In what sense does the public need to understand global climate change?

Public Understanding of Science

Volumn 9, Issue 3, 2000, Pages 205-218

  Bord, Richard J ^a   O'Connor, Robert E ^a   Fisher, Ann ^a  

^a PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0001285847     PISSN: 09636625     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1088/0963-6625/9/3/301     Document Type: Article

References (31)

1. Richard J. Bord, Ann Fisher, and Robert E. O'Connor, "Public perceptions of global warming: United States and international perspectives," Climate Research 11, no. 1 (1998): 75-84.
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6. See, for example: The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, http://www.people-press.org/nov., accessed December, 1999.
7. Bord, Fisher, and O'Connor, "Public perceptions of global warming."
8. IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), "Technical summary," in Climate Change - the Science of Climate Change, ed. J. T. Houghton, L. G. Meiro Filho, B. A. Callander, N. Harris, A. Kattenberg, and K. Maskell (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 9-94.
9. Willett Kempton, James Boster, and Jennifer Hartley, Environmental Values in American Culture (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995); Ann Bostrom, M. Granger Morgan, Baruch Fischhoff, and Daniel Read, "What do people know about global climate change? I. Mental models," Risk Analysis 14, no.6 (1994):959-70; Daniel Read, Ann Bostrom, M. Granger Morgan, Baruch Fischhoff, and Tom Smuts, "What do people know about global climate change? II. Survey studies of educated paypeople," Risk Analysis 14, no. 6 (1994): 971-982.
10. Willett Kempton, James Boster, and Jennifer Hartley, Environmental Values in American Culture (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995); Ann Bostrom, M. Granger Morgan, Baruch Fischhoff, and Daniel Read, "What do people know about global climate change? I. Mental models," Risk Analysis 14, no.6 (1994):959-70; Daniel Read, Ann Bostrom, M. Granger Morgan, Baruch Fischhoff, and Tom Smuts, "What do people know about global climate change? II. Survey studies of educated paypeople," Risk Analysis 14, no. 6 (1994): 971-982.
11. Willett Kempton, James Boster, and Jennifer Hartley, Environmental Values in American Culture (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995); Ann Bostrom, M. Granger Morgan, Baruch Fischhoff, and Daniel Read, "What do people know about global climate change? I. Mental models," Risk Analysis 14, no.6 (1994):959-70; Daniel Read, Ann Bostrom, M. Granger Morgan, Baruch Fischhoff, and Tom Smuts, "What do people know about global climate change? II. Survey studies of educated paypeople," Risk Analysis 14, no. 6 (1994): 971-982.
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15. Sjoberg, "Explaining risk perception."
16. Icek Ajzen and Martin Fishbein, Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social Behavior (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1980).
17. Riley E. Dunlap, "The 'new environmental paradigm:' a proposed measuring instrument and preliminary results." Journal of Environmental Education 9, no. 4 (1978): 10-19.
18. IPCC, "Technical Summary."
19. We used a modified "total design method" devised by Donald Dillman. We included a dollar bill with each questionnaire. One week after sending out questionnaires, we mailed postcards reminding people of the survey. One month later, we sent a fresh questionnaire to nonrespondents. Finally, one month after that we called nonrespondents and asked them to return the survey instrument. See Donald Dillman, Mail and Telephone Surveys: The Total Design Method (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1978). The purchased sample of names and addresses represents a random sample of residential addresses from the 48 contiguous states. In comparison with census population figures, our sample over-represents males (62%) and persons 66 and older (24%). Weighting procedures produce minimal to no changes in the data used here, so we are not weighting the data.
20. Rex Warland and Arthur Sterngold, "Do surveys overstate public concern?" Public Opinion Quarterly 58, no. 2 (1994):255-263.
21. Richard Bord, Robert E. O'Connor, and Ann Fisher, "Is an accurate understanding of global warming necessary to promote a willingness to sacrifice?" Risk 8 (1997): 339-354; Robert E. O'Connor, Richard J. Bord, and Ann Fisher, "The curious impact of knowledge about climate change on risk perceptions and willingness to sacrifice," Risk Decision and Policy 3, no. 2 (1998): 145-155.
22. Richard Bord, Robert E. O'Connor, and Ann Fisher, "Is an accurate understanding of global warming necessary to promote a willingness to sacrifice?" Risk 8 (1997): 339-354; Robert E. O'Connor, Richard J. Bord, and Ann Fisher, "The curious impact of knowledge about climate change on risk perceptions and willingness to sacrifice," Risk Decision and Policy 3, no. 2 (1998): 145-155.
23. Susan G. Hadden, "Public perception of hazardous waste," Risk Analysis 11, no. 1 (1991): 47-57.
24. Paul Slovic, Baruch Fischhoff, and Sarah Lichtenstein, "Characterizing perceived risk," in Perilous Progress: Managing the Hazards of Technology, ed. R. W. Kates, C. Hohenemser, and J. X. Kasperson (Boulder: Westview Press, 1985), 91-125.
25. Bord, Fisher, and O'Connor, "Public perceptions of global warming."
26. Paul Stern, Thomas Dietz, and Linda Kalof, "Value orientations, gender, and environmental concern," Environment and Behavior 25, no. 3 (1993): 322-348.
27. Dunlap, "The 'new environmental paradigm.'"
28. John C. Pierce, Nicholas P. Lovrich, and Taketsugu Tsurutani, "Culture, politics and mass publics: traditional and modern supporters of the new environmental paradigm in Japan and the United States," Journal of Politics 49, no. 1 (1987): 54-79.
29. Timothy L. McDaniels, "The structured value referendum: eliciting preferences for environmental political alternatives," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 15, no 2 (1996): 227-251.
30. In an attempt to discover whether higher costs or more severe regulations would lower support for a particular referendum initiative, the cost or regulation options were presented in greater or lesser magnitudes to split halves of the sample. The wording in Table 4 presents only the high-end options. The low-end options were as follows: new international organization - $100 million per year; rain forest preservation program - $100 million per year; fuel efficiency program - new car prices increase by $1000; a temperature regulation law for public buildings - 65 and 75 degrees; gas tax - 60 cents; gas guzzler tax - add $1000 a year to the cost of a new car; energy use tax on business - annual per-person cost of $380. Because the relative cost of the particular initiative had little impact on voting intentions, both high- and low-cost versions are combined in this analysis.
31. th ed. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998).