How do typhoon simulations affect climate action?
How do typhoon simulations affect climate action?
By SMU City Perspectives team
Published 14 November, 2024
Among climate sceptics, their risk perceptions of climate change went down after seeing this (simulated effects of a super typhoon). A lot of people didn't believe it. They thought that this was not going to happen, or if it did, it wouldn't affect them because it's going to happen so far in the future.
Terry Van Gevelt
Associate Professor of Urban Sustainability; Lee Kong Chian Fellow at Singapore Management University.
In brief
- After a recent heatwave, data shows that people's awareness of climate change increased but this disappeared after six months, suggesting that people’s active awareness of the issue does not appear to be consistent.
- In a lot of places, climate change is viewed as a distant issue that doesn’t require immediate action.
- To communicate the importance of climate change awareness, it must be delivered simply, without being “dumbed down”.
The most important thing when talking about climate change is to distil what you're saying to what it really is - Simplified but not dumbed down.
Methodology & References
Cervantes Jr., F., & Pulver, D. (2024, October 15). Beyond Helene: Hurricane death toll tops 300 lives, with month left in season. USA TODAY. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/weather/2024/10/15/hurricane-deaths-2024-helene-milton-atlantic-season/75678995007/
Cortez, J., Payne, K., & Daley, H. (2024, October 11). Hurricane Milton aftermath: Over 3 million without power in Florida | AP News. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/hurricane-milton-tampa-florida-5f6a112986eb6e21720f0f17c504afe8
Van Gevelt, T., McAdoo, B. G., Yang, J., Li, L., Williamson, F., Scollay, A., Lam, A., Chan, K. N., & Switzer, A. D. (2023). Using virtual simulations of future extreme weather events to communicate climate change risk. PLOS Climate, 2(2), e0000112. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000112