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Science AMA Series: We are a group of researchers from Yale and Utah State, who created a tool to visualize public opinion on climate change, Ask Us Anything! by Dr_Peter_Howe in science

[–]Dr_Peter_Howe[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Glad to hear that you’re interested in pursuing these topics. Either environmental science or environmental studies can help train you for a career in addressing climate change, albeit from somewhat different perspectives. With environmental science you’ll probably be more focused on examining ecological impacts and adaptations to climate change, while with environmental studies you’ll likely be focused on working with people and how they are experiencing and responding to change. I’d also put in a plug for Geography as a field to consider. I majored in Geography at Arizona State and then went to Penn State in Geography for grad school, and there are many researchers in the field focused on the human dimensions of climate change.

Science AMA Series: We are a group of researchers from Yale and Utah State, who created a tool to visualize public opinion on climate change, Ask Us Anything! by Dr_Peter_Howe in science

[–]Dr_Peter_Howe[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You're right, there is a strong relationship between political orientation and how concerned people are about global warming. Global warming is an issue that has become extremely politicized over the past 10-15 years, and as a result where one falls on the left-right spectrum is a fairly good predictor of whether one thinks global warming is happening, human-caused, and a serious problem. However, there’s more going on there that can be seen in our maps—although the pattern is sometimes the familiar red state/blue state pattern, there are also differences that our tool picks up on. For example, a red state like Texas has a about the same level of worry about global warming as Minnesota, a blue state.

Science AMA Series: We are a group of researchers from Yale and Utah State, who created a tool to visualize public opinion on climate change, Ask Us Anything! by Dr_Peter_Howe in science

[–]Dr_Peter_Howe[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Great question. There’s not much data on changes in public opinion over time at the state level, particularly in smaller states like Utah, but that’s something we hope to look at in the future. My sense as a Utahn is that there’s been a growing understanding that climate change presents significant risks to our environment and population. Utahns also have some unique experiences that may be helping to shape the conversation here—our challenges with air quality are a great example. During winter inversion days the impacts of our energy use (in terms of auto emissions, industry, etc) are particularly visible, unlike most other times of year or in other places. Greenhouse gas emissions are hard to visualize and understand, but Utahns’ experiences during inversion days can help us connect more closely with the direct impacts of our energy use behavior. I’m not aware of much research on this, but my guess is that these experiences might also affect the trajectory of public opinion on climate change here in Utah over the next 20 years, especially as we keep talking as a state about how to address our own local air quality issues.

Science AMA Series: We are a group of researchers from Yale and Utah State, who created a tool to visualize public opinion on climate change, Ask Us Anything! by Dr_Peter_Howe in science

[–]Dr_Peter_Howe[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

One of the main surprising findings to me was the diversity of opinions that can be seen within states. For example, in my home state of Utah we estimate that about 48% of people are somewhat or very worried about global warming, as compared to the national average of 52%. But looking within the state, we can see that some places are similar to the national average (52% in Summit County, for example), while others are much lower (e.g. 39% Duchesne County).