Global Warming in Local Discourses: How Communities around the World Make Sense of Climate Change

Global Warming in Local Discourses: How Communities around the World Make Sense of Climate Change

Author: Simone Rödder – University of Hamburg, Germany

Co-authors:

  • Michael Bríggemann – Universität Hamburg, Germany
  • Joana Kollert – Universität Hamburg, Germany

The concept of anthropogenic climate change has sparked extensive discourses in science, politics and the public sphere. Unlike many other scientific issues, the global warming debate features strong transnational actors and institutions such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations’ climate summits, environmental NGO networks and climate denial by vested interests. Yet global warming, defined as long-term changes in global average temperatures, “is not perceptible nor provable as a day or year of human life shade into the next” (Jasanoff 2010). In making sense of climate change, individuals entangle the scientific concept of climate with their everyday lifes where it is shaped, for instance, by experiences of extreme weather events or seasonal change.

In this visual presentation we make a case for understanding the dynamics of how individuals make sense of climate change. We base our presentation on case studies of local communities around the world that represent a range of cultural and geographical contexts, including coastal regions in Western countries (Germany) as well as South-East Asia (Philippines, Bangladesh), Central Africa (Tanzania) and Greenland. Our contribution will explore how climate-related interpretations evolve in each of these regions.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Visual presentation
Theme: Transformation

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