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Blogpost series: Current protests for climate protection

As the protests for more political engagement in climate protection have spread to even more countries and expandend from schoolchildren protesting on “Fridays for Future” to “Scientists for Future” supporting them, we have decided to publish a series of blogposts on this social movement, its coverage in the debate and in media reporting.

This post will serve to compile a list of the blogposts related to this topic.

Part 1: “Fridays for Future” – Can the next generation save our world?, January 27, 2019

Part 2: Public protests “for future” as part of citizenship – children and scientists included, March 15, 2019

Part 3: “Yes, but“-narrative in the German climate debate, March 20, 2019

Part 4: Science for Dummies, March 20, 2019

There is also a report about the climate change protests in Boulder, Colorado (USA) on our partner blog.

Wer vertraut denn heute noch den Medien?

von Fenja De Silva-Schmidt und Michael Brüggemann

Ein durchaus besorgniserregender Befund unserer Forschung ist ein mangelndes Vertrauen der deutschen Bevölkerung in die Medienberichterstattung zum Klimawandel. In der deutschlandweiten Umfrage unseres Projekts „Down to Earth“ war die größte Gruppe unentschlossen, ob sie den Medien bei diesem Thema vertrauen soll. Die zweitgrößte Gruppe vertraute den Medien nicht; nur eine Minderheit vertraute ihnen (siehe Grafik). Dies steht im Widerspruch zum durchaus robustem Vertrauen der Mehrheit in die Medien, so wie wir es aus anderen Befragungen kennen.

grafik zum Medienvertrauen 2015 und 2018

Eine mögliche Erklärung für dieses schlechte Zeugnis für die Klimapolitikberichterstattung liefert nun eine Langzeitstudie zum Medienvertrauen der Uni Mainz. Continue reading Wer vertraut denn heute noch den Medien?

Results from survey: What do people eat in Hamburg? (Part II)

In a second flyer (in German), the sub-project team from Prof. Stefanie Kley presents more results from their representative telephone survey in Hamburg, taking a look at factors explaining different eating habits.

While 30 percent of men consume meat (almost) daily, only 18 percent of women have such a high meat consumption. There are also more female vegetarians and flexitarians.

They found that there is a gender difference (women eat less meat than men) and also an influence of education (people with a higher formal education eat less meat). For age, there was no clear trend.

Das Team von Prof. Stefanie Kley präsentiert in einem zweiten Flyer weitere Ergebnisse aus der im vergangenen Jahr in Hamburg durchgeführten telefonischen Umfrage. Darin wird beschrieben, welchen Einfluss Geschlecht, Bildung und Alter auf die Ernährungsgewohnheiten der Befragten haben.

New publication: Scientific networks on Twitter

Scientists communicate online via social media about climate change. They engage with other scientists as well as with journalists, civil society and politicians. To what extent and how their language use varies depending on whom they talk to was examined by Stefanie Walter, Ines Lörcher and Michael Brüggemann by combining network and automated content analysis. The full article with all findings is now available online (open access).

Lecture Series Sustainable Lives

Accompanying our research project on sustainable food choices, our team is currently organizing a public lecture series on the topic of sustainable lifestyles.

In three events from April to June 2019, international guests will present their work concerning different aspects of the topic. The lectures cover Digital Foodscapes, Public Perceptions and Engagement with Climate Change and Social Identities in a Globalized World.

Further information about the dates and place can be found in the announcement poster.

How misinformation persuaded my neighbor, and why I chose not to “educate” him

by Fenja De Silva-Schmidt

Recently I chatted to my neighbor and we happened to stumble upon the topic of climate change. He told me: “I don’t think the earth is really heating up, big changes don’t happen so fast. This so-called warming effect is physically not plausible, even many scientists say so – I learnt about that when I followed the climate conference on YouTube.” I was surprised about many aspects of this statement Continue reading How misinformation persuaded my neighbor, and why I chose not to “educate” him

New article published: Climate politics in the media – the audience is expecting more

In an article for the German journal “Media Perspektiven”, we analysed our survey data from 2015 and 2018, focusing on media use and evaluation of the coverage related to the topic of climate change and climate politics. The article is available here (open access, German only).

In einem Artikel für die Fachzeitschrift “Media Perspektiven” haben wir unsere Befragungsdaten aus 2015 und 2018 im Hinblick auf die Nutzung und Bewertung klimapolitischer Medieninhalte ausgewertet. Der Artikel ist hier online zugänglich.

Science For Dummies

by Joana Kollert

As a scientist, when reading the “Scientists For Future” statement supporting the Fridays for Future protest marches, my initial response was disappointment. The statement uses an extremely basic language to summarize the demands of the Paris Agreement, and the key steps necessary to avoid the most perilous climate change hazards. There is nothing innovative, provocative or unexpected about this statement. Thus, I was very doubtful about its effectiveness. Continue reading Science For Dummies

Public protests “for future” as part of citizenship – children and scientists included

by Michael Brüggemann

Schoolchildren protesting during the Fridays for Future march in Bremen. (Private photo from March 15 2019)

Today, I went to the streets with my ten-year-old son. It was his first protest march, and my second. We went with his elementary school class, loudly shouting: “don’t steal our future!” And while German politicians claim that they understand the children’s concerns, they also claim, more or less implicitly, that the children do not really get the complexities of politics and should “leave it to the professionals”. Continue reading Public protests “for future” as part of citizenship – children and scientists included

First results from survey: What do people eat in Hamburg?

What kind of food do people in Hamburg usually eat, and do they link their daily consumption to sustainability? The sub-project from Prof. Stefanie Kley conducted a representative telephone survey with more than a thousand respondents in Hamburg from August to December 2018, dealing with the topics of food choice and nutrition. First results are now available (flyer, in German).

Continue reading First results from survey: What do people eat in Hamburg?