scholarly journals Anthropogenic climate change coverage in two Canadian newspapers : the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail, from 1988-2007

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrina Marie Ahchong
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
News Media ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽  
Public Issues ◽  
Regional Newspaper ◽  
The Way

Media portrayal of current events can influence public perception and the actions that policy and decision makers take with regard to these events. This study applied a content analysis to explore variations in the way Canadian news media depicted anthropogenic climate change by employing an approach previously used by Liu, Vedlitz and Alston (2008). This research applied their existing methodology to both the regional and national levels of media in a Canadian setting. Climate change articles from two newspapers published between 1988 and 2007, the Toronto Star, a regional newspaper, and the Globe and Mail, a national newspaper, were obtained. They were examined for aspects of climate change, including salience, image, scope, country representation, participants, and the origins of scientific information that was presented in the articles. Differences in the way climate change is portrayed between the newspapers at regional and national levels are also examined. Overall, climate change is portrayed similarly in the two newspapers as a large-scale (national and global) problem, despite the differences in audience scope. The Toronto Star exhibits a more national perspective with respect to climate change although it is a regional newspaper. Attention paid by the media to climate change increases from 1988-2007. Climate change is predominantly depicted in both newspapers as a destructive issue. There are linkages to other public issues, including those in international co-operation, science research and development, and energy and transportation. The analysis reveals that a number of non-government and government actors are concerned with climate change and a wider array of interest groups is becoming involved. Finally, the majority of the solution strategies presented in the articles focus on mitigation techniques, as opposed to adaptation strategies.

scholarly journals Anthropogenic climate change coverage in two Canadian newspapers : the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail, from 1988-2007

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrina Marie Ahchong
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
News Media ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽  
Public Issues ◽  
Regional Newspaper ◽  
The Way

Media portrayal of current events can influence public perception and the actions that policy and decision makers take with regard to these events. This study applied a content analysis to explore variations in the way Canadian news media depicted anthropogenic climate change by employing an approach previously used by Liu, Vedlitz and Alston (2008). This research applied their existing methodology to both the regional and national levels of media in a Canadian setting. Climate change articles from two newspapers published between 1988 and 2007, the Toronto Star, a regional newspaper, and the Globe and Mail, a national newspaper, were obtained. They were examined for aspects of climate change, including salience, image, scope, country representation, participants, and the origins of scientific information that was presented in the articles. Differences in the way climate change is portrayed between the newspapers at regional and national levels are also examined. Overall, climate change is portrayed similarly in the two newspapers as a large-scale (national and global) problem, despite the differences in audience scope. The Toronto Star exhibits a more national perspective with respect to climate change although it is a regional newspaper. Attention paid by the media to climate change increases from 1988-2007. Climate change is predominantly depicted in both newspapers as a destructive issue. There are linkages to other public issues, including those in international co-operation, science research and development, and energy and transportation. The analysis reveals that a number of non-government and government actors are concerned with climate change and a wider array of interest groups is becoming involved. Finally, the majority of the solution strategies presented in the articles focus on mitigation techniques, as opposed to adaptation strategies.

scholarly journals Regional Climate Model Emulator based on Deep Learning: Concept and First Evaluation of a Novel Hybrid Downscaling Approach

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoine Doury ◽  
Samuel Somot ◽  
Sébastien Gadat ◽  
Aurélien Ribes ◽  
Lola Corre
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Network Architecture ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Regional Climate Models ◽  
Future Climate ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
The Way

Abstract Providing reliable information on climate change at local scale remains a challenge of first importance for impact studies and policymakers. Here, we propose a novel hybrid downscaling method combining the strengths of both empirical statistical downscaling methods and Regional Climate Models (RCMs). The aim of this tool is to enlarge the size of high-resolution RCM simulation ensembles at low cost.We build a statistical RCM-emulator by estimating the downscaling function included in the RCM. This framework allows us to learn the relationship between large-scale predictors and a local surface variable of interest over the RCM domain in present and future climate. Furthermore, the emulator relies on a neural network architecture, which grants computational efficiency. The RCM-emulator developed in this study is trained to produce daily maps of the near-surface temperature at the RCM resolution (12km). The emulator demonstrates an excellent ability to reproduce the complex spatial structure and daily variability simulated by the RCM and in particular the way the RCM refines locally the low-resolution climate patterns. Training in future climate appears to be a key feature of our emulator. Moreover, there is a huge computational benefit in running the emulator rather than the RCM, since training the emulator takes about 2 hours on GPU, and the prediction is nearly instantaneous. However, further work is needed to improve the way the RCM-emulator reproduces some of the temperature extremes, the intensity of climate change, and to extend the proposed methodology to different regions, GCMs, RCMs, and variables of interest.

scholarly journals Rapidly declining remarkability of temperature anomalies may obscure public perception of climate change

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (11) ◽  
pp. 4905-4910 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frances C. Moore ◽  
Nick Obradovich ◽  
Flavio Lehner ◽  
Patrick Baylis
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Absolute Temperature ◽  
Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽  
Temperature Anomalies ◽  
Shifting Baseline ◽  
Negative Sentiment

The changing global climate is producing increasingly unusual weather relative to preindustrial conditions. In an absolute sense, these changing conditions constitute direct evidence of anthropogenic climate change. However, human evaluation of weather as either normal or abnormal will also be influenced by a range of factors including expectations, memory limitations, and cognitive biases. Here we show that experience of weather in recent years—rather than longer historical periods—determines the climatic baseline against which current weather is evaluated, potentially obscuring public recognition of anthropogenic climate change. We employ variation in decadal trends in temperature at weekly and county resolution over the continental United States, combined with discussion of the weather drawn from over 2 billion social media posts. These data indicate that the remarkability of particular temperatures changes rapidly with repeated exposure. Using sentiment analysis tools, we provide evidence for a “boiling frog” effect: The declining noteworthiness of historically extreme temperatures is not accompanied by a decline in the negative sentiment that they induce, indicating that social normalization of extreme conditions rather than adaptation is driving these results. Using climate model projections we show that, despite large increases in absolute temperature, anomalies relative to our empirically estimated shifting baseline are small and not clearly distinguishable from zero throughout the 21st century.

scholarly journals Climate Change: A Paradigm Shift for Investments? A Review of Evidence under Climate Science Research

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-68
Author(s):  
Sudeep Rathee ◽  
Sheeba Kapil
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Portfolio Management ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Research Themes ◽  
Sustainable Investments ◽  
Science Information

In light of the observed changes in climate patterns, this paper reviews the evidence forwarded under climate science research for analysing the climate related stresses on assets across different sectors. The review provides insights on the need for a shift in investment decisions and portfolio management activities. The paper follows an exploratory research method to focus on key climate science research themes. Thereby, the paper synthesizes the existing scientific information to identify those opportunities in climate change that require climate investments. Additionally, the research also discusses the points of uncertainty for climate investment that arise due the limitations of existing climate science related information and methods. The synthesis of climate science information in the paper will provide a foothold to the interdisciplinary research community in the area of sustainable investments for identification of investable climate assets and insights on the factors of climate science related uncertainty that need to be researched further for their impact on such climate investments.

Attributing the global increase in permafrost temperatures to human induced climate change

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lukas Gudmundsson ◽  
Josefine Kirchner ◽  
Anne Gädeke ◽  
Eleanor Burke ◽  
Boris K. Biskaborn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Volcanic Eruptions ◽  
Global Climate Models ◽  
Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽  
Permafrost Degradation ◽  
Climate Feedbacks ◽  
Permafrost Temperature

<p>Permafrost temperatures are increasing at the global scale, resulting in permafrost degradation. Besides substantial impacts on Arctic and Alpine hydrology and the stability of landscapes and infrastructure, permafrost degradation can trigger a large-scale release of carbon to the atmosphere with possible global climate feedbacks. Although increasing global air temperature is unanimously linked to human emissions into the atmosphere, the attribution of observed permafrost warming to anthropogenic climate change has so far mostly relied on anecdotal evidence. Here we apply a climate change detection and attribution approach to long permafrost temperature records from 15 boreholes located in the northern Hemisphere and simulated soil temperatures obtained from global climate models contributing to the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6). We show that observed and simulated trends in permafrost temperature are only consistent if the effect of human emissions on the climate system is considered in the simulations. Moreover, the analysis also reveals that neither simulated pre-industrial climate variability nor the effects natural drivers of climate change (e.g. impacts of large volcanic eruptions) suffice to explain the observed trends. While these results are most significant for a global mean assessment, our analysis also reveals that simulated effects of anthropogenic climate change on permafrost temperature are also consistent with the observed record at the station scale. In summary, the quantitative combination of observed and simulated evidence supports the conclusion that anthropogenic climate change is the key driver of increasing permafrost temperatures with implications for carbon cycle-climate feedbacks at the planetary scale.</p>

Cirrus, Climate, and Global Change

Cirrus ◽  
2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graeme Stephens
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Cirrus Clouds ◽  
Coupled Processes ◽  
Cloud Droplets ◽  
Earth’S Climate ◽  
Climate Problem ◽  
The Way

Understanding the climate of Earth and the way climate varies in time requires a quantitative understanding of the way water cycles back and forth between the atmosphere and at the Earth's surface. The exchanges of water between the surface and atmosphere establish the hydrological cycle, and it is the influence of this cycle on the energy budget of Earth that is central not only to understanding present climate but also to the prediction of climate change. Processes relating to the smallest of the reservoirs of water—namely, the atmospheric branch of the hydrological cycle—play an especially critical role in climate change. Water in vapor phase is the critical greenhouse gas (e.g., Chahine 1992) providing much studied feedbacks on climate forcing (Lindzen 1990; Rind et al. 1991; Stephens and Greenwald 1991; Inamdar and Ramanathan 1998; Hall and Manabe 1999). Water in the form of condensed, precipitation-sized particles is an important source of energy fueling circulation systems and is the fundamental supply of fresh water to life on Earth. Liquid water cloud droplets significantly modulate the radiative budget of the planet (e.g., Wielicki et al. 1995). Water that exists as ice particles suspended in the atmosphere is perhaps the smallest of the water reservoirs of the atmosphere, yet these ice crystals when distributed as part of large-scale cirrus clouds exert a disproportionate influence on the energy and water budgets of the planet. This chapter briefly speculates on the important ways cirrus clouds affect the Earth's climate. The topics discussed are central to what is referred to as the cloud-climate problem, which might be schematically represented in terms of the coupled processes represented in figure 20.1. The two most critical scientific questions associated with the cloud-climate problem are also stated in figure 20.1. Answers to these questions require a clearer understanding of how the large-scale circulation of the atmosphere governs cloud formation and evolution, how these clouds heat and moisten the atmosphere, and how this heating and moistening effect in turn feeds back to influence the dynamical and thermodynamical properties of the atmosphere.

Students' Understanding of Climate Change: Insights for Scientists and Educators

1997 ◽  
Vol 78 (10) ◽  
pp. 2232-2240 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. V. Rajeev Gowda ◽  
Jeffrey C. Fox ◽  
Robin D. Magelky
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
High School Students ◽  
News Media ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
School Students ◽  
The Public ◽  
Educational Role ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
High Level

Teachers and meteorologists are among the most respected purveyors of scientific information to the public. As such, they can play an influential role in educating the public about basic atmosphere-related phenomena. To better fulfill this educational role, it is necessary to (i) identify and (ii) correct people's major misconceptions about climatic and atmospheric issues, including global climate change. This paper reports the results of a survey of high school students' knowledge and attitudes about climate change. The authors use open-ended survey questions to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the range of “mistakes” that are made. The results show misconceptions including inflated estimates of temperature change, confusion between ozone depletion and global warming, the perception of warmer weather and a belief that all environmentally harmful acts cause climate change. Also discussed is the origin of these mistakes from the perspective of current social scientific literature. It is suggested that these misconceptions arise from low levels of information, reliance on the televised news media, use of judgmental heuristics, confusion between weather and climate, and “fuzzy environmentalism,” wherein students perceive disparate environmental harms as significantly interrelated. The study also reveals that students have a very high level of trust in scientists and teachers. This suggests a role for scientists and educators through which they help correct misconceptions about climate change and ensure that people adopt effective environmentally protective measures.

scholarly journals The Impact of Natural and Anthropogenic Climate Change on Western North Pacific Tropical Cyclone Tracks*

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 1806-1823 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela J. Colbert ◽  
Brian J. Soden ◽  
Ben P. Kirtman
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
North Pacific ◽  
Western North Pacific ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽  
The North ◽  
Steering Flow ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The impact of natural and anthropogenic climate change on tropical cyclone (TC) tracks in the western North Pacific (WNP) is examined using a beta and advection model (BAM) to isolate the influence of changes in the large-scale steering flow from changes in genesis location. The BAM captures many of the observed changes in TC tracks due to El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), while little change is noted for the Pacific decadal oscillation and all-India monsoon rainfall in either observations or BAM simulations. Analysis with the BAM suggests that the observed shifts in the average track between the phases of ENSO are primarily due to changes in the large-scale steering flow, with changes in genesis location playing a secondary role. Potential changes in TC tracks over the WNP due to anthropogenic climate change are also assessed. Ensemble mean projections are downscaled from 17 CMIP3 models and 26 CMIP5 models. Statistically significant decreases [~(4%–6%)] in westward moving TCs and increases [~(5%–7%)] in recurving ocean TCs are found. These correspond to projected decreases of 3–5 TCs per decade over the Philippines and increases of 1–3 TCs per decade over the central WNP. The projected changes are primarily caused by a reduction in the easterlies. This slows the storm movement, allowing more time for the beta drift to carry the storm northward and recurve. A previous study found similar results in the North Atlantic. Taken together, these results suggest that a weakening of the mean atmospheric circulation in response to anthropogenic warming will lead to fewer landfalling storms over the North Atlantic and WNP.

Gender differences in the climate change communication on Twitter

2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 811-828 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Holmberg ◽  
Iina Hellsten
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Gender Differences ◽  
News Media ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
Climate Change Communication ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Change Communication ◽  
Local Campaigns ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a study about gender differences in the climate change communication on Twitter and in the use of affordances on Twitter. Design/methodology/approach – The data set consists of about 250,000 tweets and retweets for which the authors’ gender was identified. While content of tweets and hashtags used were analysed for common topics and specific contexts, the usernames that were proportionately more frequently mentioned by either male or female tweeters were coded according to the usernames’ stance in the climate change debate into convinced (that climate change is caused by humans), sceptics, neutrals and unclear groups, and according to the type or role of the user account (e.g. campaign, organization, private person). Findings – The results indicate that overall male and female tweeters use very similar language in their tweets, but clear differences were observed in the use of hashtags and usernames, with female tweeters mentioning significantly more campaigns and organizations with a convinced attitude towards anthropogenic impact on climate change, while male tweeters mention significantly more private persons and usernames with a sceptical stance. The differences were even greater when retweets and duplicate tweets by the same author were removed from the data, indicating how retweeting can significantly influence the results. Practical implications – On a theoretical level the results increase the understanding for how women and men view and engage with climate change. This has practical implications for organizations interested in developing communication strategies for reaching and engaging female and male audiences on Twitter. While female tweeters can be targeted via local campaigns and news media, male tweeters seem to follow more political and scientific information. The results from the present research also showed that more research about the meaning of retweeting is needed, as the authors have shown how retweets can have a significant impact on the results. Originality/value – The findings contribute towards increased understanding of both gender differences in the climate change debate and in social media use in general. Beyond that this research showed how retweeting may have a significant impact on research where tweets are used as a data source.

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