Søren Damsbo-Svendsen defends his PhD thesis at the Department of Political Science
Title
Political Weather: How experiencing climate change shapes our political lives.
The thesis
The thesis will be published as an e-book which can be bought at Academic Books. Furthermore, the thesis can also be loaned from the Royal Danish Library.
Time and venue
Tuesday 9 January 2023 from 14:00-17:00 at Centre for Health and Society, Øster Farimagsgade 5, DK-1353 Copenhagen K., room 1.1.18. Kindly note that the defence will start precisely at 14:00.
Assessment committee
- Associate Professor Karina Kosiara-Pedersen (Chair), Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen
- Associate Professor Patrick Egan, Wilf Family Department of Politics, New York University
- Professor Rune Slothuus, Department of Political Science, Aarhus University
Abstract
Global climate change is an increasingly large part of our lives and will remain so in the future. How will it affect us as political beings? This PhD dissertation investigates how citizens' personal experience with weather and climate shapes political opinions, beliefs, and behavior toward climate change. Public support for the green transition is pivotal, and lack of public support can be an important barrier to climate action and adaptation. Because climate change is abstract, complex, and relatively new as a major political issue, political elites and the media could be driving public climate opinion. However, it is possible for voters to circumvent elite discourse and, instead, experience climate change directly in extreme and unusual weather events that are exacerbated by global warming. The changing weather, thus, has political causes, but what are the political consequences? Weather experiences provide unmediated information about climate change, but is personal experience translated into pro-climate opinions and behavior? Yes, it is, as the dissertation demonstrates.
The dissertation's overall research question is: How are voters' climate opinions and behavior shaped by media coverage of climate change and personal weather experiences? The key findings show that personal experience with more extreme weather, including high temperatures and local flooding, and increased media coverage of climate change raise climate concern and cause a shift toward more pro-climate beliefs, opinions, and behavior. As climate change is experienced more, now and in the future, this can foster public support for the creation of a more sustainable society. This is crucial knowledge because it shows that climate change, as it worsens, helps creating the conditions for a green transition. In that sense, the dissertation is relatively optimistic about the nature of the public's response to climate change. It contributes with knowledge about how individuals translate their own personal experiences into political opinions and behavior, which is crucial to find viable political solutions to climate change.