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Place-based inter-generational communication on local climate improves adolescents’ perceptions and willingness to mitigate climate change
- Source :
- Climatic Change. 138:425-438
- Publication Year :
- 2016
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2016.
-
Abstract
- With the Paris Agreement, countries have pledged to promote strategies and policies to substantially reduce their carbon emissions. To align public sentiment with potentially expensive climate mitigation policy, climate change education is considered an essential tool in tackling climate change, particularly for the young generation. However, a general lack of engagement is driven by the perception that climate change is irrelevant at local and individual scales. Based on a modified version of the Theory of Planned Behaviour, we implemented a new climate change educational programme, in 12 rural areas of China, where adolescents communicated with local seniors (aged ≥ 60 years) in focus groups to discuss local climate over the past decades. Seniors’ memories of extreme climatic events generally were in concordance with meteorological data. The adolescents’ uncertainty about climate change exhibited significant change after the programme, followed by concern, risk perception, and perceived behavioural control. Based on mediation analysis, the shift in adolescent concern and perceived behavioural control translated into greater willingness to support climate change mitigation. Thus, we suggest that climate change education should emphasize place-based strategies that highlight the relevance of global climate change through local impacts and individual experiences vis-a-vis inter-generational communication to promote greater engagement with climate change.
- Subjects :
- Atmospheric Science
Global and Planetary Change
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Public economics
business.industry
Political economy of climate change
Global warming
Environmental resource management
Theory of planned behavior
Climate change
Place attachment
010501 environmental sciences
01 natural sciences
Risk perception
Climate change mitigation
Greenhouse gas
Political science
business
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15731480 and 01650009
- Volume :
- 138
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Climatic Change
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........2bad98a0c8b7b95da94e2848bb6b6eaf