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Why we need airtravel for an accurate weather forecast

by Joana Kollert

Flying is bad for the climate – this is an uncontested fact. However, air traffic is necessary for weather forecasts, as airplanes send live data to weather stations. COVID-19 has caused a massive decline in air travel, hereby affecting the quality of weather forecasts.

Density of meteorological airplane data from AMDAR on 23 March 2020 (Stewart Taylor, EUMETNET)
Density of meteorological airplane data from AMDAR on 2 March 2020 (Stewart Taylor, EUMETNET)

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Let’s focus on the short-term benefits of long-term climate protection!

by Michael Brüggemann

A new study by Samset et al. (2020) in Nature Communcations finds that even under strong and sustained mitigation efforts, it will take the climate system until mid-century to demonstrate a discernible cooling response. Unfortunately, we must accept and live with the frustrating fact that the global climate system is a rather gigantic tanker ship that will change its course only several decades after humanity has decided to pull the emissions steering wheel into another direction. Yet, we should also think about what may motivate immediate action to reduce the risk of climate collapse in the far future. Rather than only fixating on the nebulous, future benefits of present-day climate protection, I would suggest that communicators should focus on highlighting positive short-term side effects of climate protection measures.

Source: Pixabay

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Public opinion at a tipping point – Germany’s path to engaging with climate protection

As a follow-up on our Nature Climate Change study (Brüggemann et al. 2017) called “The appeasement effect of a United Nations climate summit on the German public”, we have now published a working paper tracing changes in public attitudes and behavioral intentions over a longer period of time.

The paper compares data from our 2015, 2018 and 2019 Down to Earth surveys while also linking changes in public opinion to the media coverage on climate change.

Comparing media attention, climate-friendly behaviour, and behavioural intentions

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Sustainable Lives: stage 2, here we go!

Besides having successfully finished the pilot studies and having initiated the working paper series, the project “Sustainable Lives” has also acquired new funding for the next two years.

Our interdisciplinary work will continue in form of a working group at the Center for Sustainable Society Research (see our project website here). Continue reading Sustainable Lives: stage 2, here we go!

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Sustainable Lives: Preliminary findings from the first project stage

Frühstück Essen

Since the “Food project” has now brought its first stage to a close, it is time to present some preliminary findings.

With the funding provided by KNU, we have conducted a thorough interdisciplinary literature review and several pilot studies: a representative survey in sociology, experiments in economics, a qualitative and an automated content analysis in journalism studies, an analysis of social media content in communication studies, a metaphor analysis in linguistics, and narrative interviews in geography.

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Kommt nicht in die Tüte – Artikel zu nachhaltigen Konsumentscheidungen

Warum nachhaltig zu leben und zu konsumieren manchmal schwierig ist und wie sehr unser alltägliches Handeln auf Gewohnheiten basiert, erklärt Soziologin Stefanie Kley im Interview mit dem Magazin der Süddeutschen Zeitung “Plan W”. Neben ihr kommen auch eine Fashion-Bloggerin und die Leiterin einer digitalen Petitionsplattform zu Wort. Der komplette Artikel ist hier verfügbar.

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Down to Earth 2019: Ergebnisse aus der Deutschland-Befragung zum Klimagipfel in Madrid

von Fenja De Silva-Schmidt

Wie schon 2015 und 2018 haben wir auch in diesem Jahr während der Klimakonferenz eine deutschlandweite Online-Befragung durchgeführt. Die Befragung gehört zum Forschungsprojekt Down2Earth, geleitet von Michael Brüggemann an der Universität Hamburg, in dem wir Einstellungen, Mediennutzung, Wissen und Handeln der Menschen zu den Themen Klimawandel und Klimapolitik untersuchen.

Einstellungen zu Klimawandel und Klimapolitik

Im Vergleich zu den vorigen Befragungen zeigt sich nochmals ein signifikanter Anstieg in der Problemwahrnehmung: Inzwischen nennen 38,5 Prozent der Deutschen den Klimawandel als eines der zwei wichtigsten Probleme, denen Deutschland derzeit gegenübersteht (2018: 29,5%, 2015: 14,6%).

Problemwahrnehmung DtE 2019

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Working paper series: Sustainable Lives

In a series of working papers, findings and ideas from the project “Sustainable Lives: Food Choices as Politics and Lifestyle” will be published in a sustainable and easily accessible way. The working papers will be in German or English, depending on their production context.

Here are the first three working papers, written as project reports in a seminar led by Prof. Stefanie Kley and Alicia Dunker.

Dilemmata nachhaltiger Ernährung

Nachhaltigkeit im Kontext von Mindless Eating

Kosten nachhaltiger Ernährung

Update: We now added a paper by Radhika Mittal and Michael Brüggemann on the content analysis conducted in the food project, presented at the 69th Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference 2019 in Washington, D.C.

Eating for the future

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Lecture Series Sustainable Lives: Carbon Offsetting with Eco-Conscious Consumers

In the last part of the lecture series organised by the “Sustainable Lives” project, Gilvan “Gil“ C. Souza , Professor at Bloomington, Indiana University, will talk about Carbon Offsetting with Eco-Conscious Consumers.

He will present a model of a firm that can reduce its carbon footprint in response to the emergence of a segment of eco-conscious consumers, who consider the embedded carbon footprint of a product when making purchasing decisions.

The lecture is organised in cooperation with Prof. Guido Voigt, Faculty of Business Administration, Institute of Logistics and Supply Chain Management.

It takes part Friday, 29.11.2019, from 10:00-12:00 at Moorweidenstraße 18, Room 0005.1.