Public perception of cold weather events as evidence for and against climate change
Public perception of cold weather events as evidence for and against climate change
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DOI：
10.1007/s10584-013-1003-1
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发表时间：
2014-02-01
期刊：
影响因子：
4.8
通讯作者：
Pidgeon, Nicholas Frank
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Capstick, Stuart Bryce;Pidgeon, Nicholas Frank
有人认为，公众对气候变化的怀疑已经加剧了寒冷的天气事件被视为一种形式的不确认的证据，为预期的“变暖”。尽管对气候和天气的看法之间的联系已经得到证实，但这些假设尚未经过经验检验。在这里，我们显示，使用全国代表性的数据，直接在英国一段时间的严寒天气，三倍的人认为这些事件指向气候变化的现实，而不是作为disconfirmingit.This我们认为是这些寒冷的冬天被纳入极端或“非自然”的气候变化导致的天气的概念化的后果。我们还表明，人们解释寒冷天气的方式与预先存在的对气候变化的怀疑水平有关，而这又与更普遍的世界观有关。提请注意气候变化导致的“极端”天气可能是一种有用的沟通手段，但在季节性寒冷的情况下，这是有问题的。
It has been argued that public doubts about climate change have been exacerbated by cold weather events seen as a form of disconfirming evidence for anticipated 'warming'. Although a link between perceptions of climate and weather is well-established, such assumptions have not been empirically tested. Here we show, using nationally representative data, that directly following a period of severe cold weather in the UK, three times as many people saw these events as pointing towards the reality of climate change, than as disconfirming it. This we argue was a consequence of these cold winters being incorporated into a conceptualisation of extreme or 'unnatural' weather resulting from climate change. We also show that the way in which people interpret cold weather is associated with levels of pre-existing scepticism about climate change, which is in turn related to more general worldviews. Drawing attention to 'extreme' weather as a consequence of climate change can be a useful communication device, however this is problematic in the case of seasonal cold.