Abstract
Translating public concern for global warming into effective action requires knowledge about the causes and risks of climate change. The aim of this study is a theory-guided analysis of everyday and scientific conceptions of global warming. These conceptions will be the basis for the design of communicating strategies in a separate study.
Framed by the model of educational reconstruction, scientific concepts of global warming were compared with everyday conceptions that were identified in interviews and a re-analysis of empirical studies. The analysis of conceptions of climate change based on the theory of experientialism (Lakoff and Johnson, Philosophy in the Flesh. The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge To Western Thought, 1999) shows that laypeople and scientists refer to the same schemata: the use of the container-flow schema is omnipresent in conceptions on the global carbon cycle as well as in conceptions of the radiative equilibrium between earth and space. To explain the causes of global warming three principles were found: global warming by (a) an imbalance in the global carbon cycle, (b) man-made carbon dioxide, and (c) natural vs. man-made carbon dioxide. Laypeople explain the processes leading to global warming either through warming by more input or warming by less output.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Andrey J, Kay P, Fook IF, Mortsch L, Gibson R, Scott D et al (2000) Introduction. In: Scott D, Jones B, Andrey J et al (eds) Climate Change communication. Proceedings from an international conference. University of Waterloo and Environment Canada, Kitcher-Waterloo, pp iii–iv
Bord RJ, Fisher A, O’Connor RE (1998) Public perceptions of global warming: United States and international perspectives. Clim Res 11:75–84
Bord RJ, O'Connor R, Fisher A (2000) In what sense does the public need to understand global climate change? Public Underst Sci 9:205–218
Bostrom A, Morgan GM, Fischhoff B, Read D (1994) What do People Know about Global Climate Change? – 1. Mental Models. Risk Anal 14(6):959–970
Boyes E, Stanisstreet M (1992) Student's Perceptions of Global Warming. Int J Environ Stud 42:287–300
Boyes E, Stanisstreet M (1997) Children's Models of Understanding of Two Major Global Environmental Issues (Ozone Layer and Greenhouse Effect). Res Sci Technol Educ 15(1):19–28
Boyes E, Stanisstreet M (1993) The ‘Greenhouse Effect': children's perceptions of causes, consequences and cures. Int J Sci Educ 15(5):531–552
Boyes E, Stanisstreet M, Papantoniou VS (1999) The ideas of Greek high school students about ‘ozone layer'. Sci Educ 83(6):724–737
Campbell NA, Reece JB (2002) Biology. San Francisco, Benjamin Cummings
Christidou V, Koulaidis V (1996) Children's models of the ozone layer and ozone depletion. Res Sci Educ 26(4):421–436
Cohen L, Manion L, Morrison K (2007) Research Methods in Education. Routledge, New York
Duden (2002) Das Bedeutungswörterbuch. Dudenverlag, Mannheim
Duit R, Gropengießer H, Kattmann U (2005) Towards science education research that is relevant for improving practice: The Model of Educational Reconstruction. In: Fischer H (ed) Developing standards in research on science education. The ESERA Summer School 2004. Taylor & Francis, London, pp 1–9
Duit R, Treagust D (1998) Learning in science: From behaviourisms towards social constructivism and beyond. In: Fraser BJ, Tobin KG (eds) International Handbook of Science Education. Kluwer, London, pp 3–25
Ekborg M, Areskoug M (2006) How students teacher's understanding of the greenhouse effect develops during a teacher education programme. NorDiNa 5:17–29
Gore A (2006) An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It. Rodale Books, New York
Gropengießer H (2007) Theorie des erfahrungsbasierten Verstehens. In: Krüger D, Vogt H (eds) Theorien in der biologiedidaktischen Forschung. Berlin, Springer
Hansen PJK (2005) The greenhouse effect and the effects of the ozone layer: Norwegian teacher students’ development of knowledge and teaching skills. Eur Meteorol Soc 2:33–40
Hildebrandt K (2006) Die Wirkung systemischer Darstellungsformen und multiperspektivischer Wissensrepräsentationen auf das Verständnis des globalen Kohlenstoffkreislaufs. Kiel
Houghton J (2002) Physics of the Atmospheres. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
IPCC (2007) Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Cambridge University Press, Geneva
Jeffries H, Boyes E, Stanisstreet M (2001) Knowledge about the Greenhouse Effect: Have college students improved? Res Sci Technol Educ 19(2):205–221
Kattmann U (2008) Learning biology by means of anthropomorphic conceptions. In: Hammann M, Reiss M, Boulter C et al (eds) Biology in Context – Learning and teaching for the 21st century. A selection of papers presented at the VIth Conference of ERIDOB. Routledge, London, pp 7–17
Koulaidis V, Christidou V (1998) Models of Students’ Thinking Concerning the Greenhouse Effect and Teaching Implications. Learning 83:559–576
Lakoff G (1987) Women, fire and dangerous things: What categories reveal about the mind. London, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Lakoff G (1991) Metaphor in politics
Lakoff G, Johnson M (1980) Metaphors We Live By. The University of Chicago, Chicago, London
Lakoff G, Johnson M (1999) Philosophy in the Flesh. The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge To Western Thought. Basic Books, New York
Lee O, Lester BT, Ma L, Lambert J, Jean-Baptiste M (2007) Conceptions of the Greenhouse Effect and Global Warming among Elementary Students from Diverse Languages and Cultures. J Geosci Educ 55(2):117–125
Mayring P (2002) Qualitative Content Analysis – Research Instrument or Mode of Interpretation? In: Kiegelmann M (ed) The Role of the Researcher in Qualitative Psychology. Huber, Tübingen, pp 139–148
Niebert K (2008) „Ich finde es gut, wenn es bei uns ein bisschen wärmer wird.“ Die Folgen der globalen Erwärmung in den Vorstellungen von Wissenschaftlern und Lernern. In: Krüger D, z Belzen AU, Riemeier T et al (eds) Erkenntnisweg Biologiedidaktik, vol 7. Kassel, pp 22–36
Österlind K (2005) Concept formation in environmental education: 14-year olds’ work on the intensified greenhouse effect and the depletion of the ozone layer. Int J Sci Educ 27(8):891–908
Read D, Bostrom A, Morgan GM, Fischhoff B, Smuts T (1994) What do People Know about Global Climate Change? – 2. Survey Studies of Educated Lay People. Risk Anal 14(6):971–982
Riemeier T, Gropengießer H (2008) On the Roots of Difficulties in Learning about Cell Division. Int J Sci Educ 30(7):923–939
Schmitt R (2005) Systematic Metaphor Analysis as a Method of Qualitative Research. Qual Rep 10(2):358–394
Schönwiese C-D (2003) Klimatologie. Stuttgart, UTB
Smith TM, Smith RL (2006) Elements of Ecology. San Francisco, Pearson
Sterman J, Sweeney LB (2007) Understanding Public Complacency About Climate Change: Adults' Mental Models of Climate Change Violate Conservation of Matter. Clim Change 80(3):213–238
UNCED (1992) Agenda 21. Paper presented on the UN Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeirio, Brazil
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Niebert, K., Gropengießer, H. (2011). “CO 2 Causes a Hole in the Atmosphere”: Using Laypeople’s Conceptions as a Starting Point to Communicate Climate Change. In: Leal Filho, W. (eds) The Economic, Social and Political Elements of Climate Change. Climate Change Management. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14776-0_37
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14776-0_37
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-14775-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-14776-0
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsEconomics and Finance (R0)