IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/climat/v164y2021i1d10.1007_s10584-021-02986-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Making sense of climate change—the lived experience of experts

Author

Listed:
  • Jean S. Renouf

    (Southern Cross University)

Abstract

While numerous challenges associated with climate change exist, it remains difficult to fully comprehend its full implications on one’s life. Explanations for this range from psychological and cognitive barriers to social, political and economic impediments. This article provides the findings of a research project which investigated the lived experience of climate scientists and climate change experts to understand how they make sense of climate change. The research is based on qualitative interviews with 16 participants located in 12 different countries. The research finds that participants made sense of climate change through a diversity of ways, both professional and personal, including personal experience, emotions, exchanges with others and broader societal context. While for most, climate change started as an area of professional interest, it seems to have permeated their personal lives to a great extent. They see it as a disruption of the normal way of life and all concur about the gravity of the situation. The deeper implication of this study of the lived experiences of climate experts is that there is ground to be concerned.

Suggested Citation

  • Jean S. Renouf, 2021. "Making sense of climate change—the lived experience of experts," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 1-18, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:climat:v:164:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1007_s10584-021-02986-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s10584-021-02986-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10584-021-02986-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10584-021-02986-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dan Kahan, 2012. "Why we are poles apart on climate change," Nature, Nature, vol. 488(7411), pages 255-255, August.
    2. Astrid Dannenberg & Sonja Zitzelsberger, 2019. "Climate experts’ views on geoengineering depend on their beliefs about climate change impacts," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 9(10), pages 769-775, October.
    3. Kelly Levin & Benjamin Cashore & Steven Bernstein & Graeme Auld, 2012. "Overcoming the tragedy of super wicked problems: constraining our future selves to ameliorate global climate change," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 45(2), pages 123-152, June.
    4. Chris Rapley & Kris De Meyer, 2014. "Climate science reconsidered," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 4(9), pages 745-746, September.
    5. Susan Clayton, 2018. "Mental health risk and resilience among climate scientists," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 8(4), pages 260-261, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Friederike Hartz, 2024. "“We are not droids”– IPCC participants’ senses of responsibility and affective experiences across the production, assessment, communication and enactment of climate science," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 177(6), pages 1-21, June.
    2. Stefan M. Buettner, 2022. "Roadmap to Neutrality—What Foundational Questions Need Answering to Determine One’s Ideal Decarbonisation Strategy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-24, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chaikaew, Pasicha & Hodges, Alan W. & Grunwald, Sabine, 2017. "Estimating the value of ecosystem services in a mixed-use watershed: A choice experiment approach," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 228-237.
    2. Hamish van der Ven & Yixian Sun, 2021. "Varieties of Crises: Comparing the Politics of COVID-19 and Climate Change," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 21(1), pages 13-22, Winter.
    3. Sandra Waddock, 2019. "Shaping the Shift: Shamanic Leadership, Memes, and Transformation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(4), pages 931-939, April.
    4. Friederike Hartz, 2024. "“We are not droids”– IPCC participants’ senses of responsibility and affective experiences across the production, assessment, communication and enactment of climate science," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 177(6), pages 1-21, June.
    5. Lauren Baker & Michael Dove & Dana Graef & Alder Keleman & David Kneas & Sarah Osterhoudt & Jeffrey Stoike, 2013. "Whose Diversity Counts? The Politics and Paradoxes of Modern Diversity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(6), pages 1-24, June.
    6. Yoon‐Hee Ha & John Byrne, 2019. "The rise and fall of green growth: Korea's energy sector experiment and its lessons for sustainable energy policy," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(4), July.
    7. Landon Yoder & Alora Cain & Ananya Rao & Nathaniel Geiger & Ben Kravitz & Mack Mercer & Deidra Miniard & Sangeet Nepal & Thomas Nunn & Mary Sluder & Grace Weiler & Shahzeen Z. Attari, 2024. "Muddling through Climate Change: A Qualitative Exploration of India and U.S. Climate Experts’ Perspectives on Solutions, Pathways, and Barriers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-20, June.
    8. Ana Luiza Fontenelle & Erik Nilsson & Ieda Geriberto Hidalgo & Cintia B. Uvo & Drielli Peyerl, 2022. "Temporal Understanding of the Water–Energy Nexus: A Literature Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-21, April.
    9. Frans Sengers & Bruno Turnheim & Frans Berkhout, 2021. "Beyond experiments: Embedding outcomes in climate governance," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(6), pages 1148-1171, September.
    10. Kreitmair, Ursula & Bower-Bir, Jacob, 2021. "Too different to solve climate change? Experimental evidence on the effects of production and benefit heterogeneity on collective action," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    11. Andrew S. Mitchell & Mark Lemon & Wim Lambrechts, 2020. "Learning from the Anthropocene: Adaptive Epistemology and Complexity in Strategic Managerial Thinking," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-16, May.
    12. Juliette N. Rooney-Varga & Florian Kapmeier & John D. Sterman & Andrew P. Jones & Michele Putko & Kenneth Rath, 2020. "The Climate Action Simulation," Simulation & Gaming, , vol. 51(2), pages 114-140, April.
    13. Marcellus Forh Mbah & Chidi Ezegwu, 2024. "The Decolonisation of Climate Change and Environmental Education in Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-25, April.
    14. Dino Pitoski & Thomas J. Lampoltshammer & Peter Parycek, 2021. "Drivers of Human Migration: A Review of Scientific Evidence," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-16, January.
    15. Pollack, Adam & Santamaria-Aguilar, Sara & Maduwantha, Pravin & Helgeson, Casey & Wahl, Thomas & Keller, Klaus, 2024. "Funding rules that promote equity in climate adaptation outcomes," OSF Preprints 6ewmu_v1, Center for Open Science.
    16. Trawöger, Lisa, 2014. "Convinced, ambivalent or annoyed: Tyrolean ski tourism stakeholders and their perceptions of climate change," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 338-351.
    17. Domenico Dentoni & Verena Bitzer & Greetje Schouten, 2018. "Harnessing Wicked Problems in Multi-stakeholder Partnerships," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(2), pages 333-356, June.
    18. Rosalind Pidcock & Kate Heath & Lydia Messling & Susie Wang & Anna Pirani & Sarah Connors & Adam Corner & Christopher Shaw & Melissa Gomis, 2021. "Evaluating effective public engagement: local stories from a global network of IPCC scientists," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 168(3), pages 1-22, October.
    19. Artur Pawłowski & Paweł Rydzewski, 2024. "Pathways to Carbon Neutrality: Integrating Energy Strategies, Policy, and Public Perception in the Face of Climate Change—A Global Perspective," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(23), pages 1-31, November.
    20. Eriksen, Siri & Schipper, E. Lisa F. & Scoville-Simonds, Morgan & Vincent, Katharine & Adam, Hans Nicolai & Brooks, Nick & Harding, Brian & Khatri, Dil & Lenaerts, Lutgart & Liverman, Diana & Mills-No, 2021. "Adaptation interventions and their effect on vulnerability in developing countries: Help, hindrance or irrelevance?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:climat:v:164:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1007_s10584-021-02986-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.