Climate Science Knowledge Research Articles

Exploring the role of science education as a catalyst for students’ willingness to take climate action

ABSTRACT Science education aims to encourage students’ active engagement in socio-scientific issues like climate change. While existing research has predominantly focused on science education as a provider of climate science knowledge, this study seeks to broaden our understanding by examining its role not only in knowledge acquisition but also in promoting intrinsic motivation and the perceived value of science. In turn, this study relates science education to climate-action-related variables, including biospheric values, climate concern, personal responsibility, and willingness to take climate action. Data were collected from 1864 students across five public upper secondary schools in Finland, and structural equation modeling was employed to explore the relationships between science education-related variables and climate action-related variables. Results revealed non-significant associations between climate science knowledge and willingness to take climate actions, with a negative relationship observed with the sense of personal responsibility for climate change. Conversely, intrinsic motivation in science exhibited positive associations with willingness to take both individual and societal climate action, mediated through biospheric values. Similarly, students’ perceived value of scientific knowledge on climate change showed positive direct and indirect associations with willingness to take climate action. The perceived value of science also mediated the effect of scientific knowledge on climate action.

Translation at Work in Climate Change Communication

This article explores the role of translation in climate change communication through an analysis of two typical climate change data visualizations. Drawing on the information theory of translation (ITT), it examines how translation operates not only in the linguistic transfer of climate science knowledge but also in the visual representation of climate data. By comparing the translation strategies employed in the visualizations by NASA and the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL), the study reveals how different agents interpret and represent the climate change phenomenon based on their background knowledge, cognitive functions, and aesthetic preferences. The findings highlight that climate visualizations are not purely scientific representations but are influenced by subjective interpretations and choices made by the translation agents. Recognizing translation as a fundamental component of climate communication enables scientists to critically reflect on their communication choices and experiment with new ways of translating scientific discoveries to the public.

Using expansive learning to design and implement video-annotated peer feedback in an undergraduate general education module

AbstractExisting studies have measured the effect of video-based feedback on student performance or satisfaction. Other issues are underacknowledged or merit further investigation. These include sociocultural aspects which may shape the design and implementation of video-based feedback, the ways students use technology to engage in feedback, and the processes through technology may transform learning. This study investigates the design and implementation of a video-annotated peer feedback activity to develop students’ presentation skills and knowledge of climate science. It explores how their use of a video annotation tool re-mediated established feedback practices and how the systematic analysis of contradictions in emerging practices informed the subsequent redesign and reimplementation of the approach. Employing a formative intervention design, the researchers intervened in the activity system of a first-year undergraduate education module to facilitate two cycles of expansive learning with an instructor and two groups of Hong Kong Chinese students (n = 97, n = 94) across two semesters. Instructor interviews, student surveys, and video annotation and system data were analysed using Activity Theory-derived criteria to highlight contradictions in each system and suggest how these could be overcome. The findings highlight the critical importance of active instructor facilitation; building student motivation by embedding social-affective support and positioning peer feedback as an integrated, formative process; and supporting students’ use of appropriate cognitive scaffolding to encourage their interactive, efficient use of the annotation tool. Conclusions: In a field dominated by experimental and quasi-experimental studies, this study reveals how an Activity Theory-derived research design and framework can be used to systemically analyse cycles of design and implementation of video-annotated peer feedback. It also suggests how the new activity system might be consolidated and generalised.

Willingness to mitigate climate change: the role of knowledge, trust, and engagement

The recent IPCC report (IPCC, 2023) highlighted the need to increase the perception of risk and prompt climate action through education. The question is what contribution science and environmental education can make—if any—to this challenge. Psychological research has suggested that knowledge (topical and epistemological) and beliefs about self-efficacy are relevant starting points, but the evidence is scarce and inconsistent. We conducted a transversal correlational study to test the direct and indirect effects of system knowledge of climate change, personal engagement with science, and trust in climate science on the willingness to mitigate the effects of climate change. The participants were 386 students attending high schools in Chile. The results reveal that there is no direct effect of climate change system knowledge on the willingness to act. We did find indirect effects of system knowledge on the willingness to act, mediated by personal engagement with science and trust in climate science knowledge. The results also demonstrate a direct effect of personal engagement with science, and an indirect effect mediated by trust in science. The implications for science education are discussed.

Mikä aiheuttaa ilmastonmuutoksen?

This article discusses the transformation of climate change science from scientific knowledge to Finnish upper secondary school geography curricula and textbooks from 1985 to 2023. Scientific knowledge transforms into teachable knowledge through the transformation process at the societal, institutional, and classroom levels. In our analysis, we apply the idea of powerful knowledge and use three levels of geographical powerful knowledge, including geographical knowledge, critical and conceptual knowledge, and propensity to imagine alternative futures. The research material consists of five framework curricula from 1985 to 2019 and a total of thirteen upper secondary school geography textbooks that are based on the curricula. Our findings suggest that climate science knowledge has transformed slowly into societal curricula. However, in textbooks, scientific knowledge has transformed more rapidly. According to our results, the transformation may not necessarily occur linearly, first at the societal level and finally in classrooms.

Parasitic Knowledge Infrastructures: Data Reuse by Anthropogenic Climate Change Skeptics

ABSTRACTStakeholders from academia, industry, funding agencies, and scholarly publishing are increasingly investing in open data partially in the hope that it will democratize science and promote more diverse data reuse. However, fewer studies examine how unconventional communities outside academia and industry use open data. Through an investigative digital ethnography, I observed the data practices of anthropogenic climate change (ACC) skeptics, specifically how they discuss, evaluate, and reuse open data. This poster focuses on the knowledge infrastructure that affords the data practices of ACC skeptics. I argue that ACC skeptics are building a parasitic knowledge infrastructure on the back of the climate science knowledge infrastructure it often seeks to discredit. Understanding the infrastructure that supports skeptics' data reuse can inform how we design policies and infrastructure to actualize open data's promises while minimizing its perils.

Exploring the roles of analytic cognitive style, climate science literacy, illusion of knowledge, and political orientation in climate change skepticism

The issue of climate change has become central in recent years as alarming data accumulate. It nevertheless has its critics, consisting of people denying climate change or minimizing the responsibility of human beings in the process. This skepticism partly derives from the complexity of the topic, encouraging people to rely on cognitive shortcuts to grasp the phenomenon. We question the role of analytic cognitive style, general and climate change-related knowledge, overconfidence, and political partisanship (plus additional expected confounding variables) in this process through a package of three studies (total N = 1031). In a first study, we showed that an intuitive mindset predicted greater skepticism relative to an analytical mindset while controlling for cognitive ability and the degree to which individuals value science, suggesting that reasoning cognitive style and trust are key parameters of climate change skepticism. A second study highlighted that climate science knowledge stands as strong and independent predictors of skepticism relative to analytic cognitive style. A final study revealed that analytic cognitive style and climate change knowledge generated less influence on climate change skepticism among conservatives than among liberals and moderates, suggesting that reliance on deliberative thinking and knowledgeability on climate science are not sufficient to mitigate climate change skepticism among conservatives. We discuss the critical interplay between cognitive processes and political partisanship in this ongoing debate.

Climate Change: Expanding Anthropological Possibilities

Climate anthropology has broadened over the past decade from predominately locally focused studies on climate impacts to encompass new approaches to climate science, mitigation, sustainability transformations, risks, and resilience. We examine how theoretical positionings, including from actor–network theory, new materialisms, ontologies, and cosmopolitics, have helped expand anthropological climate research, particularly in three key interrelated areas. First, we investigate ethnographic approaches to climate science knowledge production, particularly around epistemic authority, visioning of futures, and engagements with the material world. Second, we consider climate adaptation studies that critically examine discourses and activities surrounding concepts of vulnerability, subjectivities, and resilience. Third, we analyze climate mitigation, including energy transitions, technological optimism, market-based solutions, and other ways of living in a carbon-constrained world. We conclude that anthropological approaches provide novel perspectives, made possible through engagements with our uniquely situated research partners, as well as opportunities for opening up diverse solutions and possible transformative futures.

Assessment of Climate Science Knowledge and Perceptions of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students

Assessment of Climate Science Knowledge and Perceptions of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students

The Need to Integrate Climate Science Into Public Health Preparedness for Hurricanes and Tropical Cyclones

This Viewpoint discusses the need to integrate advancing climate science knowledge into public health preparedness regarding extreme storms as tropical systems are changing and potentially becoming more dangerous.

Anthropocene Knowledge Practices in McKenzie Wark’s <i>Molecular Red</i> and Kim Stanley Robinson’s <i>Aurora</i>

<p class="p1">Through a close reading of McKenzie Wark’s theoretical treatise <em>Molecular Red</em> (2015) and Kim Stanley Robinson’s novel <em>Aurora</em> (2015), this essay examines how Anthropocene knowledge practices challenge our conceptions of human agency in provocative and potentially productive ways. For example, our knowledge of climate science arises through global material infrastructures. As material components of Anthropocene knowledge practices, these infrastructures reveal the material labors and cyborg structures by means of which our knowledge is produced. Wark sees the heterogenous materiality of Anthropocene knowledge practices as evidence for the value of ‘low theories’ based on a ‘labor point of view.’ At the same time, Anthropocene knowledge practices reveal ‘eco-logical’ complexities and fundamental recognitions of the ‘intra-action’ of entangled matter. These complexities produce very estranged views of human agency. Robinson’s novel highlights the eco-logical implications of contemporary knowledge practices by imagining an interstellar ship that must function as a completely artificial ecosystem for a 170-year voyage to another solar system. The significance of knowledge practices and eco-logical complexity is most evident when failures or crises arise, and <em>Aurora</em> tells the story of many such failures. However, I argue that Robinson’s novel and Wark’s ‘low theory’ ultimately function as hopeful accounts of Anthropocene knowledge practices. Among other things, these practices show the material importance of storytelling and point the way toward more complexly realist theories of human agency.

The influence of instruction, prior knowledge, and values on climate change risk perception among undergraduates

AbstractWe evaluated influences on the climate change risk perceptions of undergraduate students in an introductory Earth Science course. For this sample, domain‐specific content knowledge about climate change was a significant predictor of students' risk perception of climate change while cultural worldviews (individualism, hierarchy) and political orientation were not. These results contrast with previous studies highlighting worldviews as a dominant influence on risk perception. At the beginning of the semester, students' climate change content knowledge was relatively low, with average scores on a 21‐item test less than 50%. Post instruction results indicated that students learned climate change science during the course, and their perceptions of risks associated with climate change increased. Unlike most prior research evaluating links between climate change knowledge and risk perception, our measure of content knowledge was a validated assessment specific to climate change. Use of this specific climate knowledge test may be one reason that we detected a relationship between climate knowledge and risk perception whereas most of the previous research has not. Another—possibly complementary—explanation may be a generational shift between our study sample and prior samples. Undergraduates today, having grown up with more exposure to climate change in schools and the media than previous generations, may be diverging from average adults in that learning climate science appears to also increase their perceptions of the risks climate change poses. Undergraduate courses with embedded climate‐related activities present an opportunity to both increase climate science knowledge and risk perceptions of future decision makers.

Assessing climate change education on a Midwestern college campus

ABSTRACTMultiple disciplines address climate change; however, despite statements of consensus from professional societies, it is unclear whether the correct information is being conveyed to students. The purpose of this study was to survey student's (n = 264) knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors behind climate science and climate change related principles. Overall, participant knowledge of climate change was low, yet attitudes favored sustainability and climate change acceptance (r = 0.452, p = 0.0001). Science-focused majors had the most favorable attitudes for climate change acceptance and highest knowledge about climate related issues, while participants majoring in Engineering and Mass Communications had the lowest climate science knowledge.

Examining the relationship between middle school students’ sociocultural participation and their ideas about climate change

This case study applied sociocultural theory to examine the climate change ideas communicated by one group of middle school students (N = 39) in a suburban community on the U.S. East Coast. We investigated the ways in which students’ participation in the sociocultural activities of their varied communities appeared to inform their understandings of climate change prior to formal classroom science instruction on the topic. Data sources included an 18-item multiple choice Climate Science Knowledge Assessment Instrument (CSKAI), interviews investigating students’ content knowledge and perspectives related to climate change, and drawings examining how students saw climate change in relation to their own lives. We interpreted learners’ sociocultural activities as having implications for: (1) the kinds of scientifically-informed climate change ideas they brought to the classroom; (2) the sources of climate change information they perceived as trustworthy; and (3) the extent to which they viewed climate change as problematic, or as having potential connections to their lives. Findings also suggested that students’ engagement with media within and beyond their school-based learning experiences – even prior to formal instruction on climate change – appeared to most strongly inform their ideas about climate change. We concluded that viewing students’ climate change understandings as a product of the unique sociocultural activities in which they are already participating may provide a valuable foundation for planning science learning experiences that resonate personally with students.

Development of a Unique Synthetic Data Set to Improve Sea-Level Research and Understanding

ABSTRACT Watson, P.J., 2015. Development of a unique synthetic data set to improve sea-level research and understanding. One of the most fundamental, critical environmental issues confronting mankind into the foreseeable future remains the ominous spectre of climate change, in particular the pace at which impacts will occur and our capacity to adapt. Sea-level rise is one of the key artefacts of climate change that will have profound effects on global coastal populations. Although extensive research has been undertaken into this issue, there remains considerable conjecture and scientific debate about the temporal changes in mean sea level and the climatic and associated physical forcings responsible for them. In particular, over recent years, significant debate has centred around the issue of a measurable acceleration in ocean water-level records, a feature central to projections based on the current knowledge of climate science. The complexity of the dynamic influences and noise embedded within ocean wat...

Moving toward the Deliberate Coproduction of Climate Science Knowledge

AbstractCoproduction of knowledge is believed to be an effective way to produce usable climate science knowledge through a process of collaboration between scientists and decision makers. While the general principles of coproduction—establishing long-term relationships between scientists and stakeholders, ensuring two-way communication between both groups, and keeping the focus on the production of usable science—are well understood, the mechanisms for achieving those goals have been discussed less. It is proposed here that a more deliberate approach to building the relationships and communication channels between scientists and stakeholders will yield better outcomes. The authors present five approaches to collaborative research that can be used to structure a coproduction process that each suit different types of research or management questions, decision-making contexts, and resources and skills available to contribute to the process of engagement. By using established collaborative research approaches scientists can be more effective in learning from stakeholders, can be more confident when engaging with stakeholders because there are guideposts to follow, and can assess both the process and outcomes of collaborative projects, which will help the whole community of stakeholder-engaged climate-scientists learn about coproduction of knowledge.

Evaluation of a national high school entertainment education program: The Alliance for Climate Education

Ever-increasing global warming has created a societal imperative to reach and engage youth, whose futures are at risk. In this paper, we evaluate the climate science knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, behavior and communication impact of an entertainment-education high school assembly program in a random sample of 49 schools (from population of 779 that received the intervention) and a panel of 1,241 students. Pre- and post-assembly surveys composed of questions from the Global Warming’s Six Americas segmentation and intervention-specific measures were administered in classrooms. We demonstrate that exposure to climate science in an engaging edutainment format changes youths’ knowledge, beliefs, involvement, and behavior positively and moves them to audience segments that are more engaged in the issue. The net impact of scaled, multi-sensory, captivating programs for youth could be a population shift in science-informed engagement in the issue of climate change. In addition, such programs can inspire youth for deeper engagement in school programs, personal action, and political and consumer advocacy.

Mapping the climate sceptical blogosphere

While mainstream scientific knowledge production has been extensively examined in the academic literature, comparatively little is known about alternative networks of scientific knowledge production. Online sources such as blogs are an especially under-investigated site of knowledge contestation. Using degree centrality and node betweenness tests from social network analysis, and thematic content analysis of individual posts, this research identifies and critically examines the climate sceptical blogosphere and investigates whether a focus on particular themes contributes to the positioning of the most central blogs. A network of 171 individual blogs is identified, with three blogs in particular found to be the most central: Climate Audit, JoNova and Watts Up With That. These blogs predominantly focus on the scientific element of the climate debate, providing either a direct scientifically-based challenge to mainstream climate science, or a critique of the conduct of the climate science system. This overt scientific framing, as opposed to explicitly highlighting differences in values, politics, or ideological worldview, appears to be an important contributory factor in the positioning of the most central blogs. It is suggested that these central blogs are key protagonists in a process of attempted expert knowledge de-legitimisation and contestation, acting not only as translators between scientific research and lay audiences, but, in their reinterpretation of existing climate science knowledge claims, are acting themselves as alternative public sites of expertise for a climate sceptical audience.

Fostering Hope in Climate Change Educators

Climate Change is a complex set of issues with large social and ecological risks. Addressing it requires an attentive and climate literate population capable of making informed decisions. Informal science educators are well-positioned to teach climate science and motivate engagement, but many have resisted the topic because of self-doubt about their climate science knowledge and concerns about audiences' responses. This study evaluated the impact of a skill building program on informal science educators' emotional states and their engagement in discourse about climate change with their professional colleagues, co-workers and friends. Results revealed that skill training combined with socially supportive settings resulted in increased hope in their ability to discuss climate change and emotional engagement when reflecting about climate change. These changes subsequently were associated with their tendency to engage in discussions with their co-workers and wider social network but not with their friends.

The Precis Caribbean Story: Lessons and Legacies

By the beginning of the current century, there was heightened recognition that the Caribbean is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Yet, there was very little climate change science information for the region and at the scale of the small islands that make up most of the region. To fill the gap, a group of regional scientists representing three institutions and four territories (Barbados, Belize, Cuba, and Jamaica) initiated a project to provide dynamically downscaled climate change information for the Caribbean. The Providing Regional Climates for Impacts Studies (PRECIS)-Caribbean initiative was premised on a shared workload with goals to build regional capacity to provide climate change information for the region from within the region, to provide much needed climate information in the shortest possible time frame, and to create a platform for sharing the information as widely as possible. Ten years later offers the opportunity for retrospection and evaluation, particularly since a phase 2 initiative is being formulated. By both accident and design, the legacies of the PRECIS-Caribbean initiative include i) the positioning of the Caribbean to pose and answer for itself some of the emerging second-generation climate change questions; ii) the emergence of a regional template for capacity building in the sciences through cooperation; iii) an expanded regional capacity to undertake climate science; and iv) a significant body of climate change and climate science knowledge relevant to and at the scale of the Caribbean region.