmer and drier as well as the number and the intensity of the extreme weather events is expected to grow. One of the main directions of actions in the Climate Change Strategy is the adaptation to the changing circumstances, the improvement of the adaptive capacity of the built environment. In this study, the prefabricated reinforced concrete large-panel residential buildings are analysed: a bottom-up methodology was developed based on typological approach to assess the vulnerability of the ‘panel buildings’ to climate change by analysing the extreme weather events. After assessing the sensitivity and the adaptive capacity of the determined building types, their vulnerability to the increased number of windstorms and extreme rainfalls was estimated and the influence of their refurbishment was analysed.

scholarly journals A probabilistic risk assessment for the vulnerability of the European carbon cycle to weather extremes: the ecosystem perspective

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 1813-1831 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Rolinski ◽  
A. Rammig ◽  
A. Walz ◽  
W. von Bloh ◽  
M. van Oijen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Time Series ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Probabilistic Risk Assessment ◽  
Extreme Weather ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
Probabilistic Risk

Abstract. Extreme weather events are likely to occur more often under climate change and the resulting effects on ecosystems could lead to a further acceleration of climate change. But not all extreme weather events lead to extreme ecosystem response. Here, we focus on hazardous ecosystem behaviour and identify coinciding weather conditions. We use a simple probabilistic risk assessment based on time series of ecosystem behaviour and climate conditions. Given the risk assessment terminology, vulnerability and risk for the previously defined hazard are estimated on the basis of observed hazardous ecosystem behaviour. We apply this approach to extreme responses of terrestrial ecosystems to drought, defining the hazard as a negative net biome productivity over a 12-month period. We show an application for two selected sites using data for 1981–2010 and then apply the method to the pan-European scale for the same period, based on numerical modelling results (LPJmL for ecosystem behaviour; ERA-Interim data for climate). Our site-specific results demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method, using the SPEI to describe the climate condition. The site in Spain provides an example of vulnerability to drought because the expected value of the SPEI is 0.4 lower for hazardous than for non-hazardous ecosystem behaviour. In northern Germany, on the contrary, the site is not vulnerable to drought because the SPEI expectation values imply wetter conditions in the hazard case than in the non-hazard case. At the pan-European scale, ecosystem vulnerability to drought is calculated in the Mediterranean and temperate region, whereas Scandinavian ecosystems are vulnerable under conditions without water shortages. These first model-based applications indicate the conceptual advantages of the proposed method by focusing on the identification of critical weather conditions for which we observe hazardous ecosystem behaviour in the analysed data set. Application of the method to empirical time series and to future climate would be important next steps to test the approach.

scholarly journals Endless November? Citizen Beliefs Concerning Wood As A Construction Material Under Extreme Weather Events

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anni Vehola ◽  
Elias Hurmekoski ◽  
Katja Lähtinen ◽  
Enni Ruokamo ◽  
Anders Roos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Construction Material ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Extreme Weather ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Adaptation Measures ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
Wood Construction ◽  
Weather Events

Abstract Climate change places great pressure on the construction sector to decrease its greenhouse gas emissions and to create solutions that perform well in changing weather conditions. In the urbanizing world, wood construction has been identified as one of the opportunities for mitigating these emissions. Our study explores citizen opinions on wood usage as a building material under expected mitigation and adaptation measures aimed at a changing climate and extreme weather events. The data are founded on an internet-based survey material collected from a consumer panel from Finland and Sweden during May–June 2021, with a total of 2015 responses. By employing exploratory factor analysis, we identified similar belief structures for the two countries, consisting of both positive and negative views on wood construction. In linear regressions for predicting these opinions, the perceived seriousness of climate change was found to increase positive views on wood construction but was insignificant for negative views. Both in Finland and Sweden, higher familiarity with wooden multistory construction was found to connect with more positive opinions on the potential of wood in building, e.g., due to carbon storage properties and material attributes. Our findings underline the potential of wood material use as one avenue of climate change adaptation in the built environment. Future research should study how citizens’ concerns for extreme weather events affect their future material preferences in their everyday living environments, also beyond the Nordic region.

Extreme Weather Trends Vs. Dangerous Climate Change: A Need for Critical Reassessment

2005 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-331
Author(s):  
Madhav L Khandekar
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
World Wide ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
Extreme Weather ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
Increasing Trend ◽  
Dangerous Climate Change

The ongoing debate on global warming and increasing concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases (CO2 in particular) highlights the possibility of increased incidences of extreme weather events world-wide, as the earth's mean temperature is expected to rise steadily in future. Several recent technical and scientific conferences have focused on the general theme of “dangerous climate change” and on avoiding or reducing this danger. However, a careful analysis of observed data on world-wide extreme weather events does not reveal any increasing trend in these events, thus suggesting a mismatch between reality and the hypothesis of dangerous climate change. There is a definite need to critically re-examine the hypothesis of dangerous climate change in the context of observed trend (or lack of it) in the extreme weather events worldwide.

scholarly journals Policy options for addressing climate change, with a focus on ecosystem based adaptation: a case study of Guyana

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramesh Lilwah
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Extreme Weather ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
Resource Sector ◽  
Adaptation Method ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

Close to ninety percent of Guyana‟s population live along a low lying coastal plain, which is below sea level and very vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. While the national government has not yet developed a comprehensive climate policy, the potential impacts of climate change is considered in several sectoral policies, much of which emphasize mitigation, with little focus on adaptation. This research examined the current priorities for adaptation by a review of the policies within the natural resource sector to identify opportunities for adaptation, especially ecosystem based adaptation. A Diagnostic Adaptation Framework (DAF) was used to help identify approaches to address a given adaptation challenge with regards to needs, measures and options. A survey questionnaire was used to support the policy reviews and identified four key vulnerabilities: coastal floods; sea level rise; drought and extreme weather events. The application of the DAF in selecting an adaptation method suggests the need for more data on drought and extreme weather events. Coastal flooding is addressed, with recognized need for more data and public awareness for ecosystem based adaptation

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