Climate Change Research

About

Climate Change Research (CCR) is a series of projects on the topic of climate change, led by Dr. Shelley Boulianne (MacEwan University, Canada). This line of research began in 2012 with a series of public consultations in Alberta about climate change and continues into 2019-2020 with two projects:

1) social media and the international youth climate strike and

2) climate change discussions during the 2019 Canadian federal election.

Research Objectives

Some of the research questions explored through these projects:

  • What climate change policy initiatives do citizens support? Does support for these initiatives differ if the initiatives are endorsed by a random sample of citizens who participated in a deliberative event?

  • Who is believed to be responsible for climate change? To what extent do citizens see their agency in relation to climate change?

  • Who is given a voice in climate change discourse in the media? To what extent are scientists' voices included in this mediated discourse?

  • What sources of information do people use in informing their climate change views?

  • How have climate change activists used social media to encourage action on climate change? How has social media been used to support or critique youth's participation in climate strikes?

  • How important was climate change during the 2019 Canadian federal election? To what extent did views about climate change influence voter's decisions? To what extent were political leaders addressing climate change?

  • Who is trusted in relation to climate change discourse? To what extent do these sources influence climate denial?

  • To what extent are citizens in climate change echo chambers? Do these echo chambers differ online versus offline?

These questions have been studied using a variety of methods, including multi-wave surveys, social media trace data, content analysis of news media, and survey-based experiments. These topics have been explored at many levels: local (Edmonton), provincial (Alberta), national (Canada, USA), and global level.