Climate Change and Climate Technologies: Public Perceptions and Communication Challenges

Abstract

Numerous survey studies reveal insight into the public’s attitudes about climate change. These indicate that the majority of people around the world, including in the United States, do not deny that climate change is happening, but a smaller majority believe human activity is either partially or mostly to blame. In the United States, peoples’ attitudes about climate change are politically polarized, leading some science communicators to suggest appealing to identity-affirming cultural meanings when discussing climate change. Studying the public’s attitudes about climate technologies, or geoengineering, is a growing field. Most people have never heard of geoengineering or know very little about it. The topic is not yet politically polarized, creating an opportunity to encourage responsible societal discussions about the risks and benefits of climate intervention technologies. Given the possibility that every tenth or hundredth of a degree of warming avoided can matter in terms of the magnitude of climate impacts, these discussions are vital.