Global hope and worry about the climate

“It’s a big topic. We’re talking about changing our world,” says Chad M. Baum, assistant professor from the Department of Business Development and Technology at Aarhus BSS, Aarhus University, about his new study, in which he and his colleagues have studied the emotions associated with climate change around the world. The article was published in Risk Analysis.

It’s a big topic. We’re talking about changing our world.

_{Chad M. Baum, Assistant Professor, Department of Business Development and Technology}

Climate change is a global challenge. Therefore, it has been crucial for the researchers to explore climate emotions in many different parts of the world. Previous research has almost exclusively looked at attitudes in Western countries, typically the USA, the UK and Germany. The new study provides unique insights into climate emotions in a broader perspective, which also includes the global south (a collective term for economically less prosperous countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America). The survey covers a total of 30 countries at very different levels of development and with very different cultural backgrounds.

Chad M. Baum, Livia Fritz and Benjamin K. Sovacool from the Department of Business Development and Technology at Aarhus BSS, Aarhus University and Elina Brutschin from International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria, asked the participants to what extent they felt fear, hope, anger, sadness or worry in relation to climate change.

The results reveal interesting differences. In general, people in developing countries express stronger emotions about climate change than people in industrialised countries, though there are key differences within these groups as well.

However, there is a broad consensus the world over that there is cause for concern. As many as 32.2% of participants reported being “extremely worried”, and nearly four out of five participants reported being at least “somewhat worried” about climate change. The most worried populations are found in Indonesia, India, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Chile, China, South Africa, Turkey and Singapore.

Surprisingly, the researchers identified a distinct relationship between hope and vulnerability to climate change in Africa. In Nigeria and Kenya, they are both worried and hopeful, and the lowest levels of sadness and anger were also reported in Nigeria. Why is that?

“We found that some of the least developed countries – Kenya, Nigeria and the Dominican Republic – expressed hope in relation to climate change, while at the same time being very aware of and worried about, and indeed having directly experienced the consequences of climate change. This may indicate an urgent need to gain a better understanding of what sustains hope for Africans. Maybe we can learn something from their thinking, instead of being so focused on the doom-and-gloom narrative disseminated by us and the media in the West,” says Chad M. Baum and continues:

“Moreover, Nigeria has a very young population, with an average age of 18 or 19 years. The young people will soon be the ones making the decisions in the country. Such autonomy and the prospect of power may also play a role in how hopeful they feel.”

There isn’t much talk about the dramatic differences between Northern and Southern Europe in terms of exposures to climate crisis impacts. This can be a challenge when it comes to organising a common strategy against climate change in the EU.

_{Chad M. Baum, Assistant Professor, Department of Business Development and Technology}

The European countries were not characterised by climate hope. The northern European countries – with Germany, Austria and Sweden in the lead – clearly ranked among the least hopeful. Conversely, the developing economies in the global south top the list of the most hopeful countries despite their first-hand experience of the impacts of climate change. Out of 12 countries in the global south surveyed, 11 were among the most hopeful: Indonesia at the top, followed by Nigeria and India.

Brazil, where the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest poses a particular threat to the climate, stands out as the country where the population is most afraid of climate change. In Southern Europe, which has been and will be relatively more exposed to climate disasters in the future, citizens report being simultaneously more sad, angry and afraid.

“We hear a lot about Spain, Italy and Greece being at the receiving end of refugee arrivals in Europe. We hear much less about the fact that these countries are also highly vulnerable to the impacts of the climate crisis,” says Chad M. Baum and continues:

“There isn’t much talk about the dramatic differences between Northern and Southern Europe in terms of exposures to climate crisis impacts. This can be a challenge when it comes to organising a common strategy against climate change in the EU.”

The researchers not only asked the populations about their emotions in relation to climate change. They also asked about their attitudes towards new climate-intervention technologies that can potentially help us in the fight against climate change.

Due to the imminence and severity of the climate threats, we need to look for new technologies that, combined with behavioural changes and changes at the system level, can become part of the climate solutions of the future.

The new technologies are not intended to replace, but to supplement what each of us is already doing and must do more of for the climate: Fly less, eat more plants, sort and recycle our waste, and rethink our consumption.

“Policy action and fundamental changes at the system level and in industry will still be needed to ultimately bring our emissions down to zero or below,” adds Chad M. Baum.

The technologies range from the deployment of large mirrors in space to reflect sunlight away from the Earth, afforestation and soil improvements in agriculture, to giant fans that remove carbon dioxide from the air. Biochar is a technique for storing carbon dioxide, which burns wood in a container without oxygen – a bit like using pyrolysis to clean our kitchen ovens.

Although it may sound like something from a distant future, Denmark has already come a long way on the research, development and at times production side.

“People in Herning have reached out to tell me that they are developing a technological solution that involves installing fans at the back of wind turbines to mimic cloud cover. There is also the logistics partner Biocarb Solutions in Skanderborg, while Stiesdal Skyclean and MASH Makes are working with biochar, which is probably the most well-known of the new technologies. The University of Copenhagen and Rock Flour Company are in the process of developing a method using rocks that naturally absorb carbon dioxide – albeit very slowly – which are then crushed to speed up the process, and which can then be spread out on farmland,” says Chad M. Baum.

There is also talk of making use of the technologies in Denmark.

“Climate intervention is still not a much-debated topic, but people are trying to get an overview. There’s a fleeting discussion about the removal of carbon dioxide and how it might have some benefits for farmers in particular. With the carbon taxes being imposed on agriculture in Denmark, new technologies may be part of the solution,” says Chad M. Baum and continues:

“There are also discussions in Copenhagen about the risk of sea level rises in 2070–2080 and how to deal with them. People try to talk about these things and to build a more positive vision for the future.”

To find out whether the world’s population is ready for major technological innovations, the researchers asked the 30,284 respondents about their support for ten selected climate interventions divided into two categories: Removal of carbon dioxide and reflection of sunlight away from the Earth. The researchers then explored the relationship between the respondents’ support for these interventions and their emotions about climate change.

The researchers found that some emotions were more strongly associated with support for certain interventions than others.

We can see from the study that for our discussions about the new technologies to be fruitful, we should start with the group of people who are relatively more hopeful about climate change.

_{Chad M. Baum, Assistant Professor, Department of Business Development and Technology}

The most hopeful and worried respondents were found to be most open to the new technologies. They supported both the removal of carbon dioxide and the reflection of sunlight away from the Earth, and saliently expressed their support for the new and more extreme technologies in each of the categories. Thus, the hopeful and worried respondents supported both the storage of energy in rocks and biochar as well as space-based technologies such as mirrors in space reflecting sunlight away from the Earth, and the spraying of seawater in the air to make the clouds brighter and thus better at protecting the Earth from incoming solar heat.

The angry were generally more negative of more well-known interventions such as afforestation and soil improvements in addition to sequestering carbon in the form of biochar.  In contrast, the respondents who expressed being sadder were more supportive of such well-known interventions, though not in favour of space-based approaches, such as mirrors in space. Finally, the fearful respondents, on the other hand, were supportive of the more novel and often controversial technologies within each category. This is interesting because:

“An understanding of which types of people support new climate technologies can ultimately give us an indication of who will be motivated to look further at these interventions. We can see from the study that for our discussions about the new technologies to be fruitful, we should start with the group of people who are relatively more hopeful about climate change,” says Chad M. Baum and concludes:

“It’s not just about worry and destruction, but also about creating a more positive vision for the future. With hope, we can make a positive difference for future generations. Instead of constantly having to put out the fires of climate change [literally and metaphorically], we can start addressing other problems, thereby paving the way for a better future."

Facts

We strive to comply with Universities Denmark’s principles for good research communication. For this reason, we provide the following information as a supplement to this article: