Public attention to climate change during major disasters

• Department of Political and Social Sciences

This session of the Political Behaviour Colloquium features a presentation by Susanna Garside, EUI researcher at the Department of Political and Social Sciences.

Existing literature finds that extreme weather events can reduce one's psychological distance to climate change and increase concern about it. They can promote adaptive behaviours and even pro-environmental voting. However, the mechanisms behind these effects are less well understood. Do local major disasters cause the mass public to pay greater attention to climate change and seek information about it? Using matching methods for causal inference with time-series cross-sectional data, I study the impact of major climate disasters on the relative internet search popularity for climate change in the US over a five-year period from 2017-2021. Search interest rises for up to three months following the onset of a local major disaster, with the strongest effects seen in areas with higher rates of university education, and the wealthiest and most Democrat-leaning areas. Compared to income and education levels, a region’s partisan leaning is a less consistent moderator. These findings highlight the differential effects of major climate disasters on public interest and knowledge about climate change, and point to the importance of socio-demographic factors in shaping the political and informational consequences of climate shocks.

The Zoom link will be sent upon registration.