Imagining climate change: The role of implicit associations and affective psychological distancing in climate change responses

2014 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 441-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoe Leviston ◽  
Jennifer Price ◽  
Brian Bishop
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Implicit Associations ◽  
Climate Change Responses

Using evolutionary functional-structural plant modelling to understand the effect of climate change on plant populations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorad de Vries
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Functional Traits ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Biotic Interactions ◽  
Plant Fitness ◽  
Vital Rates ◽  
Climate Change Responses ◽  
Mechanistic Basis

The “holy grail” of trait-based ecology is to predict the fitness of a species in a particular environment based on its functional traits, which has become all the more relevant in the light of global change. However, current ecological models are ill-equipped to predict ecological responses to novel conditions due to their reliance on statistical methods and current observations rather than the mechanisms underlying how functional traits interact with the environment to determine plant fitness. Here, I will advocate the use of functional-structural plant (FSP) modelling in combination with evolutionary modelling to explore climate change responses in natural plant communities. Gaining a mechanistic understanding of how trait-environment interactions drive natural selection in novel environments requires consideration of individual plants with multidimensional phenotypes in dynamic environments that include abiotic gradients and biotic interactions, and their effect on the different vital rates that determine plant fitness. Evolutionary FSP modelling explicitly represents the trait-environment interactions that drive eco-evolutionary dynamics from individual to population scales and allows for efficient navigation of the large, complex and dynamic fitness landscapes that emerge from considering multidimensional plants in multidimensional environments. Using evolutionary FSP modelling as a tool to study climate change responses of plant communities can further our understanding of the mechanistic basis of these responses, and in particular, the role of local adaptation, phenotypic plasticity, and gene flow.

scholarly journals Adaptation to climate change through genetic accommodation and assimilation of plastic phenotypes

2019 ◽  
Vol 374 (1768) ◽  
pp. 20180176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morgan Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Adaptive Responses ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
Genetic Accommodation ◽  
Direct Observations ◽  
Climate Change Responses ◽  
Evolutionary Changes ◽  
Environmentally Responsive

Theory suggests that evolutionary changes in phenotypic plasticity could either hinder or facilitate evolutionary rescue in a changing climate. Nevertheless, the actual role of evolving plasticity in the responses of natural populations to climate change remains unresolved. Direct observations of evolutionary change in nature are rare, making it difficult to assess the relative contributions of changes in trait means versus changes in plasticity to climate change responses. To address this gap, this review explores several proxies that can be used to understand evolving plasticity in the context of climate change, including space for time substitutions, experimental evolution and tests for genomic divergence at environmentally responsive loci. Comparisons among populations indicate a prominent role for divergence in environmentally responsive traits in local adaptation to climatic gradients. Moreover, genomic comparisons among such populations have identified pervasive divergence in the regulatory regions of environmentally responsive loci. Taken together, these lines of evidence suggest that divergence in plasticity plays a prominent role in adaptation to climatic gradients over space, indicating that evolving plasticity is also likely to play a key role in adaptive responses to climate change through time. This suggests that genetic variation in plastic responses to the environment (G × E) might be an important predictor of species' vulnerabilities to climate-driven decline or extinction.This article is part of the theme issue ‘The role of plasticity in phenotypic adaptation to rapid environmental change’.

scholarly journals ART FOR CHANGE: Transformative learning and youth empowerment in a changing climate

Elem Sci Anth ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Bentz ◽  
Karen O’Brien
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Young People ◽  
Transformative Learning ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Instrumental Learning ◽  
Changing Climate ◽  
Climate Change Responses ◽  
Opening Up

Young people represent a powerful force for social change, and they have an important role to play in climate change responses. However, empowering young people to be “systems changers” is not straightforward. It is particularly challenging within educational systems that prioritize instrumental learning over critical thinking and creative actions. History has shown that by creating novel spaces for reflexivity and experimentation, the arts have played a role in shifting mindsets and opening up new political horizons. In this paper, we explore the role of art as a driver for societal transformation in a changing climate and consider how an experiment with change can facilitate reflection on relationships between individual change and systems change. Following a review of the literature on transformations, transformative learning and the role of art, we describe an experiment with change carried out with students at an Art High School in Lisbon, Portugal, which involved choosing one sustainable behavior and adopting it for 30 days. A transformative program encouraged regular reflection and group discussions. During the experiment, students started developing an art project about his or her experience with change. The results show that a transformative learning approach that engages students with art can support critical thinking and climate change awareness, new perspectives and a sense of empowerment. Experiential, arts-based approaches also have the potential to create direct and indirect effects beyond the involved participants. We conclude that climate-related art projects can serve as more than a form of science communication. They represent a process of opening up imaginative spaces where audiences can move more freely and reconsider the role of humans as responsible beings with agency and a stake in sustainability transformations.

How Effective Are Concrete and Abstract Climate Change Images? The Moderating Role of Construal Level in Climate Change Visual Communication

2021 ◽  
pp. 107554702110081
Author(s):  
Ran Duan ◽  
Bruno Takahashi ◽  
Adam Zwickle
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Behavioral Intentions ◽  
Visual Communication ◽  
Construal Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
Climate Change Responses ◽  
Level Of Concern ◽  
Moderating Role ◽  
Practical Implications

Relying on construal-level theory, we experimentally test how the level of concreteness and abstraction of climate change imagery affects climate change responses among a diverse sample of U.S. adults ( N = 448). Results show that concrete visual messaging practices cannot directly lead to increased level of concern or behavioral intentions. Instead, they may backfire for conservatives, less-efficacious people, and people who are low in proenvironmental values. Our findings contribute to the effective climate change visual communication literature by incorporating a construal-level perspective, while also offering practical implications regarding how to use visuals more effectively to engage the public with climate change.

scholarly journals Digitalization to Achieve Technology Innovation in Climate Technology Transfer

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 63
Author(s):  
Woo-Jin Lee ◽  
Rose Mwebaza
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Technology Transfer ◽  
Technical Assistance ◽  
Technology Innovation ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
Climate Change Responses ◽  
Strategic Role ◽  
Digital Collection ◽  
Staged Model

Technology Innovation has the potential to play a strategic role in improving the effectiveness and efficiency of national efforts to address climate change. The United Nations (UN) Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN) is mandated to support developing countries’ climate change responses through innovative technologies to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. In order to enhance the role of the CTCN as an innovation matchmaker, it is important to explore and leverage the implementation potential of new digital technologies and their transformational impact. Thus, in this research, to engage digitalization as an innovative tool with the environment, we first explored digitalization during the climate technology transfer processes by comprehensively reviewing CTCN Technical Assistance (Digitalization Technical Assistance, D-TA) activities in three climate sectors of risk prediction, policy decision making, and resource optimization. Then, by applying analytical methodologies of in-depth interviews with major digital-climate stakeholders and a staged model for technology innovation, we propose future strategies for enhancing the role of CTCN as an innovation matchmaker in the three digitalization cases of digital collection, digital analysis, and digital diffusion.

scholarly journals Using evolutionary functional–structural plant modelling to understand the effect of climate change on plant communities

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorad de Vries
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Functional Traits ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Biotic Interactions ◽  
Plant Fitness ◽  
Vital Rates ◽  
Climate Change Responses ◽  
Mechanistic Basis

Abstract The ‘holy grail’ of trait-based ecology is to predict the fitness of a species in a particular environment based on its functional traits, which has become all the more relevant in the light of global change. However, current ecological models are ill-equipped for this job: they rely on statistical methods and current observations rather than the mechanisms that determine how functional traits interact with the environment to determine plant fitness, meaning that they are unable to predict ecological responses to novel conditions. Here, I advocate the use of a 3D mechanistic modelling approach called functional–structural plant (FSP) modelling in combination with evolutionary modelling to explore climate change responses in natural plant communities. Gaining a mechanistic understanding of how trait–environment interactions drive natural selection in novel environments requires consideration of individual plants with multidimensional phenotypes in dynamic environments that include abiotic gradients and biotic interactions, and their combined effect on the different vital rates that determine plant fitness. Evolutionary FSP modelling explicitly simulates the trait–environment interactions that drive eco-evolutionary dynamics from individual to community scales and allows for efficient navigation of the large, complex and dynamic fitness landscapes that emerge from considering multidimensional plants in multidimensional environments. Using evolutionary FSP modelling as a tool to study climate change responses of plant communities can further our understanding of the mechanistic basis of these responses, and in particular, the role of local adaptation, phenotypic plasticity and gene flow.

scholarly journals On the role of sea-ice transport in modifying arctic responses to global climate change

1997 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 102-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Maslanik ◽  
Jeremy Dunn
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Global Climate Model ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Climate Change Responses ◽  
Ice Conditions ◽  
Arctic Ice ◽  
Ice Pack

The role of dynamics in modifying the response of the Arctic ice pack to inter-annually varying forcings and to climate perturbations is investigated using simulations from a two-dimensional ice model and a global climate model (GCM). Inter-annual variability in ice-covered area for 1985-93 is dominated by ice transport, and different transport regimes affect substantially the response of the ice pack to climate perturbations. The thermodynamic-only simulations are more sensitive to initial ice conditions, and respond less than the dynamk-thermodynamic model to small perturbations, but with a greater response to larger perturbations. Comparisons of GCM simulations that use different ice treatments highlights the importance of considering the distribution of ice thickness and extent in assessing climate-change responses.

scholarly journals On the role of sea-ice transport in modifying Arctic responses to global climate change

1997 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 102-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Maslanik ◽  
Jeremy Dunn
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Global Climate Model ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Climate Change Responses ◽  
Ice Conditions ◽  
Arctic Ice ◽  
Ice Pack

The role of dynamics in modifying the response of the Arctic ice pack to inter-annually varying forcings and to climate perturbations is investigated using simulations from a two-dimensional ice model and a global climate model (GCM). Inter-annual variability in ice-covered area for 1985-93 is dominated by ice transport, and different transport regimes affect substantially the response of the ice pack to climate perturbations. The thermodynamic-only simulations are more sensitive to initial ice conditions, and respond less than the dynamk-thermodynamic model to small perturbations, but with a greater response to larger perturbations. Comparisons of GCM simulations that use different ice treatments highlights the importance of considering the distribution of ice thickness and extent in assessing climate-change responses.

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