scholarly journals Promoting Climate Actions: A Cognitive-Constraints Approach

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junho Lee ◽  
EMILY FRANCES WONG ◽  
PATRICIA W CHENG
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Educational Materials ◽  
Cognitive Constraints ◽  
Climate Change Information ◽  
Climate Skepticism ◽  
Political Spectrum ◽  
Moral Narrative ◽  
Science Information ◽  
Urgent Action

Many Americans do not view climate change as a threat requiring urgent action. Moreover, among U.S. conservatives, higher science literacy is paradoxically associated with higher anthropogenic climate-change skepticism. The present study harnessed the power of two cognitive constraints essential to belief formation and revision to design educational materials that can mitigate these problems. The key role of the coherence and causal-invariance constraints, which map onto two narrative proclivities that anthropologists have identified as universal, predicts that climate-change information embedded in scientific explanations of (indisputable) everyday observations within a coherent personal moral narrative, juxtaposed with reasoners’ typically less coherent explanations, will be more persuasive than climate-change information by itself. An experiment conducted in U.S. states with the highest level of climate skepticism demonstrates that across the political spectrum, conveying science information using materials that leverage these constraints raises both appreciation of science and willingness to take pro-climate actions.

Fostering climate change consensus: The role of intimacy in group discussions

2021 ◽  
pp. 096366252110206
Author(s):  
Lyn M. van Swol ◽  
Emma Frances Bloomfield ◽  
Chen-Ting Chang ◽  
Stephanie Willes
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Group Consensus ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Self Disclosure ◽  
Group Attraction ◽  
Climate Change Information ◽  
To Come ◽  
Collective Engagement

This study examined if creating intimacy in a group discussion is more effective toward reaching consensus about climate change than a focus on information. Participants were randomly assigned to either a group that spent the first part of an online discussion engaging in self-disclosure and focusing on shared values (intimacy condition) or discussing information from an article about climate change (information condition). Afterward, all groups were given the same instructions to try to come to group consensus on their opinions about climate change. Participants in the intimacy condition had higher ratings of social cohesion, group attraction, task interdependence, and collective engagement and lower ratings of ostracism than the information condition. Intimacy groups were more likely to reach consensus, with ostracism and the emotional tone of discussion mediating this effect. Participants were more likely to change their opinion to reflect that climate change is real in the intimacy than information condition.

scholarly journals Reporting on Climate Change by Broadcast Meteorologists: A National Assessment

2020 ◽  
Vol 101 (2) ◽  
pp. E129-E140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin M. F. Timm ◽  
David Perkins ◽  
Teresa Myers ◽  
Bernadette Woods Placky ◽  
Edward W. Maibach
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Response Rate ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Communication Mode ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Climate Change Information ◽  
Communication Modes ◽  
Local Impacts ◽  
To Receive

Abstract Television weathercasters are uniquely situated to inform their audiences about the local impacts of global climate change and a growing number of them are adopting the role of climate change educator. We surveyed all American broadcast meteorology professionals in 2015 (N = 2,059; response rate = 22.6%), 2016 (N = 2017; response rate = 31.2%), and 2017 (N = 2,177; response rate = 22.1%) to assess weathercasters’ interest in reporting about climate change; if, where, and how they report about climate change; and the reactions they get from their audiences when they do. Many participating weathercasters indicated that they were moderately or very interested in reporting about climate change, especially using local historical climate information (56%). Just over half of the weathercasters (57.9%) had used one or more communication mode to inform their viewers, or other people in their community, about the local impacts of climate change in the prior year. The most commonly used modes were social media (42.7%), school visits (36.3%), community events (33.1%), and on-air broadcasts (31.3%). Most weathercasters who had reported about climate change on air indicated they received either positive viewer feedback or little feedback (61.9%); conversely, weathercasters who had not reported about climate change expected to receive mostly negative feedback (44.2%). In sum, this analysis suggests that large numbers of weathercasters have adopted the role of climate change educator in their communities; they use a range of communication modes to share climate change information with their audiences and receive mostly positive feedback from their audiences when they do.

The role of a knowledge broker in improving knowledge and understanding of climate change in the Australian rangelands

2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 541 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary-Anne Healy ◽  
Kate Forrest ◽  
Gary Bastin
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Knowledge Broker ◽  
Project Delivery ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Climate Change Information ◽  
Project Objectives ◽  
Science And Research

This paper considers the role of a knowledge broker to coordinate and connect activity within a cross-disciplinary project to deliver climate change science and research to regional natural resource management (NRM) planning in the Australian rangelands. We use the Rangelands Cluster Project as a case study. Due to the additional challenges facing project delivery in the rangelands such as remoteness, distance and low and sparsely distributed population, the project development phase included the central role of a knowledge broker to support the project objectives: identifying climate change information needs, providing quality information that can be incorporated into NRM planning, and establishing networks of researchers and NRM planners across the rangelands. The knowledge broker facilitated a process that included face-to-face meetings, workshops, surveys, email and teleconferencing to establish relationships and identify priorities as well as to refine project outputs. This facilitation allowed clearer communication between parties who were very remote from each other and worked in different disciplines, ensuring the different expertise was brought into the project, connections made and relationships formed.

scholarly journals The Precis Caribbean Story: Lessons and Legacies

2013 ◽  
Vol 94 (7) ◽  
pp. 1065-1073 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A. Taylor ◽  
Abel Centella ◽  
John Charlery ◽  
Arnoldo Bezanilla ◽  
Jayaka Campbell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Caribbean Region ◽  
Climate Information ◽  
Climate Change Information ◽  
Current Century ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Regional Climates ◽  
Science Information

By the beginning of the current century, there was heightened recognition that the Caribbean is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Yet, there was very little climate change science information for the region and at the scale of the small islands that make up most of the region. To fill the gap, a group of regional scientists representing three institutions and four territories (Barbados, Belize, Cuba, and Jamaica) initiated a project to provide dynamically downscaled climate change information for the Caribbean. The Providing Regional Climates for Impacts Studies (PRECIS)-Caribbean initiative was premised on a shared workload with goals to build regional capacity to provide climate change information for the region from within the region, to provide much needed climate information in the shortest possible time frame, and to create a platform for sharing the information as widely as possible. Ten years later offers the opportunity for retrospection and evaluation, particularly since a phase 2 initiative is being formulated. By both accident and design, the legacies of the PRECIS-Caribbean initiative include i) the positioning of the Caribbean to pose and answer for itself some of the emerging second-generation climate change questions; ii) the emergence of a regional template for capacity building in the sciences through cooperation; iii) an expanded regional capacity to undertake climate science; and iv) a significant body of climate change and climate science knowledge relevant to and at the scale of the Caribbean region.

scholarly journals Stand out of my Sunlight: The Mediating Role of Climate Change Conspiracy Beliefs in the Relationship between National Collective Narcissism and Acceptance of Climate Science

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Bertin ◽  
Kenzo Nera ◽  
Katarzyna Hamer ◽  
Isabella Uhl-Haedicke ◽  
Sylvain Delouvée
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Negative Relation ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Climate Skepticism ◽  
Conspiracy Beliefs ◽  
The Relationship

Despite the scientific consensus about the anthropogenic nature of climate change, there are still obstacles hindering society from acknowledging the severity of the situation. Notably, previous research suggests that climate change threats can cause people to display ethnocentric reaction to preserve the ingroup’s interests. In this research, we investigate the relation between collective narcissism and attitudes towards climate science. We argue that national collective narcissism is negatively associated with the acceptance of climate science. We further hypothesized that this relation might be mediated by conspiracy beliefs about climate change, because narcissistic identifiers are prone to hold conspiracy beliefs. In a pilot Study (N = 409), we found that national collective narcissism was significantly associated with climate change conspiracy beliefs. In Study 1 (N = 295), climate change conspiracy beliefs mediated the negative relation between national collective narcissism and acceptance of climate science. In Study 2 (N = 375), this mediation was replicated when controlling for other forms of climate skepticism. Lastly, general conspiracy mentality did not mediate this relation, which emphasizes the importance of considering the specificity of climate change conspiracy theories (rather than generic propensity to believe in conspiracy theories) in understanding distrust toward climate science.

Journalists and Open Access

2021 ◽  
pp. 47-63
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Frank Elia
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Open Access ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Information Resources ◽  
Global Trends ◽  
Climate Change Information ◽  
Access Information ◽  
The Impact

This chapter explores the role of open access in promoting climate change adaptation and sustainable development. It reviews global trends of journalists' access to information and specifically discusses Tanzania journalists' access to and use of climate change information. The chapter further assesses the impact of journalists' access to open information resources in adapting to climate change and promote sustainable development. The chapter also discusses the challenges journalists encounter in accessing and using open access information resources. It further recommends solutions to the raised challenges and suggests areas for further research. The chapter concludes by giving insights on major issues of concern on open access.

Journalists and Open Access

2022 ◽  
pp. 799-816
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Frank Elia
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Open Access ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Information Resources ◽  
Global Trends ◽  
Climate Change Information ◽  
Access Information ◽  
The Impact

This chapter explores the role of open access in promoting climate change adaptation and sustainable development. It reviews global trends of journalists' access to information and specifically discusses Tanzania journalists' access to and use of climate change information. The chapter further assesses the impact of journalists' access to open information resources in adapting to climate change and promote sustainable development. The chapter also discusses the challenges journalists encounter in accessing and using open access information resources. It further recommends solutions to the raised challenges and suggests areas for further research. The chapter concludes by giving insights on major issues of concern on open access.

scholarly journals Recurrent fury: Conspiratorial discourse in the blogosphere triggered by research on the role of conspiracist ideation in climate denial

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 142-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan Lewandowsky ◽  
John Cook ◽  
Klaus Oberauer ◽  
Scott Brophy ◽  
Elisabeth A. Lloyd ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Scientific Discourse ◽  
Hiv And Aids ◽  
Blind Test ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Behavioral Studies ◽  
Climate Skepticism ◽  
Growing Body

A growing body of evidence has implicated conspiracist ideation in the rejection of scientific propositions. Internet blogs in particular have become the staging ground for conspiracy theories that challenge the link between HIV and AIDS, the benefits of vaccinations, or the reality of climate change. A recent study involving visitors to climate blogs found that conspiracist ideation was associated with the rejection of climate science and other scientific propositions such as the link between lung cancer and smoking, and between HIV and AIDS. That article stimulated considerable discursive activity in the climate blogosphere—i.e., the numerous blogs dedicated to climate “skepticism”—that was critical of the study. The blogosphere discourse was ideally suited for analysis because its focus was clearly circumscribed, it had a well-defined onset, and it largely discontinued after several months. We identify and classify the hypotheses that questioned the validity of the paper’s conclusions using well-established criteria for conspiracist ideation. In two behavioral studies involving naive participants we show that those criteria and classifications were reconstructed in a blind test. Our findings extend a growing body of literature that has examined the important, but not always constructive, role of the blogosphere in public and scientific discourse.

scholarly journals Stand out of my sunlight: The mediating role of climate change conspiracy beliefs in the relationship between national collective narcissism and acceptance of climate science

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 738-758
Author(s):  
Paul Bertin ◽  
Kenzo Nera ◽  
Katarzyna Hamer ◽  
Isabella Uhl-Haedicke ◽  
Sylvain Delouvée
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Negative Relation ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Climate Skepticism ◽  
Conspiracy Beliefs ◽  
The Relationship

Despite the scientific consensus about the anthropogenic nature of climate change, there are still obstacles hindering society from acknowledging the severity of the situation. Notably, previous research suggests that climate change threats can cause people to display ethnocentric reactions to preserve the ingroup’s interests. In this research, we investigate the relation between collective narcissism and attitudes towards climate science. We argue that national collective narcissism is negatively associated with the acceptance of climate science. We further hypothesized that this relation might be mediated by conspiracy beliefs about climate change, because narcissistic identifiers are prone to hold conspiracy beliefs. In a pilot study ( N = 409), we found that national collective narcissism was significantly associated with climate change conspiracy beliefs. In Study 1 ( N = 295), climate change conspiracy beliefs mediated the negative relation between national collective narcissism and acceptance of climate science. In Study 2 ( N = 375), this mediation was replicated when controlling for other forms of climate skepticism. Lastly, general conspiracy mentality did not mediate this relation, which emphasizes the importance of considering the specificity of climate change conspiracy theories (rather than generic propensity to believe in conspiracy theories) in understanding distrust of climate science.

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