Event attribution and partisanship shape local discussion of climate change after extreme weather

Abstract

Extreme weather events may provide opportunities to raise public awareness and spur action to address climate change. Using concepts from the study of social movements, we conducted a systematic comparative-case analysis of 15 communities that experienced extreme weather events in the United States between 2012 and 2015 to identify under what conditions, and through what mechanisms, the experience of an extreme weather event generates community discussion and collective action linked to climate change. Although collective action related to climate change was rare post-event, we observed community discussion about the event’s link to climate change in slightly more than half of the cases, especially in Democratic and/or highly educated communities that experienced events for which attribution to climate change is more certain. Our results suggest that, although a single event may have limited impact on discussion or collective action about climate change, partisanship and an event’s attribution to climate change matter. Extreme weather events may raise public awareness of climate change. This comparative-case analysis shows that single events had limited impact on climate change discussion, but this was more common in Democratic communities and for weather events with a more certain attribution to climate change.