Abstract Most Americans misperceive climate change as distant risk; TV weathercasters can help correct this misperception by reporting on the current local impacts of climate change. Some weathercasters, however, are concerned that such reporting may alienate skeptical viewers. The goal of this study was to develop a better understanding of how viewers respond to climate change information delivered by weathercasters. Interviews were conducted with 30 local TV news viewers in Virginia with divergent views about climate change, categorized as engaged, disengaged, and unconvinced. During the interview, participants were shown two graphics and two videos about the local impacts of climate change. Most participants in all groups [21/30 (70%)] expressed interest in learning about climate change from weathercasters, particularly local and national impacts. Most participants in all three groups understood the key points and responded positively to both the graphics and the videos. Several unconvinced participants (6/10) were disinterested in seeing climate change information in the weather segment, but they were not opposed to it; they felt the weather segment was too short to adequately explain the information. These preliminary findings suggest that most of the local TV news viewers interviewed in this study—even those unconvinced that human-caused climate change is happening—respond positively to TV weathercasters as local climate educators. These findings are consistent with the reports of TV weathercasters who say that when they report on climate change, they receive far more positive than negative feedback from viewers.
Abstract Prior research suggests that climate stories are rarely reported by local news outlets in the United States. As part of the Climate Matters in the Newsroom project—a program for climate-reporting resources designed to help journalists report local climate stories—we conducted a series of local climate-reporting workshops for journalists to support such reporting. Here, we present the impacts of eight workshops conducted in 2018 and 2019—including participant assessments of the workshop, longitudinal changes in their climate-reporting self-efficacy, and the number and proportion of print and digital climate stories reported. We learned that participants found value in the workshops and experienced significant increases in their climate-reporting self-efficacy in response to the workshops, which were largely sustained over the next 6 months. We found only limited evidence that participants reported more frequently on climate change after the workshops—possibly, in part, due to the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on the news industry. These findings suggest that local climate-reporting workshops can be a useful but not necessarily sufficient strategy for supporting local climate change reporting. Further research is needed to illuminate how to support local climate reporting most effectively.
Significance Statement As part of an NSF-funded project to support local climate change news reporting, we conducted a series of eight journalist workshops. Here we evaluate their impacts. Participants gave the workshops strong positive ratings and experienced significant increases in climate-reporting self-efficacy. There was only limited evidence, however, that the workshops led to more frequent reporting on climate change—a conclusion muddied by the impacts of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on the news industry. These findings suggest that local climate-reporting workshops may be a useful strategy but that additional research is needed to strengthen the approach.
"Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts & Responses, 7-8 April 2022. The conference featured research addressing the following special focus: "Responding to Climate Change as Emergency: Governing the Climate Emergency" and annual themes: The Nature of Evidence: Why the persistent challenge of universalizing evidence based approaches?; Assessing Impacts in Diverse Ecosystems: What are the impacts of climate change on natural environments in particular and universal views?; Human Impacts and Responsibility: How have we been agents of climate change, what does a politics of responsibility reveal?; Technical, Political, and Social Responses: How do scientists, technologies, policy makers, and community members respond to climate change?"--
This Handbook examines the diverse ways in which climate change impacts Indigenous Peoples and local communities and considers their response to these changes.
While there is well-established evidence that the climate of the Earth is changing, the scarcity of instrumental data oftentimes challenges scientists' ability to detect such impacts in remote and marginalized areas of the world or in areas with scarce data. Bridging this gap, this Handbook draws on field research among Indigenous Peoples and local communities distributed across different climatic zones and relying on different livelihood activities, to analyse their reports of and responses to climate change impacts. It includes contributions from a range of authors from different nationalities, disciplinary backgrounds, and positionalities, thus reflecting the diversity of approaches in the field. The Handbook is organised in two parts: Part I examines the diverse ways in which climate change – alone or in interaction with other drivers of environmental change – affects Indigenous Peoples and local communities; Part II examines how Indigenous Peoples and local communities are locally adapting their responses to these impacts. Overall, this book highlights Indigenous and local knowledge systems as an untapped resource which will be vital in deepening our understanding of the effects of climate change.
The Routledge Handbook of Climate Change Impacts on Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities will be an essential reference text for students and scholars of climate change, anthropology, environmental studies, ethnobiology, and Indigenous studies.
The local government level is considered to be crucial in preparing society for climate change impact. Yet little is known about why local authorities do or do not take action to adapt their community for climate change impacts. In order to implement effective adaptation policy, the motivations for local climate adaptation need to be examined. This paper explores these motivations in Dutch communities by comparing nine urban and rural cases. To be able to draw general conclusions, cases are selected on "projected risk" and "extreme weather event experience". Motivations for local climate adaptation appear much more determined by local institutional factors such as a green party aldermen or innovative network membership then projected risk or extreme weather event experience. This could be explained by the empiric data showing diffuse channels of climate change knowledge into the local government level and limited capacity to translate this knowledge into genuine adaptation strategies
Published: 11 January 2017 ; Australia's 560 Councils are responsible for assets worth approximately $270 billion, many of which have a life span >50 years and so will be affected by climate change. Maintenance and replacement of Council infrastructure is guided by principles, models and tools in the International Infrastructure Management Manual that currently do not allow for climate change impacts or the likely flow-on effects to asset and financial management. This paper describes a financial simulation model developed to calculate the financial impacts of climate change on three major asset classes of importance to Australian Councils: hotmix sealed, spray sealed and unsealed roads. The research goes beyond previous studies of climate change impacts on roads in that it provides a location specific toolkit that is designed to assist councils in their asset management and planned maintenance programmes. Two categories of inputs are required for the model: climate inputs, relating specifically to baseline temperature and rainfall distributions and climate change parameters for temperature and rainfall; and engineering inputs, relating specifically to the three road types and the key parameters of their performance and useful lives over the scenario period. The baseline distributions are then shifted mathematically within the model by the mean change as projected by a selected Global Climate Model (GCM) scenario. Outputs of the model are the historical baseline climate variable distributions and the climate change (CC) impacts on road performance are in the form of changes to the useful life of the asset and associated changes in asset resurfacing and rehabilitation costs. Ten case study local councils in southern Australia are examined. Using IPCC AR4 scenarios, the results suggest that the incremental impact of climate change on all three types of road infrastructure modelled will be generally low. There are small cost reductions over the period for all road types as a result of the expected drying and warming trends in the climate. ; Jacqueline Balston, Steven Li, Ivan Iankov, Jon Kellett and Geoff Wells
Not Available ; Increasing evidence over the past few decades indicate that significant changes in climate are taking place worldwide as a result of enhanced human activities. The inventions that were discovered during last few centuries, more so in the last century has altered the concentration of atmospheric constituents that lead to global warming. The major cause to climate change has been ascribed to the increased levels of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxides (NO2), chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) beyond their natural levels due to the uncontrolled activities such as burning of fossil fuels, increased use of refrigerants, and enhanced agricultural related practices. These activities accelerated the processes of climate change and increased the mean global temperatures by 0.6°C during the past 100 years, a phenomenon known as global warming. It has also induced increased climatic variability and occurrence of extreme weather events in many parts of the world. Studies indicate that the years viz., 1997, 1998 and 1999 during the past century, recorded more warmer conditions across the globe, and the process continued in this decade also. Summer 2002 and 2003 were declared as warmest years on record by NOAA especially in the Asian sub continent and in Europe where the temperatures remained extremely high for long periods resulting in death of 20,000 human populations in Europe alone. Scientists attribute this to a long-term warming trend over the globe. In large part of Asia, agricultural production is mainly dependent on the monsoonal rains. Evidences also indicate that large-scale climatic variations are prevalent at micro-regional level influencing the rainfall distribution in different parts of Asia. The causes of these regional climate changes vary from global to region level. It is evident that there was, there is and there will be climate variability at global, regional and local levels. Since climate is closely related to human activities and economic development including agricultural system, there is a serious concern about its stability (Sinha et al., 2000). The awareness of the magnitude of the impact of climate change on society by the various governments led to adoption of an International Convention on Climate Change by United Nations in 1992. Article 2 of this convention called the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) makes two relevant stipulations relevant and important to agriculture, which is (a) prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climatic system, and (b) to ensure that food production is not threatened. The two are related and need in-depth analysis. The global climate system is a consequence of a link between the atmosphere, the oceans, the biosphere, the cryosphere, and the geosphere and any change to this system produced by forcing agents - results in climate change. Some of the atmospheric constituents such as water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide are transparent to short wave solar radiation and opaque to 331 long wave radiation emitted by earths surface, thus, trapping the heat from sunlight near the Earth's surface known popularly as green house effect. This effect keeps the planet 33°C warmer than it would otherwise be, allowing the earth to support life. With the advent of the industrial revolution, there has been a tremendous growth in the fossil-fuel utilization leading to increased carbon dioxide emissions over the globe especially since 1950s. In addition to this, the emission of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other chlorine and bromine compounds used in refrigeration and other industrial uses not only have an impact on the radiative forcing, but also have led to the depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer. Land-use change, due to urbanization and deforestation and agricultural practices, affect the physical and biological properties of the Earth's surface. Such effects also change the radiative forcing and have a potential impact on regional and global climate ; Not Available
"This book aims at creating contact points between the current academic and policy debate's obsession with global-centered to the most neglected local-centered concerns with climate change. Although climate change impacts on the environmental life support system are global, its manifestations and subsequent consequences are social and therefore local. Therefore this book gives special attention to the significance of local communities and local governments' formal and informal adaptation and mitigation responses. Local Climate Change and Society articulates how climate change alters society-environment relationships, contributing to structural changes in local communities and societies relationship to environmental resources and economic opportunities essential for eking a living and leading a healthy life. The book consists of 12 Chapters and case studies from across the globe, written by academics, researchers and policy makers at the cutting edge of climate change studies. The main sub- themes covered by this book include: of the book are as follows: conceptualizing local climate change and society relations; analyzing and explaining local government response to local climate change, particularly adaptation/mitigation; Micro-climate policies and responses; and climate social movements and activism in South-North perspectives"--
I review the literature on the economic impacts of climate change, an externality that is unprecedentedly large, complex, and uncertain. Only 14 estimates of the total damage cost of climate change have been published, a research effort that is in sharp contrast to the urgency of the public debate and the proposed expenditure on greenhouse gas emission reduction. These estimates show that climate change initially improves economic welfare. However, these benefits are sunk. Impacts would be predominantly negative later in the century. Global average impacts would be comparable to the welfare loss of a few percent of income, but substantially higher in poor countries. There are over 200 estimates of the marginal damage cost of carbon dioxide emissions. The uncertainty about the social cost of carbon is large and right-skewed. For a standard discount rate, the expected value $50/tC, which is much lower than the price of carbon in the European Union but much higher than the price of carbon elsewhere. Current estimates of the damage costs of climate change are incomplete, with positive and negative biases. Most important among the missing impacts are the indirect effects of climate change on economic development, large scale biodiversity loss, low probability - high impact scenarios, the impact of climate change on violent conflict, and the impacts of climate change beyond 2100. From a welfare perspective, the impact of climate change is problematic because population is endogenous, and because policy analyses should separate impatience, risk aversion, and inequity aversion between and within countries.
The article studies differences in political leadership in local government in Norway and in Poland and how they might contribute to differences in local climate policy – adaptation as well as mitigation. Based on the literature of different political leadership models in Europe, we ask how the different political leadership traditions affect active leadership in policies related to climate change. This is answered by analyzing nation-wide surveys to municipalities in Norway and Poland. The results confi rm our basic assumption about the differences in leadership between Norway and Poland as being related to differing political models on the local level. Although other factors also explain variations, the fi ndings illustrate the potential of the models in explaining the role of leadership in new policy fi elds – as with climate-change policies. ; The paper has been prepared within the POLCITCLIM (Organizing for resilience. A comparative study on institutional capacity, governance, and climate change adaptation in Poland and Norway) project funded from Norway grants in the Polish–Norwegian Research Programme operated by the National Centre for Research and Development. The Norwegian survey was co-funded by the GOVRISK-project, funded by the Norwegian Research Council. ; publishedVersion
The State of California has been changing state-level policies and legislation to prepare for and minimize the impacts of climate change. But how can local governments integrate climate adaptation planning into local policy and practice? Through three-case studies, Boswell and Read discuss how state agencies and the robust set of tools and guidance in the California Adaptation Planning Guide have been helping California communities in climate action planning.
