rutgers energy institute how can social sciences be integrated into climate literacy principles?...

Rutgers Energy Institute

How can social sciences be integrated into climate literacy principles?

Rachael Shwom

Assistant Professor, Department of Human Ecology

Associate Graduate Faculty,

Bloustein School of Public Policy and Sociology

Rutgers University


• Introduction to me• Introduction to our SESYNC project on integrating learning

across natural and social sciences• The argument for social science as a part of climate literacy• What could social sciences say?

Talk today:


• Undergraduate studying biogeochemical cycles and English, masters in resource economics and policy but masters on how scientists communicate uncertainty about climate change before congress, worked in energy efficiency for 4 years, PhD in Sociology with a fellowship in Environmental Science and Policy Program at MSU

Research interests:

1. Public opinion on climate change

2. Inter-organizational networks and energy policy change

3. Lifestyles and environmental behavior

And now climate social science literacy…

About me


The Development of a Social & Ecological Framework for Understanding Climate Change Mitigation & Adaptation

• Alan Berkowitz, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies• David Blockstein, National Council for Science and the Environment• Anthony Broccoli, Rutgers University• Diane Ebert-May, Michigan State University• Robert Evans Kopp, Rutgers University• Cindy Isenhour, University of Maine• Aaron McCright, Michigan State University• Jennifer Robinson, Indiana University• Amanda Sorensen, Rutgers University

• Advisory Role: Thomas Dietz, Michigan State University

Learning to Integrate Across Natural and Social Sciences


Goal of the Project:

To develop tools that will help undergraduate instructors develop integrated social and natural science classes in relation to the human-climate system.


• Model-based reasoning can be an important skill to teach undergraduates how to move from abstract to specifics/ theory to empirical

• Teaching human-climate dynamics provides an important opportunity to link social and natural science ways of knowing and practices

• Teaching human-climate dynamics provides an important opportunity to teach around issues of data variability, uncertainty, and probability

Building on ideas that:


• To build a “human-climate” dynamics model that identifies the main components of the systems and examples of data that could be used in classes

• Identify what “habits of mind” are necessary for understanding the relationships in a human-climate model and help us identify similarities and differences in various disciplines

• Develop and refine a rubric for assessing students habits of minds so we know how students are doing.

Objectives of the Project


Model of Human-Climate Dynamics


• To build a “human-climate” dynamics model that identifies the main components of the systems and examples of data that could be used in classes

• Identify what “habits of mind” are necessary for understanding the relationships in a human-climate model and help us identify similarities and differences in various disciplines

• Develop and refine a rubric for assessing students habits of minds so we know how students are doing.

Objectives of the Project


Essential Principles of Climate Literacy (2009)


A climate-literate person can:

• Understand the essential principles of earth’s climate system

• Assess scientifically credible information about climate change

• Communicate about climate and climate change in a meaningful way

• Make informed and responsible decisions with regard to actions that may affect climate


“This climate science literacy document focuses primarily on the physical and biological science aspects of climate and climate change. Yet as

nations and the international community seek solutions to global climate change over the coming decades, a more comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach to climate literacy—one that includes economic and social considerations—will play a vital role in knowledgeable planning, decision making, and governance. A new effort is in development within the social sciences community to produce a companion document that will address these aspects of climate literacy. Together, these documents will promote informed decision-making and effective systems-level responses to climate change that reflect a fundamental understanding of climate science. It is imperative that these responses to climate change embrace the following guiding principle.”

What it says about the social sciences?


Can a stronger understanding of the human dimensions of climate change (or climate social sciences) advance climate literacy goals?


Structural model of activism for climate change mitigation (Roser-Renouf et al., 2014)


Lorenzoni, Nicholson-Cole, and Whitmarsh (2007)

• Many people do perceive climate change to be a collective problem hardly affected by the behavioral changes of individuals.

• At the same time, their work also suggests that many people are hesitant to spend much time politically organizing because of the belief that the government is mostly unwilling to act.


What if we not only have to correct misconceptions and address people’s mental

models of climate change processes to advance climate literacy?

Rationale 1 for further Integrating Social Science in Climate Literacy :

Naïve models of politics, economics, and human behavior may be equally responsible for

the public’s failures to communicate and act responsibly and effectively


Rationale 2 for further Integrating Social Science in Climate Literacy :

• There are overlapping concepts and “habits of mind” that are utilized in social science research practices are the same that are needed for understanding climate change processes are the same and can re-inforce overall scientific literacy

– Model-based reasoning

– Variation and uncertainty

– Integration across scales and systems


Claims: Human Drivers Evidence with exemplars? How Scientists Know Student Practices

Humans influence climate and climate influences humans

Archeological data, societal histories Hassan 2009; deMenocal 2011, Fagan 2009

Climate reconstruction, archaeology, historical ecology, energy capture analysis - evidence of historical relationship between climate and human adaption.

When creating dataset (s) linking social and natural science variables : Individual can list/identify variables/elements within a dataset/system. Individual can discuss the general method by which the information is known (i.e., how does the source know what they know). Individual can evaluate suitability of a particular method for a particular question or set of questions. Individual can define and discuss the use of models (esp. integrated) to generate or support claims. Individual can generate models and support these with evidence. Student can analyze and interpret

Population and Affluence (GDP per capita) are major drivers of GHG emissions at the national level

National longitudinal datasets on population, CO2 or methane emissions, GDP, other variables York et al 2003 Jorgenson 2006

Multivariate Regression of panel data on GHG emissions from various nations over time

Fossil fuel energy is combusted to produce and transport the majority of material goods

The energy input output model is based on 1967 financial transactions in the U.S. economy. Costanza, 1980 Data on trade, economic input–output by sector, GDP, population, energy consumption, and combustion-based CO2 emissions of each region sector were all taken from Version 7 of the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP), which compiles the primary data from voluntary contributions of each region (21). Davis et al, 2010

Life cycle analysis/ Input-output analysis (for Davis - the multiregional input output analysis is based on monetary flows between industrial sectors and regions (in practice, most regions in the present analysis are individual countries)

Claims, Evidence and Practices


What climate social science insights might be most effectively integrated

into climate literacy?

Fields of geography, anthropology, psychology, literature, science education and sociology on our social science team:

1. Most useful to advancing climate literacy goals

2. Most robust findings – APA, ASA, and AAG all just released reports on what they can say about climate change


Climate Literacy Principles

• The sun is the primary energy source for the earth’s climate system

• The climate is regulated by complex interactions among components of the earth system

• Climate varies over space and time through both natural and man-made processes

• Life on earth depends on, is shaped by, and affects climate• Our understanding of climate is improved through

observations, theoretical studies and modeling• Human activities are impacting the climate• Climate change will have consequences for the earth system

and human lives


• Long term droughts and societal development or demise

• “The lessons of historical responses to climate stress and adaption are instructive. The pace and scale of CC today is unprecedented in human history. Its effects on humans will likely be both broader in scale and intensity, exacerbated by various contemporary socio-political factors that increase vulnerability. These factors include high population densities, urbanization, static geopolitical borders that reduce the ability to migrate, and inflexible systems of governance.”

Life on earth depends on, is shaped by, and affects climate


• Social scientists note that many scientific estimates in integrated climate science assessments (i.e., IPCC reports) are inherently conservative.

• Also, much is known about the nature and extent of the scientific consensus on anthropogenic CC debunking a popular trope that the scientific consensus in the 1970s was for global cooling and confirming that extremely high percentages of peer-reviewed scientific studies and surveyed scientists affirm that anthropogenic CC is occurring.

Our understanding of climate is improved through observations, theoretical studies and modeling


• Cross-national analyses of human drivers of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions consistently find that nations’ population size and gross domestic product per capita are the principal direct driving forces of GHG emissions.

• Direct and indirect household energy consumption has been studied extensively for decades. Household daily uses of direct home energy use, household transportation energy use, and food consumption (particularly meat and foods produced by industrial agriculture) are the top three categories of GHG-intensive consumption. GHG-intensive patterns of consumption are highly influenced by levels of development and also, to a more variable extent, by cultural factors—such as institutions, values, beliefs, and norms. For example, California has development equal to other U.S. states but uses 42% less electricity per household than the rest of the U.S. due to different economic and institutional policies.”

Human activities are impacting the climate


• Climate risk is a function of both exposure to physical hazards and societal vulnerabilities such as levels of poverty and inequality, political power, social capital, and access to productive resources. Some societies are much more vulnerable than others, and levels of adaptive capacity are highly uneven on a global scale.

• Migration, for example, is often necessary when climatic conditions make some locations inhabitable, but the option is most available to those with adequate economic resources. When low-income migrants are able to move, they often end up on low-cost marginal lands equally prone to physical risks. To date, those most vulnerable to CC often have been the least responsible for GHG emissions. Further, the adaptive efforts of well-resourced societies have, in some cases, worked to reinforce the status quo and generate negative impacts for other societies, or the system as a whole”

Climate change will have consequences for the earth system and human lives


Topics that don’t fit under current climate literacy clearly that might be effective in advancing literacy goals:

• Public opinion on climate change is a social and psychological phenomenon

• Governance and political systems

• What role for the humanities?


Skepticism• Public understanding of CC varies considerably cross-

nationally, even as it has generally increased over time due in large part to increasing media coverage. The modest percentages of US citizens who are skeptical of climate science and who deny the reality and seriousness of CC are somewhat anomalous in cross-national comparison. General publics around the world perceive the impacts of CC to be less severe and more temporally distant then the more immediate impacts of other environmental problems.

Public opinion as a social and psychological phenomenon


Individual predictors:

Most analyses in the United States and many elsewhere find that pro-environmental values or identity, political orientation (either political ideology or party identification or both), and gender are among the most consistent predictors of CC understanding. , , Of these, political orientation, which is sometimes measured by proxies such as free-market ideology or cultural worldviews, typically has the strongest effect, while the effect of gender is often only modest. Briefly, females, liberals/Democrats, and individuals espousing pro-environmental values or identities are more receptive to the CC consensus claims of the scientific community.



What’s the weather today?

A much smaller, but growing, body of studies examines how meteorological or climatic conditions influence CC understanding. Several studies find that temperature trends or anomalies are weakly associated with citizens’ belief in or concern about CC. Yet, climatic conditions more broadly do not seem to influence CC beliefs and attitudes.



• Knowledge of political systems can empower the public to participate in collective actions to address CC. Some citizens believe that government is not interested in or is ineffective at addressing CC and are therefore not inclined to engage politically or support policies. , The US has not ratified an international treaty, but coal plant GHG emissions are being regulated under the Clean Air Act, and many CC policies are being implemented at the state and local levels.

Political and Governance Systems


How do we advance this climate social science literacy?

• Strengthening the knowledge where needed

• Building an approach that advances understanding of how the natural and social sciences produce knowledge and where students can understand “how they know what they know”

• Teaching interdisciplinary classes (maybe happening more at college – but K-12?)

• Your ideas?


Acknowledgments

This work benefited from support from the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) - NSF award DBI-1052875

Integrated Learning Theme: Socio-Ecological Framework for Understanding Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation


References

• NOAA, The Essential Principles of Climate Science. (2009).• C. Roser-Renouf, E. W. Maibach, A. Leiserowitz, X. Zhao, The genesis of

climate change activism: from key beliefs to political action. Climatic Change 125, 163-178 (2014).

• I. Lorenzoni, S. Nicholson-Cole, L. Whitmarsh, Barriers perceived to engaging with climate change among the UK public and their policy implications. Global environmental change 17, 445-459 (2007).

rutgers energy institute how can social sciences be integrated into climate literacy principles?...

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