Viktoria Spaiser & Nicole Nisbett – Stabilising Earth’s Climate: Key Social Dynamics

Consider all the available technologies, all the actions that individuals, businesses or governments could take to stabilise the Earth’s climate, to make the world greener, cleaner and safer for our children. What stops us?

In this podcast, Viktoria Spaiser, Associate Professor in Sustainability Research and Computational Social Science, and Nicole Nisbett, Research Fellow in Climate Politics, both at the University of Leeds, discuss the importance of social dynamics in finding solutions to the climate crisis, in getting out of the business-as-usual inertia.

Together, they emphasise the importance of public support for rapid and deep decarbonisation and how such public support could be reached using insights from social science research. They end their conversation with some encouraging words in how each single one of us can participate in positive climate action.

Further Reading

V. Nakate, A Bigger Picture: My Fight to Bring a New African Voice to the Climate Crisis (Pan MacMillan, 2021).
I.M. Otto et al, 'Social Tipping Dynamics for Stabilising Earth's Climate by 2015', PNAS, 117:5, 2354-2365.
V. Spaiser, N. Nisbett, C. Stefan, 'How Dare You? The Normative Challenge Posed by Fridays for Future,' PLoS Climate, preprint on SSRN.