climate change – Adventures in Oceanography and Teaching

Currently reading Suter et al. (2026) on “Experimenting for impact: Combining research with advocacy for climate stability”

mglessmer — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 16:12:34 +0000

Suter et al. (2026) argue that given the urgent need for action against climate change (and seeing that pretty much all available research shows that it doesn’t influence researchers’ reputation or credibility to be activists and scientists, those are not excuses!), more people should combine activism with at the same time figuring out what works. […]

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Currently reading Lawrence et al. (2024) on the “Global polycrisis: the causal mechanisms of crisis entanglement”

mglessmer — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 17:53:25 +0000

Let’s read about everybody’s favourite topic: The polycrisis! Here, I am summarizing a framework that takes “polycrisis” from buzzword to useful concept. Lawrence et al. (2024) start by pointing out that the “perfect storm” metaphor (that is often used to describe the mess we are currently in as a coincidental “bad luck” of lots of […]

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Currently reading Shreedhar et al. (2026) on “Tell don’t ask: how to use social media to mobilise local collective climate action”

mglessmer — Sat, 21 Feb 2026 08:49:59 +0000

Shreedhar et al. (2026) is a really important study on climate action and social media strategy: When you want to get people to do something (for example sign up for a talk), it’s much better to tell them to do it (“do not stand by idly!”) than to ask them for support, and it is […]

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On “Our time: Finding Hope in a Climate Crisis” by Alasdair Skelton (2026)

mglessmer — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 20:01:42 +0000

When the picture in the featured image (a screenshot from the presentation of Alasdair Skelton’s presentation of his book “Our time: Finding Hope in a Climate Crisis“, watch the recording on youtube!) came up yesterday at the beginning of my lunch break, I felt it in my stomach. I don’t know anything about the coastline […]

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Currently reading MacInnes et al. (2026) on “Who do we trust on climate change, and why?”

mglessmer — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 18:08:20 +0000

What we believe about climate change often does not depend on what we know about climate change, but on what people around us believe. This makes it really difficult for climate scientists to make their warnings heard and acted upon by people outside their own bubble. In their article “Who do we trust on climate […]

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Currently reading “The Psychology of Collective Climate Action: Building Climate Courage” by Hamann et al. (2025), Part 1

mglessmer — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 21:11:36 +0000

I read this book on my vacation and loved it! It is written for activists (that aren’t actually called activists, so that everybody can feel included whether they identify as activist or not, but I want to claim the word) and written by activists with large expertise in climate psychology research (and who also disclose […]

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Currently reading “The psychology of climate change communication: A guide for scientists, journalists, educators, political aides, and the interested public” by Shome & Marx (2009)

mglessmer — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 14:58:25 +0000

This feels like a bit of a throwback to my science communication phase (for example reviewing the book “communicating climate change” in 2018, or “communicating climate change to young people” in 2014), but it’s always good to remind yourself of the basics… This guide is a very helpful in-a-nutshell summary of climate communications: Know your […]

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Currently reading Sinclair et al. (2025) on “Behavioral interventions motivate action to address climate change”

mglessmer — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 08:52:57 +0000

Why do people fail to act against climate change, and what interventions could make them act? That’s what Sinclair et al. (2025) investigate in an “intervention tournament”! There are several psychological factors that influence both climate change beliefs and behaviours: Perceived relevance: Does it seem like climate change will affect me or people I know, […]

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Currently reading about how appealing to fear is effective in positively influencing behavior, and hardly ever backfires (Tannenbaum et al., 2015). Who would have thought?

mglessmer — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 19:48:43 +0000

Fear can lead to fight, flight, or freeze responses — or so we often hear. So far, I was under the impression that fear was generally not a good emotion to create in students since from what I had read, it hinders learning. But my colleague Léa recently sent me the meta-analysis by Tannenbaum et […]

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Wamsler et al. (2021)’s literature review on “Linking internal and external transformation for sustainability and climate action”, and “Inner Development Goals”

mglessmer — Fri, 03 Feb 2023 09:58:37 +0000

Especially when it comes to teaching about climate change or sustainability more generally, it seems unavoidable to really consider mental states. While the dominant discourse around climate change has been about external, biophysical factors for a long time, and climate change was thus seen as a challenge that can be solved by technology and policy changes […]

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