Years ago, after taking an Earth science class, Professor of Anthropology R. Alexander Bentley found himself looking at the world differently. It was the 1990s, and lakes in Wisconsin where he lived at the time were beginning to freeze later in winter and thaw earlier in spring, and flowers seemed to bloom a bit earlier.
That geology class helped him understand the gradual warming that was underway — warming that has accelerated since then.
People are more likely to believe an explanation when they see direct evidence of it. In the U.S., the percentage of people who recognize that global warming is happening is higher in counties that experienced record high temperatures in the previous decade. But understanding what’s happening and why also matters. That’s because people’s existing knowledge shapes how they interpret the evidence they see.
Education level and political affiliation are both known to be strong global predictors of concern about climate change.
But does higher education actually create climate concern? As an anthropologist and a researcher in computational social science, Bentley and his colleague Ben Horne set up a study to try to answer that question. Read more at The Conversation.
UT is a member of The Conversation, an independent source for news articles and informed analysis written by the academic community and edited by journalists for the general public. Through this partnership, we seek to provide a better understanding of the important work of our researchers. Read more of our articles published by The Conversation on the UT news site.
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Cindi King (865-974-0937, cking126@utk.edu)