Climate Change Debate Research Articles

Socio-semantic configuration of an online conversation space: The case of Twitter users discussing the #IPCC reports

In public debates, climate change communication tends to polarize into communities for and against the scientific basis of global warming. We analyze mention networks on Twitter around the publication of the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group 2 and 3 reports that were published in March–April 2014. Building upon earlier research into climate skepticism and polarization of climate change debate, we focus on the relative prominence of different types of Twitter user accounts, in terms of engagement with other users and their alignments towards the scientific basis of climate change. We distinguish a “heart” actively discussing IPCC from a “shadow”, which more anecdotally mentions IPCC and is likely to correspond to the remainder of a public space minimally interested in IPCC-related reports. We develop an original network analysis framework that enables us to analyze and deconstruct the inner structure of this heart’s strongly intertwined engagement dynamics. Interesting observations relate to the position of critical users, who are in the minority, but are in relative terms most engaged with and most engaging with other users in this arena, while the media, casual users and governmental agencies occupy relatively less prominent positions. We further qualify the various structural positions by demonstrating that they correspond to different types of vocabulary specific to user types and positions. This socio-semantic approach may be generally helpful to disentangle semantic and structural polarization in online conversation spaces where opposing poles precisely appear to be mixing.

Orchestration of perspectives in televised climate change debates

Previous research has tied the journalistic norm of ‘balance’ to an overarching tendency to polarize the climate debate between realists and contrarians. This study uses conversation analysis to advance our knowledge about how climate changes are debated verbally in practice. It builds upon a corpus of current televised climate change panel debates in Denmark. The corpus confirms a documented turn from debating if global warming is a fact to debating what we should do to reduce emissions. Analyses detail two methods, which the interviewer invokes to administer turn-taking: (a) stand-alone next speaker reference and (b) prefatory address term + interrogatives that implicitly project disagreement. These methods help interviewers sustain their formal neutrality. But the study also finds that perspectives are orchestrated to (re)produce multiple polarizations between representatives of different interests and ideologies, for example activists versus business representatives, which might not be helpful in solving the climate crisis.

“How Does Nature Deify Us”

“How Does Nature Deify Us”

The role of nuclear energy consumption in abatement of ecological footprint: Novel insights from quantile-on-quantile regression

The growing climate change debate necessitates a shift towards usage of clean energy in economic activities of developing and developed countries. However, existing studies are skeptical to consider nuclear energy as clean energy in primary energy-mix. This context addresses a question of whether top nuclear energy-consuming economies (i.e. Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Sweden, Russia, and USA) have same or differential ecological footprints . This question addressed here is not yet studied, motivating us to examine the impact of nuclear energy consumption on ecological footprint in nine nuclear energy-consuming countries. This study uses novel Quantile-on-Quantile Regression (QQR) method to perform the country-specific analysis using the time series data from 1995 to 2016. The empirical findings highlight asymmetric effects of nuclear energy consumption on ecological footprints. The results evidence a strong negative impact of nuclear energy on ecological footprints for USA, Sweden, and Canada across most of the quantiles. This implies that these economies are capable of reducing their ecological footprints because of relying on nuclear energy usage. We also find that South Korea, Russia, and Japan produce the mixed impacts (positive and negative) of nuclear energy consumption on ecological footprints across most of the quantiles. Surprisingly, nuclear energy consumption fuels ecological footprints for Germany, China and France across most of the quantiles, which indicates that these countries fail to protect the health of natural environment due to nuclear energy consumption. • The impact of nuclear energy consumption on ecological footprints is examined. • Top nine nuclear energy consuming countries and data period 1995–2016 are included. • Quantile-on-Quantile Regression method is also applied to perform empirical exercise. • Asymmetric imapcts of nuclear energy use on ecological footprints are found. • Helpful policy guidelines for the abatement of ecological footprints are suggested.

Healthcare Research for Disease Prevention

The last couple of years have shown the world that there's really no individual health without public health, proving the fundamental importance of cross-sectoral health policies, a constant eye on disease prevention and a baseline preoccupation with tackling inequalities. Amongst the many important topics of research for developing and improving health systems there are seem most compelling in the current world.
 Antimicrobial resistance has been identified as a global health threat since 2013, potentially leading to the ineffectiveness of current antibiotic treatments. The Covid-19 pandemic has slowed antimicrobial drug research and development, while exacerbating the overuse and misuse of antibiotics, one of the leading causes of antimicrobial resistance. The World Health Organization has stressed an accent on the need to further understand the genetics and environmental dimension of antimicrobial resistant bacteria, especially gram-negative carbapenem resistant bacteria. According to Larsson et al (2018), research is urgently needed on the role of the environment, especially man-made environment, in the evolution of resistance. This topic only strengthens the long-requested need for assessing, monitoring and acting upon the environmental (natural and man-made) dimensions of societal health and wellbeing, a call for action that still remains largely unanswered in health promotion policies and the climate change debate.
 Speaking of man-made environments and the need to consider health in all policies, an area where research is slowly starting to build up, but is still much needed, is that health impacts assessment for transportation and mobility policies and urban planning. In line with Lozzi (2021), although the link between mobility and health policies has been clarified and the benefits established, there is still a need for an evidence-base of research capturing the multi-level effects of urban planning and mobility on health.

Phil, Neil, the Production of Nature and me

The production of nature remains as a profoundly powerful framing of human–environment relations in capitalist society. It’s relevance is evidenced when thinking of vulnerability to natural hazards, adaptation to climate change, Anthropocene versus capitalocene debates, and the linkages between and beyond these. It forces us to confront the politician-economic-ecological issues of who gets to produce and reproduce nature, what drives this change, and for what ends.

Tensile strength of single banana fibers (SBFs) improved by novel alkaline treatment

Environmental concern on global warming controversy has raised the issue that forced the researchers to work on green materials. Among them, plant fibers are recognized as environmentally friendly with a high potential to explore their adaptability and utilization for many engineering applications. This paper aims to examine the banana fiber behavior of various alkaline treatment conditions and compare the results with untreated fiber conducted on the same tests. Both the tests were subjected to physical and tensile load, then each condition was tested individually to achieve a valid average. The Paper frame technique was adopted for this single fiber tensile test (SFTT) and corresponding to the stress-strain curves. Surface morphology was done using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to compare and find the effect of alkaline treatment on surface fiber modification.

Bottled Ocean 2120: George Nuku, the Ocean, plastic and the role of artists in discussing climate change

This article discusses George Nuku’s artwork Bottled Ocean 2120 by focusing on the two core components of its title, the ocean and plastic, in order to explore the role of the Oceanic artist in the global climate change debate. Drawing on the understanding that artists can help to change perspectives in the debate on climate change and justice, the focus in this article is on Oceanic artists who move the discussion beyond the idea of Oceania being the region that contributes the least but is challenged the most by climate disaster, which includes plastic pollution. With his Bottled Ocean series, George Nuku laments the state of plastic-filled ocean in a region that expresses a connection to it. He urges the viewer to stop the single use of plastic, an action that he hopes to inspire by considering and demonstrating the divinity of the material.

Competing climate spectacles in the amplified public space

The climate change debate is finding new expressions through political protests and demonstrations, during which a plurality of climate narratives emerges. While protests such as Extinction Rebellion have had a strong physical manifestation, involving many people showing up in concrete locations, they have also been facilitated and mediated virtually. In this paper, we examine the spectacle generated when divergent discourses on climate change compete for attention in spaces that are simultaneously urban and virtual. The paper is based on empirical evidence from events surrounding London Fashion Week 2019, focusing on the political mobilization by Extinction Rebellion Boycott Fashion (XRBF) and other groups. Discussing this changing nature of urban protest spectacle, we point to the emergence of an ‘amplified public space’ shaped at the intersection of material and virtual spaces of the city. Both the fashion industry and XRBF employ techniques of spectacle in their strategies to advance their respective climate change and sustainability narratives. We argue that XRBF, in particular, has managed to influence the climate change debate by strategically staging spectacular protest events that are both facilitated and played out in virtual space.

Communication strategies in the climate change debate on Facebook. Discourse on the Madrid Climate Summit (COP 25)

Climate change (CC) has become a topic of great interest in traditional and social media, two valuable sources of information that contribute to discussion on current affairs. Facebook is the social network with the most users in the world and also promotes mobilization, which makes it a platform of great interest for the study of CC communication strategies. The aim of this study is to analyse the content of the messages on CC posted on Facebook by prominent users: the relevance of the topic in the posts as a whole, objectives pursued, type of discourse and the emotions associated with messages. After validating a selection of 10 accounts (Greta Thunberg, Donald Trump, Scott Morrison, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Extinction Rebellion USA, Justin Trudeau, Bernie Sanders, United Nations, Extinction Rebellion UK and Jane Fonda), the methodology was based on content analysis applied to messages on CC (n = 599) posted on Facebook by the selected accounts between 1 November 2019 and 10 January 2020, the period covering the Madrid Climate Summit (COP 25, held in 2019). The results revealed different CC communication strategies. Regarding the presence of CC as a topic, we observed three different strategies: omission, simple mention and high presence. In terms of discourse, we noticed two different strategies: an emotional strategy that was more successful at generating interaction with others, and an analytical strategy that was generally more belligerent in its fight against CC.

Climate change: Will the parties unite or divide?

Climate change: Will the parties unite or divide?

The Role of Late-Night Infotainment Comedy in Communicating Climate Change Consensus

ABSTRACT Climate change is a politically-polarized issue, with conservatives less likely than liberals to support mitigation and adaptation policies needed to reduce its impacts. This study aimed to examine whether John Oliver’s “A Mathematically Representative Climate Change Debate” clip on his program Last Week Tonight polarized or depolarized a politically-diverse audience on climate policy support and behavioral intentions. One hundred and fifty-nine participants, recruited via Amazon MTurk (94 female, 64 male, one not stated, Mage = 51.07, SDage = 16.35), were presented with either John Oliver’s climate change consensus clip, or a humorous video unrelated to climate change. Although the climate change consensus clip did not reduce polarization on mitigation policy support (or increase it), relative to a control, it resulted in larger polarization on support for adaptation policies, and higher climate action intentions among liberals but not conservatives.

COP26: What Does It Mean for the Agriculture Sector?

Climate change challenges and the urgent need to take things seriously were once again thrust into the spotlight in October and November 2021 with the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) held in Glasgow under the presidency of the United Kingdom, in partnership with Italy. COP stands for Conference of the Parties, and the summit was attended by the countries that signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) ? a treaty agreed in 1994. Billed by many as the most significant climate event since the 2015 Paris Agreement, COP26 aimed to accelerate action towards the goals of both the UNFCCC treaty and Paris Agreement, such as for every country to work together to limit global warming to 1.5°C. Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) were central to the Paris Agreement and outlined efforts from each country to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. Unfortunately, the commitments laid out in Paris in 2015 did not come close to achieving the 1.5°C target, and with the window for action becoming ever smaller, there was substantial pressure on Glasgow to deliver something meaningful. Following two weeks of intense negotiations, COP26 finally ended with nearly 200 countries agreeing the Glasgow Climate Pact. Crucially this pact keeps the 1.5°C reduction alive and completes the Paris Rulebook, a set of guidelines for how the Paris Agreement will be delivered including a transparency process to hold countries accountable as they deliver on their targets. But what about agriculture? Despite being the second largest driver of climate change behind the energy sector, and therefore central to meeting emissions reductions and achieving the 1.5°C target, the general consensus was that the agriculture sector did not feature prominently enough at COP26, and that reliance on major pledges and pacts disguised a lack of detail on exactly how action would be achieved. Under the UNFCCC there is only one program focussed on agriculture ? the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture (KJWA) which was established at COP23 in 2017 and aims to address agricultural issues through the lens of climate change. It is composed of six interrelated topics, namely soils, nutrient use, water, livestock, methods for assessing adaptation, and the socioeconomic and food security dimensions of climate change across the agricultural sectors. The process was scheduled to finish at COP26; however, by the end of the meeting there were still many areas of disagreement and so these will need to be ironed out in the future. Furthermore, despite pledging action, none of the updated NDCs submitted by the G20 nations prior to COP26 included specific targets on how commitments made for their agricultural sectors would actually be achieved in practice. Many of the current challenges in agriculture are political in nature, whether it is the desire of developed countries to reduce meat and dairy consumption and move towards more plant-based diets, or the reluctance of developing countries to agree, or discussions on farm subsidies, so it is perhaps not surprising that these challenges were not tackled. Agriculture plays a key role on both sides of the climate change debate as both a source and sink for emissions. Approximately 20% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions including carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide come from agriculture, forestry and land use. This value increases to 31% when considered across the whole agrifood system that includes crops and livestock. When split individually, agrifood systems globally account for 21% of carbon dioxide emissions, 53% of methane emissions and 78% of nitrous oxide emissions. Whilst the principal GHG emitted by most sectors is carbon dioxide, the agricultural sector is unusual in that direct emissions of methane and nitrous oxide, in particular, are far higher. Given the importance of these GHGs both as key drivers of climate change, and to the agricultural sector, it is timely to review COP26 discussions in this area.

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.

An Interpretation of Value Change: A Philosophical Disquisition of Climate Change and Energy Transition Debate

Changing values may give rise to intergenerational conflicts, like in the ongoing climate change and energy transition debate. This essay focuses on the interpretative question of how this value change can best be understood. To elucidate the interpretation of value change, two philosophical perspectives on value are introduced: Berlin’s value pluralism and Dworkin’s interpretivism. While both authors do not explicitly discuss value change, I argue that their perspectives can be used for interpreting value change in the case of climate change and the energy transition. I claim that Berlin’s pluralistic account of value would understand the value change as an intergenerational conflict and therefore provide a too narrow and static ground for understanding ongoing value change. Instead, by exploring Dworkin’s standpoint in moral epistemology, this essay distills a more encompassing perspective on how values may relate, converge, overlap, and change, fulfilling their functions in the course of climate change and energy transition. This perspective is further detailed by taking inspiration from Shue’s work on the (re)interpretation of equity in the climate change debate. I argue that the resulting perspective allows us to see value change as a gradual process rather than as a clash between generations and their values.

Can archaeology inform the climate change debate?

Can archaeology inform the climate change debate?

Parallel routes from Copenhagen to Paris: climate discourse in climate sceptic and climate activist blogs

ABSTRACT The Copenhagen climate summit in 2009 was a watershed moment in the international climate change discourse, reinforcing controversy and polarization between climate sceptics and climate activists. Simultaneously, the blogosphere, known as a place for polarized mobilization, became a proliferating forum for both camps. Building on Dryzek’s and Carvalho’s conceptualization of environmental discourse, this paper analyses how ideological polarization is grounded in climate sceptics’ and climate activists’ blogs between COP15 and COP21. We investigated ten climate sceptic and climate activist blogs accessible in the UK. Qualitative-quantitative analysis of 357 blog posts revealed contrasting ontological and epistemological worlds in the climate change controversy. Four storylines were identified in the climate sceptical discourse – ‘hoax’, ‘no scientific evidence’, ‘climate sceptical science’, and ‘injustice’ – and five storylines in the climate activist discourse – ‘action’, ‘social justice’, ‘disaster strikes’, ‘potential catastrophe’, and ‘opportunity’. Implications for policy, practice and future research are provided.

Industry 4.0-based dynamic Social Organizational Life Cycle Assessment to target the social circular economy in manufacturing

Nowadays in manufacturing, the topic of sustainability plays a key role. However, over the years, economic crises and the climate change debate have focused the attention of scholars, industrialists and policy makers mainly on environmental sustainability, putting social sustainability on the back burner. This is also evident in the scientific literature which highlights several knowledge gaps. The digital transition of factories and Industry 4.0 technologies have not yet been fully exploited to correlate production and social metrics. As a result, there is a lack of adequate tools for monitoring social performance in the factory environment. In this context, the social dimension of the circular economy is still an under-researched topic. This study aims to fill these gaps by integrating Social Organizational Life Cycle Assessment (SO-LCA) and Industry 4.0 technologies in a blended methodological approach designed to dynamically monitor the social performance of a major manufacturing industry. Using primary data, a set of site-specific social indicators and indexes were created to assess the organization's social impact against key stakeholder categories and subcategories. Finally, within that set, those social metrics that the organization considers essential to moving toward the circular economy were identified. Therefore, this study, has contributed to fill the literature gaps by demonstrating that the digitization of production processes, not only enables the assessment of environmental impact, but can also play a key role in knowing the social performance of a manufacturing organization and to identify the hidden social dimension in the circular economy.

From scientific arguments to scepticism: Humans' place in the Greenhouse.

This article investigates the different roles attributed to humanity in the climate change debate, through the depiction of the greenhouse effect. Our hypothesis is that the stance associated with different genres will not only demonstrate different conceptualisations of the greenhouse effect but also convey different views on humans’ capacity (or lack of capacity) to mitigate climate change. The corpus under study is composed of texts pertaining to three genres which display particular viewpoints: scientific papers present a documented view on the phenomenon, online forum discussions present exchanges between users who endorse or question particular characteristics of the Greenhouse, and sceptical newspaper articles explicitly deny the existence of an anthropogenic phenomenon. Through a corpus-based, cognitive and pragmatic analysis of the metaphorical expression greenhouse effect, the research shows that humans’ place(s) in the Greenhouse is a significant part of environmental argumentative strategies.

Generational Accusations – Conflict, Emotions, and Youth Activism

Compared to rhetorical defenses the rhetoric of accusations has not garnered much attention from rhetorical critics over time. Two common threads in existing approaches to accusatory rhetoric are a link to an underlying affirmative motive and a view of accusations as a rhetorical genre. However, these threads have not been fully developed so far. This article takes its point of departure in Carolyn Millers rhetorical theory of genre and Celeste Michelle Condit’s work with angry public rhetorics in order to reveal the social motive of the accusatory genre. The argument here is that the main motive can be found in a desire for corrective action, but is further supported by a definitory and moral motive. This is then used as a basis for treating generational accusations as a specific form of accusation as well as analyzing it in relation to Greta Thunberg’s rhetorical accusations of older generations in the climate change debate