# **CONTENTS**

|NATUREANDSCOPEOFTHEPROBLEM........................................................................................... 3|
|---|
|We Are All Affected, But Not Equally....................................................................................... 3|
|NATIONALANDREGIONALDIFFERENCESINRESPONSES: GLOBALCONCERNANDAWARENESS|
|REGARDINGCLIMATECHANGE....................................................................................................... 5|
|Information and understanding................................................................................................... 6|
|Concern....................................................................................................................................... 8|
|Is there a link between information and concern? .................................................................... 12|
|Is there a link between information and action?....................................................................... 13|
|EXPLANATIONSFORLACKOFRESPONSE...................................................................................... 14|
|A disciplinary primer: assumptions and frameworks from relevant fields............................... 16|
|Four existing explanations........................................................................................................ 17|
|“If people only knew”........................................................................................................... 17|
|“If people only cared”........................................................................................................... 23|
|Hierarchy of needs................................................................................................................ 24|
|“All is well” .......................................................................................................................... 25|
|THESOCIALORGANIZATIONOFCLIMATEDENIAL........................................................................ 26|
|“We don’t really want to know”............................................................................................... 26|
|Risk, modern life and fears regarding ontological security.................................................. 29|
|A series of negative emotions................................................................................................... 30|
|Helplessness.......................................................................................................................... 30|
|Fear of guilt........................................................................................................................... 31|
|Fear of “being a bad person”: Individual and national identity............................................ 32|
|Difficult to link to daily life.................................................................................................. 33|
|COGNITIVEANDBEHAVIORALBARRIERSTOACTION................................................................... 33|
|Psychological and conceptual barriers...................................................................................... 34|
|Social and cultural barriers ....................................................................................................... 35|
|Political economic barriers ....................................................................................................... 36|
|ANALYSISOFCLIMATECHANGEDISCOURSEINMEDIA................................................................ 38|
|Presence of climate change as a serious topic .......................................................................... 38|
|Framing climate change in news media.................................................................................... 39|
|Media messages about responses to climate change: can anything be done, and if so, what... 42|
|POLICYCONSIDERATIONS.............................................................................................................. 43|
|ANNOTATEDBIBLIOGRAPHY......................................................................................................... 48|
|ADDITIONALWORKSCITED........................................................................................................... 72|

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