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On climate change skepticism and denial in tourism

The period leading to and immediately after the release of the IPCC's fifth series of climate change assessments saw substantial efforts by climate change denial interests to portray anthropogenic climate change (ACC) as either unproven theory or a negligible contribution to natural climate variability, including the relationship between tourism and climate change. This paper responds to those claims by stressing that the extent of scientific consensus suggests that human-induced warming of the climate system is unequivocal. Second, it responds in the context of tourism research and ACC, highlighting tourism's significant contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, as well as climate change's potential impacts on tourism at different scales. The paper exposes the tactics used in ACC denial papers to question climate change science by referring to non-peer-reviewed literature, outlier studies, and misinterpretation of research, as well as potential links to think tanks and interest groups. The paper concludes that climate change science does need to improve its communication strategies but that the world-view of some individuals and interests likely precludes acceptance. The connection between ACC and sustainability illustrates the need for debate on adaptation and mitigation strategies, but that debate needs to be grounded in scientific principles not unsupported skepticism.

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Denying bogus skepticism in climate change and tourism research

This final response to the two climate change denial papers by Shani and Arad further highlights the inaccuracies, misinformation and errors in their commentaries. The obfuscation of scientific research and the consensus on anthropogenic climate change may have significant long-term negative consequences for better understanding the implications of climate change and climate policy for tourism and create confusion and delay in developing and implementing tourism sector responses.

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Ambiguity in social ecological system understanding:

Climate change adaptation requires understanding of complex social ecological systems (SESs). One source of uncertainty in complex SESs is ambiguity, defined as the range and variety of existing perceptions in and of an SES, which are considered equally valid, resulting in a lack of a unique or single system understanding. Current modelling practices that acknowledge the presence of ambiguity in SESs focus on finding consensus with stakeholders; however, advanced methods for explicitly representing and aggregating ambiguity in SESs are underdeveloped. Moreover, understanding the influences of ambiguity on SES representation is limited. This paper demonstrates the presence and range of ambiguities in endogenous and exogenous system drivers and internal relationships based on individual fuzzy cognitive maps derived from stakeholder perceptions of climate change adaptation in Kenya and introduces an ambiguity based modelling process. Our results indicate that acknowledging ambiguity fundamentally changes SES representation and more advanced methods are required.

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Voices in the background

Adopted on the fifteenth anniversary of resolution 1325, Security Council resolution 2242 has recognized for the first time the substantial link between climate change and the “Women, Peace and Security” (WPS) framework. Despite this landmark resolution, the intersections of environmental factors, conflict and violence against women remain largely absent from the Security Council's WPS agenda. Competition over natural resources is generally understood as a driver of conflict. The risk of insecurity and conflict are further increased by environmental degradation and climate change. It is therefore clear that the environment and natural resources must be integrated into the WPS agenda. This should necessarily include a discussion of indigenous rights to land and the gender-related dimensions of environmental factors. Indigenous women are disproportionately affected by environmental degradation, caused by resource extraction and increasingly compounded by climatic changes. This in turn exacerbates other vulnerabilities, including sexual and gender-based violence and other forms of marginalization. This article argues, by reference to the situation in West Papua, that unfettered resource extraction not only amplifies vulnerabilities and exacerbates preexisting inequalities stemming from colonial times, it also gives rise to gendered consequences flowing from the damage wreaked on the natural environment and thus poses a danger to international peace and security. As such, the Security Council's failure to recognize the continuous struggle of women in indigenous and rural communities against extractive economies and climate change impact as a security risk forms a serious lacuna within its WPS agenda. Originally published by Oxford University Press in Global Studies Quarterly, Volume 1, Issue 3, September 2021, ksab018, https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksab018

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Ten new insights in climate science 2022

We summarize what we assess as the past year's most important findings within climate change research: limits to adaptation, vulnerability hotspots, new threats coming from the climate–health nexus, climate (im)mobility and security, sustainable practices for land use and finance, losses and damages, inclusive societal climate decisions and ways to overcome structural barriers to accelerate mitigation and limit global warming to below 2°C.

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Ten new insights in climate science 2022

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Why tourism mobility behaviours must change

There now exists a general scientific consensus that anthropogenic climate change is an inescapable reality (IPCC, 2007). The climate science has been subject to, and withstood, “withering scrutiny” (Garnaut, 2008). The consequences of climate change - social, economic, environmental - will be far reaching (Stern, 2007). The critical challenge that must be taken up without delay is to achieve “radical emission reductions” in all sectors of the economy, and across all aspects of society. The climate crisis, which demands the transformation of our lives and societies (Monbiot, 2007), raises difficult questions for consumer-based neoliberal western societies (Harvey, 2011; Stern, 2007). One important but problematic aspect of the required transformation relates to contemporary western mobility (Gössling et al., 2010). In singling out transport, Cuenot (2013, p. 22) of The International Energy Agency suggests that “Transport offers the easiest path for reducing oil dependency in theory: simple readily available solutions promise a 30% to 50% improvement in fuel economy, depending on the country, while reducing carbon emissions by several gigatonnes of CO2 each year”. Wheeller (2012, p. 39), however, focusing on tourist transport, unpacks a simple paradox: “All tourism involves travel: all travel involves transport: no form of transport is sustainable: so how on earth can we have sustainable tourism?” While some modes of transport (e.g. human, electrical, solar powered) are more sustainable than others, the sustainability of high volume, high velocity, long distance transportation is clearly coming under increasing scrutiny (Peeters and Dubois, 2010). The situation is particularly acute in the case of discretionary air travel (Cohen et al., 2011; Gössling et al., 2010). Monbiot (2007) highlights the considerable challenge associated with mitigating aviation greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, given high current and projected growth in demand for air travel, and the absence of significant scope for further technical gains in aircraft efficiency (Scott et al., 2010). In the absence of “game-changing” innovations in transport technology, it is clearly evident that the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Tourism Barometer 2012 forecast of 1.8 billion international travellers by 2030 is incompatible with carbon mitigation. Western governments and the industry have to date been unwilling - or unable - to make meaningful responses to the tourism transport emissions challenge. The continuing inability to bring aviation into emission trading schemes (ETS) is indicative of this impasse (Duval, 2013). As many other sectors actively respond to the call for radical emissions reduction (Scott, 2011; Scott et al., 2012), tourism could find itself generating up to 40 per cent of global carbon emissions by 2050 (Dubois and Ceron, 2006; Gössling and Peeters, 2007). This failure of response is producing an industry of environmental disregard and neglect, with contemporary tourism that may be considered profligate and dissolute. It is clearly evident that “technology and management will not be sufficient to achieve even modest absolute emission reductions” (Gössling et al., 2010, p. 119). This, according to Gössling et al. (2010), confirms that social and behavioural change is necessary to achieve climatically sustainable tourism. Indeed the UNWTO concedes that climatically sustainable tourism requires fundamental shifts in consumer behaviour (UNWTO-UNEP-WMO, 2008). However, reliance upon shifts in behaviour raises its own issues and challenges (Semenza et al., 2008). Despite evidence of growing public awareness of the impacts of air transport on climate change (Hares et al., 2010; Higham and Cohen, 2011) there remains an alarming disconnection between attitudes and (tourist) behaviour (Miller et al., 2010). Thus, an increasingly informed and concerned public, which is beginning to internalise the realities of the climate crisis (Cohen and Higham, 2011), displays few signs of behaviour change (Barr et al., 2010; Higham et al., 2014; McKercher et al., 2010). The efficacy of individual consumers bearing the costs (social, economic) and responsibilities (psychological, behavioural) of a profoundly (environmentally) unsustainable industry is clearly open to question. From this overall context, the Freiburg 2012 workshop, held in Freiburg im Breisgau in southern Germany (3-5 July, 2012) set out to explore the psychological and social factors that both contribute to and inhibit behaviour change vis-à-vis sustainable (tourist) mobility. The workshop provided an opportunity to advance a rigorous and theoretically informed knowledge base and research agenda for effective policy interventions to address tourism’s contribution to climate change. Such insights are of importance to policy makers, as policy interventions will be less effective if not based on a rigorous understanding of tourist behaviour and psychology. These understandings are needed to negotiate or remove barriers that policy makers may perceive in implementing stronger mitigation measures by signalling how such measures can be made palatable to the public. The psychological and behavioural insights achieved during the workshop informed discussion of government approaches and policy measures that are required to both (a) support the efforts of individuals/consumers to respond to the emission reduction challenge, and (b) conflate the onus of responsibility (and the anxieties of consumption fuelled climate change) from the level of the individual, to the collective levels of government, industry and economy.

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Using a behavior change toolkit in pediatric physical therapy to support physical activity

Introduction Physical activity levels of children with disabilities are low, as these children and their parents face a wide variety of both personal and environmental barriers. Behavior change techniques support pediatric physical therapists to address these barriers together with parents and children. We developed the What Moves You?! intervention Toolkit (WMY Toolkit) filled with behavioral change tools for use in pediatric physical therapy practice. Objective To evaluate the feasibility of using the WMY Toolkit in daily pediatric physical therapy practice. Methods We conducted a feasibility study with a qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews with pediatric physical therapists (n = 11). After one day of training, the pediatric physical therapists used the WMY Toolkit for a period of 9 weeks, when facilitating physical activity in children with disabilities. We analyzed the transcripts using an inductive thematic analysis followed by a deductive analysis using a feasibility framework. Results For acceptability, pediatric physical therapists found that the toolkit facilitated conversation about physical activity in a creative and playful manner. The working mechanisms identified were in line with the intended working mechanisms during development of the WMY Toolkit, such as focusing on problem solving, self-efficacy and independence. For demand, the pediatric physical therapists mentioned that they were able to use the WMY Toolkit in children with and without disabilities with a broad range of physical activity goals. For implementation, education is important as pediatric physical therapists expressed the need to have sufficient knowledge and to feel confident using the toolkit. For practicality, pediatric physical therapists were positive about the ease of which tools could be adapted for individual children. Some of the design and materials of the toolkit needed attention due to fragility and hygiene. Conclusion The WMY Toolkit is a promising and innovative way to integrate behavior change techniques into pediatric physical therapy practice.

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Similar but different

The purpose of this study was to provide more insight into how the physical education (PE) context can be better tailored to the diverse motivational demands of secondary school students. Therefore, we examined how different constructs of student motivation in the context of PE combine into distinct motivational profiles, aiming to unveil motivational similarities and differences between students’ PE experiences. Participants were 2,562 Dutch secondary school students, aged 12–18, from 24 different schools. Students responded to questionnaires assessing their perception of psychological need satisfaction and frustration, and perceived mastery and performance climate in PE. In order to interpret the emerging profiles additional variables were assessed (i.e. demographic, motivational and PE-related variables). Two-step cluster analysis identified three meaningful profiles labelled as negative perceivers, moderate perceivers and positive perceivers. These three profiles differed significantly with regard to perceived psychological need satisfaction and frustration and their perception of the motivational climate. This study demonstrates that students can be grouped in distinct profiles based on their perceptions of the motivational PE environment. Consequently, the insights obtained could assist PE teachers in designing instructional strategies that target students’ differential motivational needs.

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Inspired to change

This book consists of thirteen chapters with elaborations on several perspectives of the Universities kaleidoscope. The aim of our book is not meant as a purely scientific endeavour, but as a contribution to the future development of universities. The style is popular science, primarily targeted at our lecturers as one of the most important social capitals we have. As the book is addressed to them, all chapters discuss their role, directly or indirectly. The focus is always on the ability to offer students the best possible learning environment. This requires first and foremost a dialogue on the professional diversity of lecturers. Innovative behaviour appears to be crucial for all of them. In addition to these abilities of lecturers, the design of the curriculum is essential for all parties involved. A curriculum largely determines the themes and contents addressed, how work-related, engaging and stimulating learning activities are developed and how lecturers design these on the micro level based on their expertise. Frans Jacobs & Ellen Sjoer (Editors). (See also seperate chapters).

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On climate change skepticism and denial in tourism

Denying bogus skepticism in climate change and tourism research