Tag: Climate Change Disinformation

Abstract

Historically eligible Latine families have utilized government assistance programs less than their peers. Community-based organizations (CBOs) play an important role in connecting Latine families with supports that meet a variety of needs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, CBOs were impacted in the ways in which they responded to the complex needs of families, especially low-income Latine families who experienced disproportionate health impacts. To better understand how CBOs work with Latine families who are seeking government assistance, including child care subsidies, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 Latine community-based organizations in North Carolina, a state with a rapidly growing Latine population. Questions about staff members’ experiences helping Latine families apply for government assistance broadly, as well as specifically with applications for child care subsidies, were included in the protocol, along with how practices changed during the pandemic. Transcripts were coded by a multilingual and Latine-identifying team of researchers and thematic analysis was conducted using inductive and deductive coding. Four themes were identified, including (1) Trusted organizations provide a complex array of services to Latine families; (2) CBOs awareness of and support for CCDF subsidies is variable; (3) CBOs identify and develop creative solutions for administrative burden; and (4) CBOs build partnerships and educate other agencies about Latine families amid a difficult sociopolitical climate. The paper discusses how CBOs serve as a critical resource brokers for Latine families and could more intentionally help to reduce administrative burden related to government assistance program for eligible Latine families by partnering with government agencies.

Abstract

The water and sewerage companies (WaSCs) in England are majority-owned by a range of global investors. The industry is under intense scrutiny for widespread failure in its environmental performance, discharging 12.7 million monitored hours of untreated wastewater and sewage into English waterways between 2019 and the end of 2023. At the time of writing, multiple investigations by environmental and financial regulators are in progress, and regulatory oversight is under review by the recently formed Office for Environmental Protection. While limited monitoring hid the full extent of underperformance, we argue that the WaSCs have prolonged this environmental disaster through strategies that mirror those of other large polluting industries in the past. We test this hypothesis for the nine major WaSCs in England against a published framework of 28 ‘greenwashing/deception’ tactics of large industries. We identified 22 of these tactics that could be seen as disinformation, greenwashing and manufacturing doubt. The financial exploitation of water resources in England, alongside long-term degradation of infrastructure and ineffective regulation, raises globally important issues around water security, ethics and environmental stewardship. Much greater scrutiny of both industry performance and industry communication is required.

Abstract

Context

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all sectors of society, with effects that have been acutely experienced at the local, national, regional, and global levels.

Objectives

This study examined the heterogeneous impacts of and vulnerability to COVID-19 for promoting urban sustainability and resilience.

Methods

We performed a scoping review on the basis of the relevant literature from the Web of Science and PubMed, and a national survey conducted among a total of 5,376 participants in early 2020. The survey adopted a repeated cross-sectional design to study changes in residents’ risk perception of COVID-19 across the three stages (21–23 January, 27–28 February, and 24–27 March), using a snowball sampling method to recruit 2,144, 2,021, and 1,211 participants, respectively.

Results

This study revealed that the spatial, social, economic, and health impacts of COVID-19 have not been distributed evenly among populations, with specific individuals and communities more vulnerable than others. Among the determinants of these inequalities are socioeconomic status, housing arrangements, and working requirements, which influence the extent to which people can safely adhere to stay-at-home and social distancing policies and how they perceive risks. Additionally, racial/ethnic minorities face differing risks, in part because of socioeconomic factors but also because some groups experience higher shares of comorbidities. Moreover, overall, these risk factors are the healthcare systems meant to shield individuals and communities from pandemic impacts, which, however, have become increasingly taxed due to the sudden influx of patients and the resultant shortages of resources – including crucial personal protective equipment to minimize interpersonal transmission.

Conclusions

Understanding the heterogeneous impacts of and vulnerability to COVID-19 could inform the design of environmentally sustainable and socially resilient cities, making them better equipped to encounter future epidemics. This study would help us identify more effective and equitable solutions to the ongoing challenges of the pandemic, promoting sustainability and resilience at multiple societal levels.

Abstract

The February 2023 earthquake in Turkiye resulted in 54,000 fatalities and over $100 billion in economic losses. We examine whether this catastrophic event influenced incumbent-party support in the subsequent election. In contrast with previous researchers, we find no significant effect on voter turnout or the incumbent party’s vote share, even after accounting for population displacement and infrastructure damage. We argue that this null effect is due to several factors: effective electoral management policies that reduced voting costs despite significant population displacement; a compressed timeline between disaster and elections, which constrained politically motivated aid distribution; extreme political polarization, which led the public to filter their interpretation of the disaster response through partisan lenses; different information flows in state-controlled media and social media; and offsetting electoral responses across regions. Our results offer valuable insights for policy makers, political scientists, and economists studying the political consequences of natural disasters.

Abstract

While there are many public concerns about the impact of AI on truth and knowledge, especially when it comes to the widespread use of LLMs, there is not much systematic philosophical analysis of these problems and their political implications. This paper aims to assist this effort by providing an overview of some truth-related risks in which LLMs may play a role, including risks concerning hallucination and misinformation, epistemic agency and epistemic bubbles, bullshit and relativism, and epistemic anachronism and epistemic incest, and by offering arguments for why these problems are not only epistemic issues but also raise problems for democracy since they undermine its epistemic basis– especially if we assume democracy theories that go beyond minimalist views. I end with a short reflection on what can be done about these political-epistemic risks, pointing to education as one of the sites for change.

Abstract

Introduction

In recent years, numerous stories of detransition have emerged in the media and public discourse. Often regret-centered, these narratives tend to present detransition as a mistake that should be prevented by restricting access to gender transition, resulting in an increasingly antitrans sociopolitical climate. This article examines the perception that detrans youth have of these discourses and social representations on detransition and the impact they have on their detransition experience.

Methods

Twenty-five semidirected interviews were conducted internationally from 2020 to 2022 with youth aged 16-to-25 years who have interrupted a transition (social and/or medical). Reflexive thematic analysis was conducted.

Results

Participants note they feel misrepresented and that detransition is limited in terms of representation and minimized as an experience. They also mention that detransition is often framed as a mistake, a negative outcome or the result of external pressures (to transition or detransition). These representations, coming from both gender-affirming and gender-critical groups, impact detrans youth who feel unheard, weaponized, left to navigate ambivalence alone and alienated from trans/queer communities.

Conclusion and Policy Implications

The article discusses how current discourses on detransition constitute epistemic injustices (Fricker, 2007) that may affect detrans youth’s capacity to make sense of their experience and thus their resilience and overall experience of detransition. It calls for caution in the way detrans experiences are presented and discussed, especially in current debates on trans and detrans rights. It also calls for a more nuanced understanding of detrans experiences and for LGBTQ + communities to be more accepting of detrans narratives.

Abstract

Blockchain technology has shown immense potential for enhancing the transparency, security, and fairness of social credit systems, addressing many of the limitations faced by traditional centralized models. This paper presents a comprehensive framework for integrating blockchain into social credit management platforms, leveraging its decentralized, tamper-proof, and transparent features. By implementing smart contracts to automate social credit scoring rules, the proposed platform eliminates human biases, reduces administrative overhead, and enhances system integrity. The study also explores privacy-preserving techniques, such as zero-knowledge proofs and homomorphic encryption, to balance transparency with user privacy. Through case studies, including an analysis of China’s Social Credit System, we demonstrate the practical applicability of blockchain in improving trust and data security within social governance frameworks. Key challenges, such as scalability and regulatory concerns, are also addressed. The findings provide actionable insights for both researchers and practitioners, offering a blueprint for developing trustworthy, secure, and equitable social credit systems. Future research directions focus on scalability solutions, regulatory frameworks, and user acceptance of blockchain-based governance models.

Abstract

In the present study, we investigated the relationship between cognitive style (analytical vs. intuitive), illusory pattern perception, and belief in conspiracy theories within the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. To supplement extant research that has primarily focused on the impact of analytical thinking on beliefs in conspiracy theories, we employed a unique approach by manipulating intuitive thinking. Participants were instructed to respond to both general and Covid-19 conspiracy questions under conditions of time pressure (to induce intuitive thinking), time delay (to induce analytical thinking), or no time constraints. The findings indicate that individuals who were prompted to provide intuitive responses within a limited timeframe are more inclined to believe in Covid-19 conspiracy theories, whereas this effect was not observed for general conspiracy beliefs. Additionally, the tendency to perceive illusory patterns moderated the relationship between thinking styles and conspiracy beliefs. Higher illusory pattern perception led to higher beliefs in conspiracies among participants under time pressure.

Abstract

Science is integral to society because it can inform individual, government, corporate, and civil society decision-making on issues such as public health, new technologies or climate change. Yet, public distrust and populist sentiment challenge the relationship between science and society. To help researchers analyse the science-society nexus across different geographical and cultural contexts, we undertook a cross-sectional population survey resulting in a dataset of 71,922 participants in 68 countries. The data were collected between November 2022 and August 2023 as part of the global Many Labs study “Trust in Science and Science-Related Populism” (TISP). The questionnaire contained comprehensive measures for individuals’ trust in scientists, science-related populist attitudes, perceptions of the role of science in society, science media use and communication behaviour, attitudes to climate change and support for environmental policies, personality traits, political and religious views and demographic characteristics. Here, we describe the dataset, survey materials and psychometric properties of key variables. We encourage researchers to use this unique dataset for global comparative analyses on public perceptions of science and its role in society and policy-making.

Abstract

A primary goal of science education and communication is to promote a functional scientific literacy that enables people to efficaciously engage with socioscientific issues (SSI), such as COVID-19 and climate change. Understanding the nature of science (NOS) is a crucial component of a functional scientific literacy that facilitates critical evaluation of scientific information, mis/disinformation resistance, and responsible socioscientific decision-making. Scientists are uniquely positioned yet often unprepared and underutilized to educate the public about the nature of their work despite how the public would greatly benefit from scientists’ communicating the nature and validity of their research. This mixed-methods investigation features analysis of surveys and interview data collected from 14 scientists to understand their perceptions and values toward communicating NOS. Results from a semi-grounded thematic analysis of the interviews demonstrate that scientists’ NOS communication views are complex and are influenced by a number of factors, including their perceptions of the public, financial and institutional constraints, and the role of science in solving societal issues. Prominent findings from this study demonstrate that the scientists highly value communicating the societal benefits of science to the public. However, the scientists afforded much less priority to addressing other NOS ideas, such as the importance and nature of basic science, peer review, and consensus building. Additionally, the scientists investigated in this study demonstrated reluctance to communicate about the subjectivity of their work, citing a fear that doing so would negatively impact public trust in science. We discuss these findings in the context of scientists’ NOS views and perceptions of NOS communication which we gathered through surveys and interviews. This investigation provides a much-needed step toward better understanding how science educators and science communication specialists can support scientists’ efforts to convey important features of their work effectively.