University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Comparing Global Warming Awareness, Perceptions and Concerns of College Students in China and the United States Student Researchers: Drew Christensen, Joy Larson, Ben Ponkratz, Dan Putman, Brittany Whited and Amy Zagar Faculty Mentor: Eric Jamelske Department of Economics University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Chippewa Valley Center for Economic Research & Development

University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Overview  The Project  The Survey  The Sample  The Results –US/China –US: Conservative/Liberal –China: Political Parties  Questions/Discussion

Global Warming Project  How much do people know about global warming?  Is global warming really happening?  Is it anthropogenic?  What does science say?  What should we do?

Source: The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC)

University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire The Sample  826 college students from four sites in U.S.  Arkansas, California, New York, Wisconsin  776 college students from four sites in China.  Guangdong, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Shanxi  1,602 total respondents.  Sample size varies slightly due to some non-response/not sure.

Population: 311,179,000 CO2 Emissions: 5,838,381,000 MT/yr

CO2 Emissions: 6,538,367,000 MT/yr Population: 1,341,000,000

University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Format  Comparison across groups  Question and response options with data coding scheme  Two graphs….  Average response for each group (omits not sure)  Distribution of responses behind average (shows not sure)

What do students across Chinese sites think compared to students across US sites? Holla!

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Re-Cap  Of those with an opinion, approximately 90% of students in both China and the US believe GW is happening.  More uncertainty among US students (14% > 4%)  Chinese students report thinking about GW more and also say that it is more important to them  Over 85% of Chinese students believe that GW is primarily caused by human activity compared to just under 60% in the US  Chinese students report taking more actions to lessen their impact

University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Re-Cap  US students are less convinced of agreement in the scientific community whether or not GW is happening  In addition, they are even less convinced of scientific agreement regarding whether or not GW is anthropogenic  Chinese students report a significantly higher level of familiarity with both national and international policies  Both favor international agreement (with/without other, China more)

University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire What Next  So what is driving the differences between China and the US?  Explore responses within the US (n = 826) by political ideology  Conservative (n = 195)  Liberal (n = 294)  Drop Moderate/Other

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Re-Cap  98% of Liberals believe GW is happening compared to just 73% of Conservatives.  More uncertainty among Conservatives (17% > 9%)  Liberals report thinking about GW more and also say that it is more important to them (like Chinese)  Over 74% of Liberals believe that GW is primarily caused by human activity compared to just under 41% of Conservatives  Liberals report taking more actions to lessen their impact, but not as much as Chinese

University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Re-Cap  Skepticism of agreement in the scientific community as to whether or not GW is happening as well as if it is anthropogenic, Conservatives more than Liberals  Some mechanism of information distortion in US for both Conservatives and Liberals  Conservatives and Liberals report being relatively unfamiliar with both national and international GW policies  Liberals are more in favor of joining an international CO2 reduction agreement (even more so than China)

University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire What Next  China does not have the same political ideology spectrum as US  Communist Party (n = 180)  selective, government career  National Youth Party (n = 309)  not so much opposition party  Drop other parties  Let’s look for differences

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Re-Cap  No real differences between selected political groups in China…  The Chinese believe GW is happening, and they also believe that it is anthropogenic  The Chinese government states GW is real and that it is anthropogenic  They teach it in schools  No real debate about GW in China

Based On Every Measure of Knowledge, Awareness, Understanding, Perception and Concern >

University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire …AR4 – a “state of the planet” report AR4 (2007):  “Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice and rising global average sea level.”  Global atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have increased markedly as a result of human activities since 1750 and now far exceed pre-industrial values determined from ice cores spanning many thousands of years.  There is very high confidence that the net effect of human activities since 1750 has been one of warming.  Advances since the TAR show that discernible human influences extend beyond average temperature to other aspects of climate. Anthropogenic warming over the last three decades has likely had a discernible influence at the global scale on observed changes in many physical and biological systems.  Anthropogenic warming and sea level rise would continue for centuries due to the time scales associated with climate processes and feedbacks, even if GHG concentrations were to be stabilized.

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Questions?