๐จ Techno-optimism reduces willingness to address climate change ๐จ
In a new preprint, @maiensachis.bsky.social, @fdabl.bsky.social, and I examined the causal effect of techno-optimist beliefs on the willingness to contribute to addressing climate change.
๐ Read the paper: lnkd.in/eE847_jK
How do scientists balance science with protest? My new piece for @theconversation.com, explores how scientists transition into activism and sustain their engagement.
This is based on my recently published ethnographic paper journals.plos.org/climate/arti...
theconversation.com/how-climate-...
No one trains teachers for this part of the job.
Watch The Hardest Lesson - a short film about what it's really like to teach during a #climate crisis.
Not the facts.
The feelings.
The silence.
The responsibility.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H-5...
Important new @annualreviews.bsky.social review on #AMOC collapse. ๐โ ๏ธ
๐ www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
Here are 8 key takeaways from Dijkstra & van Westen (2026) on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and its risks.
๐๐งต
Haha, thank you! Starting a blog was one of the best decisions I made during my PhD โ it warms my heart to remember how much fun I had: fabiandablander.com/r/Reviewing-... More innocent times!
Graphic shows three line graph time series of monthly carbon dioxide abundance in ppm (blue line), monthly methane abundance in ppb (red line), and monthly nitrous oxide in ppb (purple line). Graphs are all shown from January 1984 through December 2025/September 2025. Current levels of CO2 are 427 ppm. Current levels of methane are 1941 ppb. Current levels of nitrous oxide are 339 ppb. All graphs show long-term increasing trends along with some interannual variability and seasonality.
Status of the most recent monthly-averaged greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide.
Observational data provided by gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/
Speaker Spotlight: Rachel Donald
How can we make sense of a world shaped by interlocking crises? Where in the world can we find stories and places already modeling the changes we need?
We're excited to have @racheldonald.bsky.social help us tackle these questions!
โณ Apply until Jan 26: acscc.nl
Speaker Spotlight: Kristian Nielsen
How do individual behavior change & broader systems change interact? How can behavioral science realize its full potential to address climate change?
We're excited to have @kristiansn89.bsky.social help us tackle these questions!
โณ Apply until Jan 26: acscc.nl
Speaker Spotlight: Julia Steinberger
How can societies ensure decent living for all while staying within planetary boundaries?
We are excited to have @jksteinberger.bsky.social as an ACSCC keynote speaker to address this critical question.
โณ Apply until Jan 26 at acscc.nl
Stephen Miller goes on a rant defending Trump's imperialist aggression against Venezuela: "Weโre a superpowerโฆ we are going to conduct ourselves as a superpower."
Jake Tapper: "I don't even know what you're talking about right now."
Just a few things I'd like to say about this @hausfath.bsky.social piece.
The first is that every 10th of a degree of heating over 2C raises risks for multiple irreversible catastrophes MORE than every 10th of a degree of heating under 2C.
That's why the 2C target exists. It's not random.
๐งต
Eyes wide open, folks. They're revealing the supervillain plot.
![Screen shot from the show Andor. Someone says to Mon Mothma โThey [meaning the Empire] donโt even bother to lie badly anymore.โ Mon replies โI suppose thatโs the final humiliation.โ](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ny5w2k6brb2kdubxnevke6li/bafkreibrxbmhwrnkwo2ztnczubpnzpup3uf6dpyhs7mk2uxpeoeynhjo2q)
Screen shot from the show Andor. Someone says to Mon Mothma โThey [meaning the Empire] donโt even bother to lie badly anymore.โ Mon replies โI suppose thatโs the final humiliation.โ
This one is resonating today. #Andor
What better way to end 2025 than getting our paper published in Global Environmental Change ๐ฅณ๐
We studied perceptions of the feasibility of climate-relevant behavior change and how these perceptions connect to income differences and climate policy support.
Let me tell you all about it๐งต๐
On the 10th Anniversary of the Paris Agreement, youโre going to hear a lot about the progress weโve made โ people saying we โareโ heading to 2.5 degrees heating instead of four.
I deeply regret to tell you that this is complacent misinformation.
๐งต
In the paper, we provide an extensive validation of our methodology, additional analyses, discussion of limitations, suggestions for future research, and highlight opportunities for more comprehensive climate journalism: osf.io/preprints/so...
See also LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/posts/fabian...
We hope that our findings and methodology can contribute to a discussion about how the news media can best inform about the causes and impacts of climate change and the full scope of the societal transformations needed to secure a livable and sustainable future for all.
4๏ธโฃ ๐๐จ๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐๐ ๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ญ๐ญ๐๐ซ๐ง๐ฌ ๐ก๐๐ฏ๐ ๐๐๐๐ง ๐ซ๐๐ฆ๐๐ซ๐ค๐๐๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐๐ฅ๐.
The only clear shifts involves growing attention to net-zero targets and carbon taxes.
๐ฅ๐ ๐๐ก๐ฒ ๐๐จ๐๐ฌ ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฆ๐๐ญ๐ญ๐๐ซ?
Informing the public and political leaders about the full range of causes, impacts, and solutions is essential for effective climate action.
3๏ธโฃ ๐๐จ๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐๐ ๐ ๐ญ๐๐ง๐๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ ๐ง ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐ง๐๐ฐ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐ฌ' ๐ฉ๐จ๐ฅ๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐๐๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐๐๐ง๐ข๐ง๐ .
Left-leaning outlets more frequently reported that climate change is human-caused, highlighted fossil fuels as a cause, emphasized the need to reduce their use, and discussed systemic drivers more often.
Economic growth, overconsumption, and inequality in carbon emissions between the rich and poor appeared in less than 5% of articles.
For example, while agriculture is responsible for a third of emissions, it was mentioned eight times less than fossil fuels as a cause of climate change โ in a mere 6.3% of all articles. Plant-rich diets as a solution were also comparatively underrepresented.
Figure 1 of the paper summarizing our main results
We found:
1๏ธโฃ ๐๐๐๐ฉ๐ญ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐ฐ๐๐ฌ ๐ซ๐๐ซ๐๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐๐จ๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐๐.
Aspects relating to causes, impacts, & mitigation were much more covered than aspects relating to adaptation.
2๏ธโฃ ๐๐จ๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐๐๐ฎ๐ฌ๐๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐๐ฌ ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ข๐ง๐๐ญ๐๐ ๐๐ฒ ๐๐จ๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ข๐ฅ ๐๐ฎ๐๐ฅ๐ฌ.
Agriculture, overconsumption, carbon inequality, & economic growth were rarely mentioned.
Set of questions we asked for each news article
We built a custom scraping methodology to get access to virtually all articles about climate change published in major German newspapers since 2010.
We then designed a structured set of IPCC-aligned questions covering causes, impacts, mitigation, and adaptation, and used LLMs for content analysis.
Title page of our paper
๐จ Mapping climate change coverage
In a new preprint, Simon Wimmer, @jmbh.bsky.social, and I analyzed over 50,000 articles about climate change from major German newspapers across the political spectrum (2010-2024) using large language models ๐งต
๐ Link: osf.io/preprints/so...
My latest: with @fdabl.bsky.social and JW Bolderdijk we argue that environmental psychology needs formal theory to make progress and increase real-world impact
doi.org/10.1016/j.co...
Part of special issue Behavioral Science for Climate Change by @madalina.bsky.social & @neurograce.bsky.social
I just noticed this too. DeepL suggested I refer to a different different book from the same author. I'm out!
Scientists are becoming more visible in public climate debates, but the effects of this engagement are far from straightforward. We often hear strong claims about credibility and trust, yet what does the evidence say? Our new preprint explores this osf.io/preprints/ps...
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โ ๏ธ When โtechnology will save usโ becomes a climate risk!
A new paper from great colleagues takes a careful look at techno-optimism โ the belief that technology will largely solve climate change โ and what it means for real-world climate action.
(1/4)๐
osf.io/preprints/ps...
Announcement that the applications are open for the third Amsterdam Complexity School on Climate Change, with speakers including Clare Farrell, Ben Franta, Julia Steinberger, Vรญtor Vasconcelos, and Rachel Donald, with more to come!
I am beyond excited to announce that the applications are now open for the third Amsterdam Complexity School on Climate Change!
Come visit a beautiful city, hear from world-renowned experts, and work with passionate individuals on challenges related to climate change.
More info: acscc.nl
