A climate of uncertainty? Investigating youth responses to climate adaptation, mitigation and technological intervention

Supervisor: Dr Lynda Dunlop

A) Rationale for the project

Urgent action is needed to deal with the climate crisis to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Accord. Possible actions include reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and minimising the harmful effects of climate change. More recently, a range of technological responses to climate change have been proposed: large-scale intervention in Earth’s climate (geoengineering). Geoengineering includes technologies for carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation management. Geoengineering is debated among scientists and politicians, not least because of the unknown intergenerational consequences, and the potential differential impacts on people in different parts of the planet.

It is therefore important to include youth perspectives in decision-making about the development and use of these technologies. This project will investigate decision-making processes and youth perceptions of these different responses to climate change.

B) References that should be read (if you do not have access to these, please email lynda.dunlop@york.ac.uk)

Bangay, C., & Blum, N. (2010). Education responses to climate change and quality: Two parts of the same agenda?. International Journal of Educational Development, 30(4), 359-368. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2009.11.011

Bellamy, R., Lezaun, J., & Palmer, J. (2017). Public perceptions of geoengineering research governance: An experimental deliberative approach. Global Environmental Change, 45, 194-202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2017.06.004

Cairns, R., & Stirling, A. (2014). ‘Maintaining planetary systems’ or ‘concentrating global power?’High stakes in contending framings of climate geoengineering. Global Environmental Change, 28, 25-38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2014.04.005

Carr, W. A., Preston, C. J., Yung, L., Szerszynski, B., Keith, D. W., & Mercer, A. M. (2013). Public engagement on solar radiation management and why it needs to happen now. Climatic change, 121(3), 567-577. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-013-0763-y

Corner, A., Parkhill, K., Pidgeon, N., & Vaughan, N. E. (2013). Messing with nature? Exploring public perceptions of geoengineering in the UK. Global Environmental Change, 23(5), 938-947. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.06.002

Delina, L. L. (2020). Potentials and critiques of building a Southeast Asian interdisciplinary knowledge community on critical geoengineering studies. Climatic Change, 163(2), 973-987. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-020-02921-0

Gordijn, B., ten Have, H. (2012). Ethics of mitigation, adaptation and geoengineering. Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, 15, 1–2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-011-9374-4

Matzner, N., & Herrenbrück, R. (2017). Simulating a climate engineering crisis: climate politics simulated by students in model United Nations. Simulation & Gaming, 48(2), 268-290. https://doi.org/10.1177/1046878116680513

Millard-Ball, A. (2011). The Tuvalu Syndrome Can geoengineering solve climate’s collective action problem? Climactic Change, 110, 1047–1066. http://www.springerlink.com/content/r8703842497m5305

Rayner, S., Heyward, C., Kruger, T., Pidgeon, N., Redgwell, C., & Savulescu, J. (2013). The Oxford Principles. Climatic Change, 121(3), 499-512. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-012-0675-2

Sanson, A. V., Van Hoorn, J., & Burke, S. E. (2019). Responding to the Impacts of the Climate Crisis on Children and Youth. Child Development Perspectives, 13(4), 201-207. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12342

Sugiyama, M., Asayama, S., & Kosugi, T. (2020). The north–south divide on public perceptions of stratospheric aerosol geoengineering?: a survey in six Asia-Pacific countries. Environmental Communication, 14(5), 641-656. https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2019.1699137

C) Research aims / questions

The aim of this project is to understand youth understandings and perceptions of different responses to the climate crisis, from mitigation (broadly, tackling the causes of climate change), to adaptation (minimising the effects of climate change) to technoscientific responses including different methods climate engineering. You will determine your own focus and research questions.

D) Methods

The methods you use will be determined by your research questions, reading and supervision. Your approach will probably be qualitative, and the methods you use might include interviews, focus groups, deliberative dialogue and document analysis. This project lends itself to international comparative designs.