The “I” in climate: The role of individual responsibility in systematic processing of climate change information

Past research suggests that how we perceive risk can be related to how we attribute responsibility for risk-related issues, such as climate change; however, a gap in research lies in exploring possible connections between attribution of responsibility, risk perception, and information processing. Using the Risk Information Seeking and Processing model, this study fills this gap by examining how RISP-based variables are related to information processing and whether attribution of responsibility for mitigating climate change influences communication behaviors that are often predicted by elevated risk perceptions. Undergraduates at two large research universities (N = 572) were randomly assigned to read one of two newspaper articles that emphasized either individual responsibility (by highlighting personal actions) or societal responsibility (by highlighting government policy) for climate change mitigation. Results indicate that subjects in the individual responsibility condition were significantly more likely to process the message in a systematic manner; however, attribution of responsibility did not interact with risk perception to influence systematic processing. Moreover, attitudes toward climate change information and negative affect mediated the relationship between other key variables and systematic processing. These and other findings suggest that strategic communication about climate change may benefit from emphasizing individual responsibility to attract more attention from diverse audiences and to promote deeper thinking about the issue. Additional theoretical implications are presented.     

Who remembers a hot summer or a cold winter? The asymmetric effect of beliefs about global warming on perceptions of local climate conditions in the U.S.

This paper explores the phenomenon of local climate perception and the extent to which public perceptions match climate conditions as recorded in instrumental climate data. We further examine whether perceptions of changes in local climates are influenced by prior beliefs about global warming, through the process of motivated reasoning. Using national survey data collected in the United States in 2011, we find that subjective experiences of seasonal average temperature and precipitation during the previous winter and summer were related to recorded conditions during each season. Beliefs about global warming also had significant effects on subjective experiences with above-normal temperatures, particularly among those who believed that global warming is not happening. When asked about the summer of 2010, those who believed that global warming is not happening were significantly less likely to report that they had experienced a warmer-than-normal summer, even when controlling for demographics and local climate conditions. These results suggest that the subjective experience of local climate change is dependent not only on external climate conditions, but also on individual beliefs, with perceptions apparently biased by prior beliefs about global warming.     

Foregone harvests and neoliberal policies: Creating opportunities for rural,small-scale,community-based fisheries in southern Alaskan coastal villages

Neoliberal policies of effort limitation and privatization have reduced commercial salmon and other fishing opportunities available to the coastal, predominantly Alaska Native, villages of southern Alaska. However, there are a variety of circumstances, including the manner in which the current commercial fishery is prosecuted, that lead to surpluses of unharvested salmon, and potentially other species, available in certain areas. This paper will define the concept of “foregone harvests”, discuss the environmental and managerial conditions that lead to “foregone harvests” and describe the possibilities such conditions create for the development of small-scale, local and community-based fisheries. Case studies of possible Huna Tlingit (Hoonah) and Kaigani Haida (Hydaburg) salmon fisheries will be presented. Alternative arrangements of salmon fisheries and institutions in southeast Alaska are presented through case studies of the villages of Yakutat and Metlakatla. These examples demonstrate how such fisheries could be built on local and traditional knowledge, as well as currently used subsistence technologies resulting in new economic opportunities compatible with local cultural patterns and interests and buttressing local identities and commitments.     

Quantifying urban water supply security under global change

Urban water supply security is commonly measured in terms of per capita water availability at the city level. However, the actual services that citizens receive are influenced by several components, including (1) a city's access to water, (2) infrastructure for its treatment, storage and distribution, (3) financial capital for building and maintaining infrastructure, and (4) management efficacy for regulating and operating the water system. These four types of "capital" are required for the provision of public water supply services. A fifth capital “community adaptation” is needed when public services are insufficient. Here, we develop and test an integrated framework for the quantification of urban water supply security based on these five capitals. “Security” involves three dimensions: 1) the level of system function (i.e., supply services); 2) risks to these services; and 3) robustness of system functioning. We apply this Capital Portfolio Approach (CPA) to seven urban case studies selected from a wide range of hydro-climatic and socio-economic regions on four continents. Detailed data on urban water infrastructure and services were collected in two cities, and key stakeholder interviews and household surveys were conducted in one city. Additional cities were assessed based on publicly available utility and globally available datasets. We find that in cities with high levels of public services, adaptive capacity remains inactive, while cities with high levels of water insecurity rely on community adaptation for self-provision of services. Inequality in the capacity to adapt leads to variable levels of urban water security and the vulnerability of the urban poor. Results demonstrate the applicability of the presented framework for the assessment of individual urban water systems, as well as for cross-city comparison of any type of cities. We discuss implications for policy and decision-making.     

Personalized risk messaging can reduce climate concerns

One potential barrier to climate policy action is that individuals view climate change as a problem for people in other parts of the world or for future generations. As some scholars argue, risk messaging strategies that make climate change personally relevant may help overcome this barrier. In this article, we report a large-n survey experiment on San Francisco Bay Area residents to investigate how providing spatially-resolved risk information to individuals shapes their climate risk perceptions in the context of sea-level rise. Our results suggest that personalized risk messaging can sometimes reduce concern about sea-level rise. These experimental effects are limited to respondents who believe that climate change is happening. Further, we do not find an effect of providing local risk messages on an individual's willingness to pay for regional climate adaptation measures. Our results emphasize that local messaging strategies around sea-level rise risks may not have the clear impacts that some advocates and scholars presume.     

基于AHP的天津泥石流灾害评估

利用天津市蓟州区降水、地形地貌、人口、地质灾害、DEM数字高程数据等资料,以天津北部蓟州区为研究对象,采用无结构不规则网格设计方法对研究区域进行网格划分,应用层次分析法（AHP）确定直接雨量和间接雨量、水流流速、地形地貌、人口密度、发生频率等泥石流危险因子权重,建立天津泥石流危险度评估模型。利用模型对蓟州区2011-2018年11次强降雨过程进行泥石流危险度评估。结果表明：过程降雨量最大、降雨最为集中的2016年7月20日泥石流危险度最高,雨势平稳的2018年8月12-14日危险度最低;蓟州区2012年7月22日出现的双安泥石流以及2018年7月24日出现的小型山体崩塌,在模型对应的区域内均显示有泥石流风险存在,表明模型对泥石流具有较好的评估能力,可应用于业务和服务中。采用广义极值分布函数计算了蓟州区不同重现期1 h和12 h雨量,利用泥石流危险度评估模型模拟不同重现期雨量的泥石流风险,研究结果可为相关部门和行业提供决策参考。     

基于自然灾害风险理论的黑龙江省玉米干旱风险评价

为了明确黑龙江省玉米干旱风险区划,为农业防灾减灾和保障玉米安全生产提供参考,选取黑龙江省玉米主要种植区44个农业气象站1971-2017年气象资料及农业资料,划分玉米全生育期为玉米生长前期（出苗-抽雄）,玉米生长后期（抽雄-成熟）,基于自然灾害风险评价方法,以水分亏缺指数确定不同生育期干旱指标,考虑危险性、暴露性、脆弱性和防灾减灾能力4项要素,引入权重系数,采用灰色关联度方法,确定四个因子对灾害发生的不同影响程度,构建危险性评估模型,评估黑龙江省玉米干旱风险,并进行了干旱风险区划。结果表明：在玉米不同发育期,干旱风险指数高值区均主要位于松嫩平原地区,其中,黑龙江西部地区为玉米干旱高风险区,中高值区分布在哈尔滨双城区以及绥化市肇东县。黑龙江省西南部地区肇州、肇源、安达等地区为中等风险区。而低值区主要分布在黑龙江东部三江平原地区以及黑河、伊春、牡丹江等地。研究结果可为黑龙江省玉米干旱防灾减灾工作提供理论依据。     

Status of the marine protected area network across the English channel (La Manche): Cross-country similarities and differences in MPA designation,management and monitoring

Recent international policy developments require states to conserve at least 10% of coastal and marine areas by creating effectively managed and ecologically coherent networks of protected areas in the marine environment. In the framework of the PANACHE project, the current status of designation, management and monitoring of the network of marine protected areas (MPAs) of an important environmental, social and economic marine area: the English Channel (the Channel) was examined. Currently 224 MPAs exist belonging to 12 different designation categories and covering 17 440 km², or approximately 20.3% of the project area in the Channel. International protection targets in the marine environment are thus met at this regional scale, although the individual contributions of the UK and France are considerably different, with French MPAs accounting for nearly 80% of the total area protected. Differences between countries are also found regarding MPA designation categories (11 in France, 6 in the UK, 1 in the Channel Islands) and management structures (with more actors involved in the UK) and approach, whereas the monitoring techniques used are similar, although more standardised in the UK. Pending challenges include greater within-country and cross-country MPA designation, monitoring and management simplicity, integration and coordination as well as the assessment of management effectiveness and ecological coherence of the Channel network of MPAs.     

Intelligent ship traffic monitoring for oil spill prevention: risk based decision support building on AIS

The paper describes a model, which estimates the risk levels of individual crude oil tankers. The intended use of the model, which is ready for trial implementation at The Norwegian Coastal Administrations new Vard? VTS (Vessel Traffic Service) centre, is to facilitate the comparison of ships and to support a risk based decision on which ships to focus attention on. For a VTS operator, tasked with monitoring hundreds of ships, this is a valuable decision support tool. The model answers the question, "Which ships are likely to produce an oil spill accident, and how much is it likely to spill?".     

Harmonization of international risk assessment protocol

For over centuries developments in food production and new food safety management systems in most developed countries have been perceived by many to be efficient in the prevention of food-borne disease. Nevertheless a number of problems remain dominant, one of these being the high level of food-borne microbiological disease which seems, for some pathogens, to have increased over the last decades. The development of an interdisciplinary approach with direct interaction between surveillance and risk analysis systems is described as a potential basis for improved prevention of food-borne disease. Quantitative microbiological risk assessment is a relatively new scientific approach, able to link data from food within the entire food chain and the various data on human disease to provide a clear estimation of risk. Today food safety is one of the WHOs top eleven priorities; the Organization calls for more systematic and aggressive steps to be taken to reduce significantly the risk of microbiological food-borne diseases. Dealing with this challenge is one of the major challenges for the 21st century in regard to food safety, implying a significant re-direction of food microbiology efforts in many parts of the world.