Understanding how public attitudes to climate change have been shaped by discussions, debates and controversies is to be the focus of a new research project involving academics from the UK and the Netherlands.
Linguistics specialists from The University of Nottingham and the University of Leicester, working with experts in science communication from VU University Amsterdam, will be examining what brings about these phases, the way in which individuals and organisations shape public opinion, the role of language in discussions, and the impact of social and technological networks on the debate.
The project will investigate public interest in climate change from 1992 to 2010, examining the communication of global warming both across longer periods of time and at specific points of intense scrutiny and is being supported by a €750,000 grant from the Open Research Area Scheme (ORA), the largest joint initiative between European funding agencies in social sciences.
Brigitte Nerlich, Professor of Science, Language and Society at The University of Nottingham's Institute of Science and Society, said: “Climate change is a complex social issue involving a wide cross section of society - including scientists, policy makers, industry, the mass media, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), activist groups and the general public.
“Debates about climate change or global warming have been characterised both by longer periods of slow, mainly consensus-dominated phases and by a series of sudden changes in attention to, and the social, cultural and political meaning of, ‘climate change’.
“An example of such a sudden shift in public debate would be the controversial ‘Climategate’ incident of November 2009, where hacked email exchanges between scientists at the Climate Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia in Norwich led to some critics accusing them of manipulating scientific data on climate change and so-called climate change sceptics to call into question the emerging scientific consensus on the human influence on climate change.”
Read the full story on the central Communications website
Posted on Friday 4th February 2011