What Publics Think About Enhanced Weathering
We explore how people across the globe respond to enhanced weathering at a local and general level and the value of interdisciplinary research.
In this episode, Professor Nick Pidgeon is joined by Dr Elspeth Spence to discuss how publics perceive enhanced weathering across the countries with field trial sites that are run by The Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation.
Nick sets the scene, establishing the importance of social sciences as part of the development and deployment of new technologies, including the need to consider ethical issues and worries about moral hazard. He then explains the range of methods used to measure public perceptions around enhanced weathering as part of the project including surveys, workshops, and stakeholder interviews.
Elspeth and Nick discuss the challenges in using various methodologies and the importance of local expertise to help inform the design of materials to be suitable in a range of countries. They discuss what factors influence perceptions from a psychological perspective and the concerns people hold about enhanced weathering, and how these are reflected in workshops.
Together, they reflect on the value of interdisciplinary collaboration for enhanced weathering particularly for working in the Global South before finally considering appropriate risk communications for enhanced weathering
Credits
- Podcast Host: Professor Nick Pidgeon (Professor of Environmental Psychology and Risk at Cardiff University)
- Podcast Guest: Dr Elspeth Spence (Research Associate at Cardiff University)
- Podcast Production: Victoria Giordano-Bibby (Marketing and Communications Manager, The Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation at the University of Sheffield)
- Guest Editor: David Heath (Digital Engagement Officer at the University of Sheffield)
- This work was funded by The Leverhulme Trust (Leverhulme Research Centre grant RC-2015-029)
