scholarly journals Taking Lessons from Silent Spring: Using Environmental Literature for Climate Change

Literature ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 2
Author(s):  
Craig A. Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Environmental Science ◽  
Environmental Literature ◽  
New Era ◽  
The Public ◽  
Silent Spring ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
Contemporary Climate ◽  
Insight Into

Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) created a new genre termed “science nonfiction literature.” This genre blended environmental science and narrative while ushering in a new era of awareness and interest for both. With the contemporary climate crisis becoming more dire, this article returns to Carson’s work for insight into ways to engage deniers of climate change and methods to propel action. Further, it investigates and evaluates the writing within Silent Spring by considering its past in our present. Using the corporate reception of Carson’s book as reference, this article also examines ways climate change opponents create misunderstandings and inappropriately deceive and misdirect the public. Through this analysis, connections are made that connect literature, science, and public engagement, which can engender a broader, more comprehensive awareness of the importance of environmental literature as a medium for climate awareness progress.

scholarly journals From Air Pollution to the Climate Crisis: Leaving the Comfort Zone

Daedalus ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 149 (4) ◽  
pp. 108-117
Author(s):  
Patrick L. Kinney
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Air Pollution ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Public Health Research ◽  
Research Area ◽  
The Public ◽  
Zero Carbon ◽  
Climate And Health ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
Support Research

While climate change poses existential risks to human health and welfare, the public health research community has been slow to embrace the topic. This isn't so much about a lack of interest as it is about the lack of dedicated funding to support research. An interesting contrast can be drawn with the field of air pollution and health, which has been an active and well-supported research area for almost fifty years. My own career journey started squarely in the latter setting in the 1980s, but transitioned to a major focus on climate and health starting around 2000. The journey has been punctuated with opportunities and obstacles, most of which still exist. In the meantime, a large body of evidence has grown on the health impacts of climate change, adding more urgency to the imperative for action. Institutionalization of climate and health within the federal regulatory and funding apparatus is now needed if we are to make the transition to zero carbon in ways that maximize health and equity benefits.

scholarly journals Comparing the effects of climate change labelling on reactions of the Taiwanese public

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Li-San Hung ◽  
Mucahid Mustafa Bayrak
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
General Public ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Climate Change Risk ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Behavioural Intentions ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Media ◽  
Change Beliefs ◽  
Climate Crisis

AbstractScientists and the media are increasingly using the terms ‘climate emergency’ or ‘climate crisis’ to urge timely responses from the public and private sectors to combat the irreversible consequences of climate change. However, whether the latest trend in climate change labelling can result in stronger climate change risk perceptions in the public is unclear. Here we used survey data collected from 1,892 individuals across Taiwan in 2019 to compare the public’s reaction to a series of questions regarding climate change beliefs, communication, and behavioural intentions under two labels: ‘climate change’ and ‘climate crisis.’ The respondents had very similar responses to the questions using the two labels. However, we observed labelling effects for specific subgroups, with some questions using the climate crisis label actually leading to backlash effects compared with the response when using the climate change label. Our results suggest that even though the two labels provoke similar reactions from the general public, on a subgroup level, some backlash effects may become apparent. For this reason, the label ‘climate crisis’ should be strategically chosen.

scholarly journals Evidence-based communication on climate change and health: Testing videos, text, and maps on climate change and Lyme disease in Manitoba, Canada

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. e0252952
Author(s):  
Laura Cameron ◽  
Rhéa Rocque ◽  
Kailey Penner ◽  
Ian Mauro
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Lyme Disease ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Cumulative Impacts ◽  
The Public ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Audience Responses ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
Environmental Behaviours

Given the climate crisis and its cumulative impacts on public health, effective communication strategies that engage the public in adaptation and mitigation are critical. Many have argued that a health frame increases engagement, as do visual methodologies including online and interactive platforms, yet to date there has been limited research on audience responses to health messaging using visual interventions. This study explores public attitudes regarding communication tools focused on climate change and climate-affected Lyme disease through six focus groups (n = 61) in rural and urban southern Manitoba, Canada. The results add to the growing evidence of the efficacy of visual and storytelling methods in climate communications and argues for a continuum of mediums: moving from video, text, to maps. Findings underscore the importance of tailoring both communication messages and mediums to increase uptake of adaptive health and environmental behaviours, for some audiences bridging health and climate change while for others strategically decoupling them.

scholarly journals Public Engagement in Climate Communication on China’s Weibo: Network Structure and Information Flows

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 146-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yixi Yang ◽  
Mark C. J. Stoddart
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Communication Networks ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Information Diffusion ◽  
Public Deliberation ◽  
Information Flows ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
Climate Politics ◽  
The Public

This article provides an empirical study of public engagement with climate change discourse in China by analysing how Chinese publics participate in the public discussion around two Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports and how individual users interact with state and elite actors on the pre-eminent Chinese microblogging platform Weibo. Using social network analysis methods and a temporal comparison, we examine the structure of climate communication networks, the direction of information flows among multiple types of Weibo users, and the changes in information diffusion patterns between the pre- and post-Paris periods. Our results show there is an increasing yet constrained form of public engagement in climate communication on Weibo alongside China’s pro-environmental transition in recent years. We find an expansion of public engagement as shown by individual users’ increasing influence in communication networks and the diversification of frames associated with climate change discourse. However, we also find three restrictive interaction tendencies that limit Weibo’s potential to facilitate multi-directional communication and open public deliberation of climate change, including the decline of mutually balanced dialogic interactions, the lack of bottom-up information flows, and the reinforcement of homophily tendencies amongst eco-insiders and governmental users. These findings highlight the coexistence of both opportunities and constraints of Weibo being a venue for public engagement with climate communication and as a forum for a new climate politics and citizen participation in China.

scholarly journals Weathering the storm together: Cultivating climate leadership through affective pedagogy and psychological support groups

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Jenny Myers
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Support Groups ◽  
Environmental Science ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Transformational Leaders ◽  
State University ◽  
Working Together ◽  
Business As Usual ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
Affective Pedagogy

How can students become transformational leaders if they are left alone to grapple with the emotional toll of climate change, preparing for careers while scientists sound the alarm that business as usual is untenable? Ecoanxiety, solastalgia, and climate grief are the affective undercurrents in sustainability and environmental science classrooms. This case study discusses strategies used to support students’ emotional well-being in an introductory sustainability class and a co-curricular climate change support group program at Oregon State University. Psychologists and sustainability educators created space for students and faculty to engage in authentic dialogues confronting the emotional uncertainty of the climate crisis and working together to define their roles building a resilient future.

The effects of social identity threat and social identity affirmation on laypersons’ perception of scientists

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (7) ◽  
pp. 754-770 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Nauroth ◽  
Mario Gollwitzer ◽  
Henrik Kozuchowski ◽  
Jens Bender ◽  
Tobias Rothmund
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Identity ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Identity Threat ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Identity Threat ◽  
Public Engagement With Science ◽  
Public Debates ◽  
Social Identity Approach

Public debates about socio-scientific issues (e.g. climate change or violent video games) are often accompanied by attacks on the reputation of the involved scientists. Drawing on the social identity approach, we report a minimal group experiment investigating the conditions under which scientists are perceived as non-prototypical, non-reputable, and incompetent. Results show that in-group affirming and threatening scientific findings (compared to a control condition) both alter laypersons’ evaluations of the study: in-group affirming findings lead to more positive and in-group threatening findings to more negative evaluations. However, only in-group threatening findings alter laypersons’ perceptions of the scientists who published the study: scientists were perceived as less prototypical, less reputable, and less competent when their research results imply a threat to participants’ social identity compared to a non-threat condition. Our findings add to the literature on science reception research and have implications for understanding the public engagement with science.

Moral Reasoning, Intuitions, and Perceptions of Climate Change

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ezra Markowitz
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Moral Reasoning ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Moral Issue ◽  
Public Communication ◽  
Technical Issue ◽  
Forthcoming Article ◽  
Climate Change Research ◽  
The Public

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science. Please check back later for the full article. Climate change is often perceived by individuals as a scientific, environmental, economic and/or technical issue. Until recently, the moral and ethical dimensions of the issue have appeared to resonate less strongly with many members of the public. Yet for over two decades, climate ethicists and others have argued strenuously that climate change is, perhaps at its core, a moral and ethical issue. What explains this apparent disconnect between normative and subjective perspectives on the moral core of climate change? Research has identified a set of key psychological and cultural mechanisms that influence and at times inhibit individual moral reasoning about climate change and, often, inhibit perceptions of climate change as a moral issue. Moral reasoning and intuitions about climate change in turn influence public engagement with and support for responses to the problem. The research to date suggests several new questions for scholars to examine further, and it offers implications for effective public communication and engagement.

scholarly journals Most Americans Want to Learn More about Climate Change

2017 ◽  
Vol 98 (6) ◽  
pp. 1103-1107 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Perkins ◽  
Ed Maibach ◽  
Ned Gardiner ◽  
Joe Witte ◽  
Bud Ward ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Public Education ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Educational Outreach ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Educational Models ◽  
The Public ◽  
American Meteorological Society

Abstract As American Meteorological Society (AMS) members who study Americans’ understanding of climate change and who are engaged in programs to educate Americans about climate change, we want our AMS colleagues to realize their key role in public education. In this article we make the case that 1) AMS members are well positioned to play important leadership roles in educational outreach on climate change, 2) the public wants to learn more about climate change, 3) there is a need for more effective public engagement efforts, and 4) we have successful outreach and educational models that we can start using today.

scholarly journals Why is everyone talking about climate change … again?

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-96
Author(s):  
Anna Szolucha
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Environmental Movement ◽  
Ecological Change ◽  
Short Article ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
History Of ◽  
Contemporary Climate ◽  
Insight Into

In this short article, I reflect on the last 50 years of environmental mobilisations in Europe and ask why democracy is important for contemporary climate action. Although the current wave of climate protests seems to share many characteristics with its 1970s predecessors, there is also a sense that contemporary movements and campaigns present a new quality in the long history of combating global warming. Are there any lessons that can be drawn from the history of environmentalism that can help us understand the current condition of climate action? I hope that by putting the environmental movement in a historical perspective, we can gain an insight into the factors that play a decisive role in effecting socio-ecological change.

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