What Influences People’s Tradeoff Decisions Between CO2 Emissions and Travel Time? An Experiment With Anchors and Normative Messages

One of the today’s greatest challenges is to adjust our behavior so that we can avoid a major climate disaster. To do so, we must make sacrifices for the sake of the environment. The study reported here investigates how anchors (extrinsic motivational-free information) and normative messages (extrinsic motivational information) influence people’s tradeoffs between travel time and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the context of car travel and whether any interactions with environmental concern (an intrinsic motivational factor) can be observed. In this study, people received either a CO2, health or no normative message together with either a high anchor, a low anchor, or no anchor. People that received both a high anchor and a CO2 emission normative message were willing to travel for a longer time than those that only received a high anchor. If a low anchor was presented, no differences in willingness to travel for a longer time were found between the three different conditions of normative message groups, i.e., CO2 normative message, health normative message, or no normative message. People with higher concern for the environment were found to be willing to travel for a longer time than those with lower concern for the environment. Further, this effect was strongest when a high anchor was presented. These results suggest that anchors and normative messages are among the many factors that can influence people’s tradeoffs between CO2 emission and travel time, and that various factors may have to be combined to increase their influence over pro-environmental behavior and decisions.

Climate realism

James Dacey reviews How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: the Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need by Bill Gates.

Public Institutional Structures for Disaster Preparedness in the Cereal Value Chain: A Zambian Case Study

Increasing extreme climate events and cyclonic activities provide clear evidence that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region is a hotspot for climate change-driven natural disasters which critically disrupt agricultural production cycles. This is especially true with regard to the production of cereal, produce widely used to represent food security. Although studies have attempted to disentangle the effect of demand vis à vis projected population growth on cereal production across the region, the contradiction between cereal production and climate disaster preparedness remains poorly resolved. Therefore, literature on the subject matter is scanty. The present study is motivated by the need to overcome this paucity of literature and thus, deepen our understanding of cereal production and climate disaster preparedness in the region. Therefore, the main aim of this study is to assess public institutional support structures that are currently being employed for climate disaster preparedness in the cereal value chain across Zambia as perceived by small scale farmers. After a comprehensive assessment of focus group discussions (FGDs), several points emerge specifically highlighting four salient findings: first, results show that a government-led Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) is the only strategy particularly targeted at disaster preparedness. All other initiatives are targeted at improving or safeguarding livelihoods with some components having a ripple effect on the cereal value chain. Second, results show that climate forecasts that are supposed to trigger early action are generally characterized by low prediction skill with more false alarms and misses than hits. Third, forecasts were found to lack geographical specificity with generalities over large areas being common thus, diminishing their usefulness at the local scale. Fourth, end-users found forecasts to usually contain technical jargon that is difficult to decipher especially that most small-scale farmers are illiterate. This study concludes that to fully support the cereal value chain and realize food security in Zambia, policy formulation that champion the establishment of an effective early warning and early action system (EWEAS) involving multiple interest groups and actors should be considered a matter of urgency.

Climate Disaster Risk, Disability, and Resilience

This essay examines the everyday inequalities, stigmas, and injustices that leave people with disabilities highly vulnerable to escalating climate change risks. It argues that including people with disabilities in disaster risk reduction processes is essential to shaping inclusive, effective policies and practices. Examples of several programs that have done so are discussed. Focusing on the strengths of people with disabilities as resilient change-makers and as the experts in their own lives—instead of viewing them as dependent on others—can lead to the changes necessary to recognize their personal sovereignty and deliver disaster justice. Third in a series on disability rights around the world.

The Politics of Climate Disasters, Social Inequality, and Perceptions of Government Assistance

This chapter addresses a central research question of the politics of climate disaster: Who do citizens believe responsible for aftermath relief? The authors examine the issue of responsibility attribution in federal disaster assistance—and the related question of who voters believe deserves government disaster relief—against three devastating 2017 hurricanes, with a special focus on the impact of Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico. The authors begin to answer the questions of responsibility and deservingness with survey data collected by them in a pilot study on the Island of Puerto Rico in 2019. They conclude by identifying fruitful links of comparative analysis between climate disaster politics and distributive and welfare politics.

Lamentacja dla przyrody – (bez)nadzieja „Ziemskiego lamentu”?

A Lamentation for Nature – the (Dis)consolation of “Ziemski Lament”?Founded in 2019, the “Ziemski Lament” [Earthly Lament] initiative revitalizes and recontextualizes the folk rite of singing lamentations and dirges which come from traditional rural culture. The group, which I describe using the category of communitas, performs songs taken from Śpiewnik Pelpliński, an extensive 19-century collection of religious songs. This type of communal expression is used to work through negative emotions caused by the consequences of the climate disaster and of exploitation of non-human nature. It is also an instrument of criticism of the strategies responsible for these phenomena. This article takes the study of the lamentation’s essential features and ways of circulation as the point of departure for a reflection on the functionality of this form of ecological protest. Lamentacja dla przyrody – (bez)nadzieja „Ziemskiego lamentu”?Powstała w 2019 roku inicjatywa „Ziemski lament” rewitalizuje i rekontekstualizuje obrzęd śpiewu pieśni lamentacyjnych oraz żałobnych pochodzący z wiejskiej kultury tradycyjnej. Grupa, którą opisuję w kategoriach communitas, wykonuje utwory zaczerpnięte ze Śpiewnika Pelplińskiego. Ten rodzaj wspólnotowej ekspresji służy do przepracowywania negatywnych emocji wywołanych konsekwencjami katastrofy klimatycznej i eksploatacji pozaludzkiej przyrody. Jest także narzędziem krytyki odpowiedzialnych za te zjawiska strategii. Zawarte w artykule badanie cech gatunkowych oraz własności obiegu lamentacji stanowi punkt wyjścia do rozważań o funkcjonalności tej formy protestu ekologicznego.