Climate Narratives

March 11, 2021

How the fatal Texas power outage could alter the climate conversation

Kyle Bakx

Go Nakamura/Getty Images

Climate Change, Climate Narratives, Energy Grid, Extreme Weather

Hopes are high that 2021 will be a milestone year for global efforts to combat climate change, with an environmentally focused administration in the United States and a few key meetings aimed at ratcheting up efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

February 6, 2021

Against Climate Gloom and Doom

Elin Kelsey

Shutterstock

Climate Change, Climate Narratives, Hope

The environmental crisis is also a crisis of hope. I believe the way to spread hope is to collectively challenge the tired narrative of environmental doom and gloom that reproduces a hopeless status quo and replace it with an evidence-based argument that improves our capacity to engage with the real and overwhelming issues we face.

January 27, 2021

Canadians have world’s largest gender gap on climate change perceptions, UN survey finds

Bob Weber

Climate Change, Climate Narratives, Data

“Canada was at the top end of the group of countries we surveyed in terms of the recognition of the climate emergency,” said Steve Fisher, an Oxford University sociologist who helped run the survey on behalf of the United Nations Development Program. Canada also had the largest gap between men and women in their assessment of the importance of climate change. Canadian women and girls surveyed were 12 per cent more likely to rate it an emergency than men and boys. Globally, there wasn’t much difference.

January 24, 2021

Twitter Bots Are a Major Source of Climate Disinformation

Corbin Hiar

Hannah McKay Getty Images

Climate Change, Climate Narratives

Twitter accounts run by machines are a major source of climate change disinformation that might drain support from policies to address rising temperatures.

January 1, 2021

The science stories likely to make headlines in 2021

Science News Staff

PATRICK T. FALLON/BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES

Climate Narratives, Climate Change, COVID-19, Future, Scientists, uncertainty

As biomedical scientists continue to battle the deadly pandemic this year to help the world return to normalcy, researchers across the disciplines still aim to hit big milestones or launch new projects despite the challenges brought by COVID-19. European scientists will also have to contend with the aftermath of Brexit. Many U.S. scientists, in contrast, have a more hopeful political outlook, with some likely to play an invigorated role in tackling another global crisis, climate change, after President-elect Joe Biden, who has vowed to make it a top priority, is sworn in this month. In this article, Science’s news staff forecasts areas of research and policy we expect to make headlines this year, from protecting the high seas’ biodiversity to probing how ancient humans interacted.

November 30, 2020

Climate ‘apocalypse’ fears stopping people having children – study

Damian Carrington

Isopix/Rex/Shutterstock

Climate Narratives, Climate Change, Decision-making

People worried about the climate crisis are deciding not to have children because of fears that their offspring would have to struggle through a climate apocalypse, according to the first academic study of the issue. The researchers surveyed 600 people aged 27 to 45 who were already factoring climate concerns into their reproductive choices and found 96% were very or extremely concerned about the wellbeing of their potential future children in a climate-changed world. One 27-year-old woman said: “I feel like I can’t in good conscience bring a child into this world and force them to try and survive what may be apocalyptic conditions.”

November 30, 2020

Climate change is often hidden in the way we are shown temperature data

David Policansky

J.David Ake/AP

Climate Change, Climate Narratives, Data

Shifting climate baselines conceal warming that occurred in the past; our new ‘normals’ differ strongly from normals decades ago.

November 27, 2020

Guest post: The perils of counter-intuitive design in IPCC graphics

Dr. Karlijn Van Den Broek

IISD / ENB Mike Muzurakis

Decision-making, Climate Narratives, Data Visualization, IPCC

In periodic assessment reports of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – the next of which is due to be published next year – key findings are displayed in an array of charts, maps and other graphics. These figures are intended to help readers understand often complicated topics. But do decision-makers correctly interpret them? And do decision-makers know which graphics they do or do not understand?

November 26, 2020

The climate change clues hidden in art history

Diego Arguedas Ortiz

Alamy (original art by Casper Wolf)

Climate Change, Art, Climate Narratives

Art historians are exploring their collections through a climate lens, revealing overlooked connections between our past and present, writes Diego Arguedas Ortiz.

November 18, 2020

Climate change: UN chief calls for ‘great leap’ towards carbon neutrality

Unsplash/Les Corpographes

Climate Action, Carbon Neutral, Climate Change, Climate Narratives, Energy Transition, Europe, Governments

“2021 must be the year of a great leap towards carbon neutrality,” said António Guterres, UN Secretary-General to a virtual gathering of influential leaders on Monday. “Every country, city, financial institution and company should adopt plans for transitioning to net zero emissions by 2050.” “By early 2021, countries representing more than 65 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions and more than 70 per cent of the world economy are very likely to have made ambitious commitments to carbon neutrality,” he said. “The signal this sends to markets, institutional investors and decision-makers is clear. Carbon should be given a price. We must shift the tax burden from income to carbon, from taxpayers to polluters.” He added that financial reporting on exposure to climate risks should be made mandatory, while authorities must integrate the carbon neutrality goal into economic and fiscal policies in order to truly transform industry, agriculture, transportation and the energy sector.

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