Climate Change SOS: Addressing Climate Impacts within a Climate Change Spiral of Silence

Abstract

This study uncovers the dynamics that exist among key government officials working to address impacts of climate variability and change within a hostile socio-political setting. Through qualitative analysis of interviews with Oklahoma government officials, this study finds evidence of a climate change spiral of silence impacting key government decision-making processes through the suppression of climate change discourse and science. We argue that settings hostile toward climate action (where there is pervasive skepticism/denial of anthropogenic climate change and opposition to climate mitigations/adaptation policies) are primed for normative dynamics that reinforce a climate change spiral of silence.

Keywords:

• Adaptation
• climate change
• denial
• politics
• severe weather
• skepticism
• spiral of silence

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (Grant No. OIA-1301789: “Adapting Socio-Ecological Systems to Increased Climate Variability”).