Anthropogenic Causes Of Climate Change Research Articles

An Analysis of K–12 Climate Change Science Standards in the United States

Abstract To produce a climate-literate society willing to take action, students must be educated on the causes, changes, impacts, and solutions of climate change. One way to ensure students are educated on climate change is to have robust science standards. However, little is known about the collective climate change standards in the United States. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to conduct an analysis of the U.S. K–12 science standards to uncover where the climate change standards are located in different grade levels and the extent to which the collective U.S. curriculum covers topics of climate change. This study was a qualitative content analysis of the U.S. K–12 climate change standards. The results show that most U.S. climate change standards are found within the high school grade levels and Earth and space science domains. All U.S. states address topics of climate change within their standards; however, general mentions of climate change were cited most often. Finally, the majority of states address both natural and anthropogenic causes of climate change. Implications for policymakers and educators are included.

The Society of Information and the European Citizens' Perception of Climate Change: Natural or Anthropological Causes.

The scientific community has reached a consensus on humans' important role as causative agents of climate change; however, branches of society are still sceptical about this. Climate change is a key issue for humanity and only the commitment to change human attitudes and lifestyles, at the global level, can be effective in its mitigation. With this purpose, it is important to convey the right message and prevent misinformation to manipulate people's minds. The present study aims to understand the factors shaping European citizens' thoughts on the causes of climate change. Using data from the European Social Survey 10 collected in 2022, we fitted statistical models using the people's thoughts on causes of climate change (natural, anthropogenic or both) as dependent variables. As independent variables, we used the impact of the media through time spent on news and time spent on the internet, level of education, level of trust in scientists, awareness of online or mobile misinformation and gender. We concluded that the typical European citizen who believes in anthropogenic causes of climate change is a female, is more literate, trusts more in scientists, is younger, spends more time reading the news and has more awareness of misinformation presence in online and mobile communications.

Climate Change and Environmental Knowledge: Τhe study case of Preschool Teachers

The most pressing concern in recent years, according to a recent study, is climate change, which is considered the most critical issue facing humanity. The aim of this study is to explore environmental knowledge on Climate Change and the possibility for teachers to take action to protect the Environment. For this reason, a quantitative survey was carried out among preschool teachers of the Primary Education of Eastern Thessaloniki, through a structured questionnaire. The results of the research pointed out that the environmental knowledge of the Educators regarding the anthropogenic causes of climate change and the harmful effects of the phenomenon is a motivation for taking actions and at the same time encouraging sustainable practices among students for the protection of the environment.

Psychological inoculation strategies to fight climate disinformation across 12 countries.

Decades after the scientific debate about the anthropogenic causes of climate change was settled, climate disinformation still challenges the scientific evidence in public discourse. Here we present a comprehensive theoretical framework of (anti)science belief formation and updating to account for the psychological factors that influence the acceptance or rejection of scientific messages. We experimentally investigated, across 12 countries (N = 6,816), the effectiveness of six inoculation strategies targeting these factors-scientific consensus, trust in scientists, transparent communication, moralization of climate action, accuracy and positive emotions-to fight real-world disinformation about climate science and mitigation actions. While exposure to disinformation had strong detrimental effects on participants' climate change beliefs (δ = -0.16), affect towards climate mitigation action (δ = -0.33), ability to detect disinformation (δ = -0.14) and pro-environmental behaviour (δ = -0.24), we found almost no evidence for protective effects of the inoculations (all δ < 0.20). We discuss the implications of these findings and propose ways forward to fight climate disinformation.

Variability in Global Climatic Circulation Indices and Its Relationship

Global climatic circulation indices play a major role in determining regional and global climate conditions. These atmospheric circulation patterns exhibit substantial variability, covering a wide geographical area and affecting weather-related events. The primary goal of this study was to examine and characterize various global climatic variability indices during the 1950 to 2020 period (El Niño Southern Oscillation, ENSO; Southern Oscillation Index, SOI; North Atlantic Oscillation, NAO; Atlantic Meridional Mode, AMM; and Indian Ocean Dipole, IOD). Also, this article try to investigating the link between these global climatic indices. Trend analysis showed that the ENSO index exhibits the highest recurrence frequency of correlation relationships with the other yearly global indices with significance at the 95% and 99% levels, while the NAO index exhibits the lowest recurrence frequency. On a seasonal basis, most indices demonstrate more abrupt changes during the winter season than during the summer. An increase occurred in events of abrupt changes in these indices over the last two decades (2000 to 2020), especially annually and in summer. The SOI exhibits the largest number of abrupt changes throughout the entire study period, spanning from positive to negative significant trends, whereas the IOD did not exhibit abrupt changes annually. Increasing and decreasing trends in the global climatic circulation indices may be related to natural and anthropogenic causes of climate change. Regarding both the correlation coefficient (CC) and partial correlation results, there existed a highly negative association between the ENSO and SOI in the annual, winter and summer time series. On the other hand, there is no relationship between ENSO and NAO. Furthermore, on an annual basis, there existed a highly negative association between the NAO and AMM and a less negative but still statistically significant association between these indices during the winter and summer seasons, respectively. Therefore, through the Azore high, the NAO could promote AMM. Moreover, when the NAO, AMM, and SOI are held constant, a positive and robust correlation is reached between the ENSO and IOD in winter season. Therefore, a developing IOD is intensified and sustained during the onset of an El Niño event in winter season.

Place attachment and perception of climate change as a threat in rural and urban areas.

Climate change is a global threat to ecosystems and the people that depend on them. However, the perceived threat of climate change may vary spatially. Previous research suggests that inhabitants in rural areas show higher levels of place attachment (associating meaning with a specific place) than urbanites, possibly because rural people depend more directly on their local environment. This can shape perceptions and behaviours, such as enhanced willingness to engage in landscape preservation. Here we ask if it also makes rural people perceive climate change as a greater threat, using a representative sample of 1,071 survey respondents from across the United Kingdom (UK) to provide first-order insights. We found that, whilst indicators of place attachment were indeed more frequent in rural areas, the perceived threat of climate change in the most rural locations was lower. We discuss possible explanations for this pattern (including lower levels of awareness of the anthropogenic causes of climate change, lessened first-hand experiences of climate change impacts due to higher levels of regulating ecosystem services, and higher levels of resilience in rural areas related to a closer relationship with nature), and call for further research to investigate this.

Hydrogen-Based Direct Reduction of Iron Oxides: A Review on the Influence of Impurities

Greenhouse gas emissions are the primary root cause of anthropogenic climate change. The heterogeneity of industrial operations and the use of carbonaceous fossil fuels as raw materials makes it challenging to find effective solutions for reducing these emissions. The iron and steel industry is responsible for approximately 35% of all industrial CO2 emissions. This value is equivalent to 7–9% of the global CO2 emissions from all sectors. Using hydrogen (H2) as the alternative reducing agent has the potential for a significant reduction in CO2 emissions. Despite decades of research on H2-based reduction reactions, the reaction kinetics are still not well understood. One of the key influencing parameters on reduction kinetics is the effects of impurities in the iron ore, which needs to be unraveled for a better understanding of the reduction mechanisms. The present review paper aims to explore the single and combined effects of common impurities on the reduction behavior as well as the structural evolution of iron oxides.

Public opinion on climate change in China—Evidence from two national surveys

China’s ambitious initiatives to address climate change have attracted significant scholarly attention, yet much less focus was on how climate change is understood in Chinese society. This study analyzes the results from two surveys in 2009 and 2016 with nationally representative samples. The findings suggest that Chinese people have a fairly high awareness of the existence and anthropogenic causes of climate change. They consider climate change less urgent than air pollutions but more important than conservation. There is strong support for China to take leadership to address climate change. The respondents consider the government, especially the central government, as the entity most responsible for taking actions on climate change and generally approve its contributions. Policy measures such as carbon tax and cap and trade enjoy high support in China. Finally, the respondents also show a strong willingness to partake in individual actions.

Teaching Climate Change Science with the Humanities and Global Perspectives

Teaching Climate Change Science with the Humanities and Global Perspectives

Climate change education in China: a pioneering case of its implementation in tertiary education and its effects on students’ beliefs and attitudes

PurposeIn view of a lack of evidence on the effectiveness of climate change education (CCE) in China, this study aims to evaluate if a CCE course newly designed based on research recommendations and implemented with established pedagogy was effective in changing the beliefs and attitudes of first-year science students.Design/methodology/approachThis study took a simple longitudinal approach with surveys administered at the beginning and the end of the course and the differences in the responses analyzed with nonparametric statistical analyses.FindingsThe results showed that the course produced significant changes in the beliefs concerning the anthropogenic causes of climate change and vulnerability to its impacts, which results in inequality of the impacts received. However, the course did not produce significant attitudinal changes among the students. Spearman’s correlation, which affirmed the belief–attitude association, revealed that the students already had desirable attitudes toward climate change and these attitudes had not been reinforced. The students’ perception of the importance of local government in climate action increased by the end of the course. Multimedia-aid learning, debates and discussions were useful in conveying the concepts of responsibility, ethics and vulnerability, but the addition of student-led community projects will increase personal significance of the course.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is instrumental for the development of a regional model of CCE in the mainstreaming of education for sustainable development in China, knowing that the regional approach is crucial to address the nuances in climate change knowledge, hence conceptions and beliefs across regions and, even, between different sectors of a region. This regional experience could also serve as a reference for other similar settings, particularly those of the developing countries.Originality/valueThis study presents one of the very few studies dedicated to gauging the effects of CCE in China, particularly of a newly developed climate change course, on the beliefs and attitudes of students. This permits pedagogical development and continuous improvement of CCE in China.

The Nexus of Anthropogenic Climate Change, Primary Energy Consumption and Dynamic Economic Change in India

The empirical connection between anthropogenic climate changes, aggregate production index, primary energy consumption, population dynamics, capital formation, and real per capita income in India is investigated in this study. The equilibrium long-run relationship among the studied variables and their causality are analysed using the theoretical framework of Cobb Douglas's production function. The study used a time series data set from 1965 to 2018 as part of a novel bound testing methodology strongly backed up by the classical cointegration techniques. As a result, the model's short- and long-run relationships are estimated. The estimation reveals long-run equilibrium convergence between anthropogenic climate change and the remaining exogenous factors empirically examined. Consequently, the aggregated production index, real domestic investment, and real economic growth have both short-run and long-run positive impact in the estimated model. The findings revealed further that primary energy use is the leading cause of anthropogenic climate change, causing changes to real domestic investment and population. A significant policy recommendation, among others, is a faster transition to cleaner energy to combat anthropogenic climate change, owing to India's extremely high energy intensity power sector with massive primary energy consumption.

Awareness, Knowledge and Perception of Forest Dependent Communities on Climate Change in Malawi: A Case of Mchinji and Phirilongwe Forest Reserves in Malawi

ABSTRACT Projected climate change presents many challenges and opportunities for individuals, households and wider society on how to adapt. Local knowledge is key to help smallholder farmers to cope with climate change and variability to attain sustainable forest management. However, there is limited understanding of what shapes human adaptation to climate change in various sectors at local level including forestry in sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, this study explored the awareness, knowledge and perception of forest-dependent communities on climate change and variability around Phirilongwe and Mchinji forest reserves in Malawi. Empirical data was collected using household surveys (n = 422), key informant interviews (16), and focus group discussions (8). Results suggest that 60% of respondents in Mchinji were aware of climate change as compared to only 35% in Mangochi. Results record that respondents perceived increased erratic rainfall, high temperatures and strong winds and changes in seasons. The main factors influencing their climate perception includes possession of farming skills (p = .002), Education (P = .04), gender (P = .002) and possession of livestock keeping skills (p = .02). However, the cube root stratification method indicates that their level of knowledge falls in the low-level category. Although negligible proportion of climate skepticisms was exposed, a strong belief in anthropogenic causes of climate change and willingness to adopt environmental friendly intervention measures were revealed. However, the presence of the believers in the cultural and spiritual causes of climate change in the study area presents a challenge to mobilize them toward implementation of climate intervention measures and forest management. We therefore recommend their participation in the climate adaptation intervention designs and multiple use of various strategies and methods that will help to address their livelihoods at the same time improve their climate information and knowledge.

Turkish press climate crisis coverage (2018–2019): elements of disconnect in discourses and the representation of solutions

AbstractRecent studies have shown that the media in developing countries recognizes the anthropogenic impact on climate change, while ignoring the mitigation and adaptation responsibilities of national political actors. This article addresses the discursive motives underlying the disconnect between the impact of climate change and the responsibility of those in positions of political power. This study analyzes Turkish news articles and columns on climate change published in three newspapers with different political orientations between June 2018 and January 2020, a period during which the school strike movement and other local uprisings and debates began. It claims that news related to national climate policy largely omits or obscures references to the anthropogenic causes of climate change, to the degree that the political responsibility of tackling it remains unaddressed and absolves readers and politicians from taking action. The article also aims to underline the impact of political parallelism in terms of the print media’s approach to the government’s neoliberal economic policy and its duty to tackle climate change. Finally, it argues that these approaches generate specific types of environmental discourses which are embodied in newspapers’ conceptions of nature, their solutions to climate change, and the actors of those solutions proposed by newspapers.

Climate change acknowledgment to promote sustainable development: A critical discourse analysis of local action plans in coastal Florida

AbstractGlobally, the consequences of climate change have rapidly necessitated local government action to mitigate and adapt to rising sea levels, increased storm frequency, and higher temperatures. Acknowledgement of underlying climate issues, however, varies widely across regions and towns. Using critical discourse analysis (CDA), this paper evaluates the climate change acknowledgment of five municipality sustainability action plans (SAP) in coastal Florida and the broader implications for sustainable development. Public pressure, environmental champions, and recent storm events causing infrastructure damage were identified as key factors underpinning coastal climate change acknowledgement. Notably, the plans that admitted the anthropogenic causes of climate change were more optimistic and action focused. By emphasizing local mitigation efforts and opportunities, they were more empowering than those that treated climate threats as inevitable external circumstances. Anthropogenic climate change acknowledgment is thus a powerful tool for local governments to catalyze action when developing their sustainability goals and plans.

Dialogic patterns of the oppressor-oppressed dynamic in climate change denial

The oppressor-oppressed dynamic is one of the driving forces that lie behind power, motivating those who possess it to control access to life resources, essential information, and other options and choices that are necessary to adapt to a world in continuous transformation. By referring primarily to the context of corporate America, the aim of this study is to expose the ongoing confrontation between power structures that are responsible for spreading climate denial theories, and climate science that is involved in promoting not only global climate cooperation and regulation but also climate literacy among the general public. The concerted effort of climate denialists to discredit scientific consensus regarding anthropogenic causes of climate change is analyzed through an action-reaction dialogic construct embedded in a series of key quotes collected from the counter-denial website DeSmogBlog. By drawing on the cognitive and communicative principles of Relevance theory in pragmatics and on neo-Gricean approaches, and by adopting a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis, the study attempts to shed light on denialist communicative intentions that initiate and give impetus to the global climate change debate.

The development of global CO2 emissions

Carbon dioxide emissions are the main cause of anthropogenic climate change and play a central role in discussions on climate change mitigation. Previous research has demonstrated that national carbon dioxide emissions are driven mainly by population size and wealth. However, the variation in per capita emissions of nations with similar standards of living and similar population is huge. This makes investigations on further drivers of emissions important because such research reveals mechanisms that can decrease emission levels. In this chapter we first describe the newest development of global CO2 emissions, both with respect to production-based emissions as well as with respect to consumption-based emissions. Furthermore, we analyze the main drivers of national per capita emissions. Particularly, we extend previous research by taking into account countries’ shares of imports and exports, indicators of political interventions such as energy prices, and the use of renewable energy sources.

Mozambican students’ knowledge and perceptions about climate change: an exploratory study in Pemba City

Climate change is the most serious environmental, social, and economic problem humanity is currently facing. Education is a fundamental pillar for societies in their efforts to address climate change, as stated in Article 12 of the Paris Agreement. In view of this imperative, the need to develop a Climate Change Education (CCE) plan that would be up to the challenge arose in the field of educational research. The guidelines for such a task are based on the study of four educational factors: the students, the teachers, the teaching and learning strategies and methods, and the goals of education. Research on these factors is abundant; nevertheless, there is a lack of these studies concerning Africa. Here, we present an exploratory study which focuses on students in Pemba (Mozambique) and aims to be the first step in the exploration and development of a basis for CCE in this country. We employed a questionnaire consisting of 38 closed-end items which was administered to 256 Mozambican students (aged 16–18). Findings suggest that students declared a limited knowledge about climate change, erroneous beliefs about the anthropogenic causes of climate change, and low levels of responsibility and risk perception. Further progress in the development of CCE in Mozambique would require future research to explore other educational factors with the aim of building a more accurate image of the educational reality of climate change in this country.

Evaluation of anthropogenic air pollutant emission inventories for South America at national and city scale

The changing composition of the atmosphere, driven by anthropogenic emissions, is the cause of anthropogenic climate change as well as deteriorating air quality. Emission inventories are essential to understand the contribution of various human activities, model and predict the changing atmospheric composition, and design cost-effective mitigation measures. At present, national emission inventories in South America (SA) focus on Greenhouse Gases (GHG) as part of their obligation to the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCC) within the framework of their national communications. Emission inventories other than GHG in SA focus mainly on growing urban areas and megacities. Therefore, studies examining air quality at national, regional or continental scales in SA depend on (down-scaled) global emission inventories. This paper examines the emission estimates of air pollutants from various global inventories for five SA countries, namely Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru. A more detailed analysis is conducted for the EDGAR and ECLIPSE emission inventories, in particular comparing local city-scale inventories of a major city in each country. Although total emissions between down-scaled global inventories and local city inventories are often comparable, large discrepancies exist between the sectoral contributions. This is critical, as the mitigation of poor air quality will depend on addressing the right sources. Potential sources of discrepancies between global and local inventories include the spatial distribution proxies, difference in emission factors used and/or the use of generic statistical country data when estimating emissions. This highlights the importance of using local information when generating national emission inventories, especially for air quality modeling and development of effective mitigation measures. This study represents the first step towards an increased understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of emissions information in SA.

Presidential Address: Start Spreading the News: Illuminating the Effects of Climate Change as a Social Problem

Abstract The theme for the 2019 SSSP meetings is a call to sociologists and social scientists to draw on their sociological roots to illuminate the social in all social problems with an eye to solving those problems. The address encourages sociologists to speak as broadly as possible so that the discipline becomes a central voice in larger public discourses. The 2019 SSSP Presidential Address is a call to focus on what is the largest social problem: climate change. After a brief overview of the science of climate change, the address focuses on the anthropogenic causes of climate change and the reasons why climate change is a social justice issue. Looking specifically at rising sea levels, the address then focuses on New York City as an example of the effects of and some responses to climate change. The address concludes with a discussion of how sociologists can and should draw deeply on the discipline’s theoretical roots, empirical tools, and pedagogical skills to illuminate climate change as a social problem.

Greening through schooling: understanding the link between education and pro-environmental behavior in the Philippines

In recent years, changing lifestyle, consumption and mobility patterns have contributed to a global rise in greenhouse gases responsible for the warming of the planet. Despite its increasing relevance, there is a lack of understanding of factors influencing the environmental behavior of people from emerging economies. In this study, we focus on the role of formal education for pro-environmental behavior in the Philippines and study three potentially underlying mechanisms explaining the education effects: differential knowledge about climate change, risk perceptions, and awareness. Whilst there is some evidence showing that education is associated with pro-environmental behavior, little is known about the actual mechanisms through which it influences decision-making. Using propensity score methods, we find that an additional year of schooling significantly increases the probability of pro-environmental actions, e.g. planting trees, recycling, and proper waste management, by 3.3%. Further decomposing the education effects, it is found that education influences behavior mainly by increasing awareness about the anthropogenic causes of climate change, which may consequently affect the perception of self-efficacy in reducing human impacts on the environment. Knowledge and perceptions about climate risks also explain the education effect on pro-environmental behavior, but to a lesser extent.