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If uncontrolled, human influences on the climate system may generate changes that will endanger various aspects of life on Earth. The precise implications of the scientific claims about climate change, and the extent to which they pose dangers to various populations, are becoming intensely debated at many levels in relation to policy. How `danger' is interpreted will ultimately affect which actions are taken. In this paper, we examine how climate change is conceptualised by publics in Europe and in the USA. Although there is widespread concern about climate change, it is of secondary importance in comparison to other issues in people's daily lives. Most individuals relate to climate change through personal experience, knowledge, the balance of benefits and costs, and trust in other societal actors. We analyse these factors through findings from various surveys and studies, which highlight both the distinctiveness and some shared perspectives at a generalised level. We reflect upon these in relation to trust and responsibility for climate change action, and risk communication, supporting the call for discourses about climate change to also be situated in people's locality, as a means of increasing its saliency. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Achieving national targets for net-zero carbon emissions will require atmospheric carbon dioxide removal strategies compatible with rising agricultural production. One possible method for delivering on these goals is enhanced rock weathering, which involves modifying soils with crushed silicate rocks, such as basalt. Here we use dynamic carbon budget modelling to assess the carbon dioxide removal potential and agricultural benefits of implementing enhanced rock weathering strategies across UK arable croplands. We find that enhanced rock weathering could deliver net carbon dioxide removal of 6–30 MtCO 2  yr − 1 for the United Kingdom by 2050, representing up to 45% of the atmospheric carbon removal required nationally to meet net-zero emissions. This suggests that enhanced rock weathering could play a crucial role in national climate mitigation strategies if it were to gain acceptance across national political, local community and farm scales. We show that it is feasible to eliminate the energy-demanding requirement for milling rocks to fine particle sizes. Co-benefits of enhanced rock weathering include substantial mitigation of nitrous oxide, the third most important greenhouse gas, widespread reversal of soil acidification and considerable cost savings from reduced fertilizer usage. Our analyses provide a guide for other nations to pursue their carbon dioxide removal ambitions and decarbonize agriculture—a key source of greenhouse gases. Enhancing rock weathering across UK croplands could deliver substantial atmospheric carbon dioxide removal alongside agricultural co-benefits, according to coupled climate–carbon–nitrogen cycle model simulations.

Enhanced silicate rock weathering (ERW), deployable with croplands, has potential use for atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) removal (CDR), which is now necessary to mitigate anthropogenic climate change 1 . ERW also has possible co-benefits for improved food and soil security, and reduced ocean acidification 2 – 4 . Here we use an integrated performance modelling approach to make an initial techno-economic assessment for 2050, quantifying how CDR potential and costs vary among nations in relation to business-as-usual energy policies and policies consistent with limiting future warming to 2 degrees Celsius 5 . China, India, the USA and Brazil have great potential to help achieve average global CDR goals of 0.5 to 2 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) per year with extraction costs of approximately US$80–180 per tonne of CO 2 . These goals and costs are robust, regardless of future energy policies. Deployment within existing croplands offers opportunities to align agriculture and climate policy. However, success will depend upon overcoming political and social inertia to develop regulatory and incentive frameworks. We discuss the challenges and opportunities of ERW deployment, including the potential for excess industrial silicate materials (basalt mine overburden, concrete, and iron and steel slag) to obviate the need for new mining, as well as uncertainties in soil weathering rates and land–ocean transfer of weathered products. A detailed assessment of the techno-economic potential of enhanced rock weathering on croplands identifies national CO 2 removal potentials, costs and engineering challenges if it were to be scaled up to help meet ambitious global CO 2 removal targets.

Shifting away from ownership towards access-based consumption, innovative new business models known as product-service systems (PSS) are advocated as part of a more circular, resource efficient economy. With product ownership (and responsibility for repair) remaining with providers, pay-per-use services are promoted as one such model, which can both increase product longevity and reduce the ‘burdens of ownership’ on consumers. However, PSS also require public acceptance of access-based consumption, including the long-term use of non-owned products and a range of accompanying contractual obligations. We conducted a series of deliberative workshops with the public, aiming to explore the concept of pay-per-use PSS and the role that concerns about ownership and responsibility may have in determining public acceptance. Rather than focusing on innate desires for product ownership, we found that participants’ concerns regarding pay-per-use PSS were usually related to wider fears surrounding the risks and responsibilities of entering into contract-based service agreements. Identifying four public narratives of service provision (Ownership and convenience; Risk and responsibility; Affordability and security; Care and control), we argue that successful introduction of PSS will only be possible if careful consideration is given to deeply held values pertaining to ownership, responsibility and trust that influence such cultural understandings.

Enhanced weathering (EW) with agriculture uses crushed silicate rocks to drive carbon dioxide removal (CDR) 1 , 2 . If widely adopted on farmlands, it could help achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 2 , 3 – 4 . Here we show, with a detailed US state-specific carbon cycle analysis constrained by resource provision, that EW deployed on agricultural land could sequester 0.16–0.30 GtCO 2  yr −1 by 2050, rising to 0.25–0.49 GtCO 2  yr −1 by 2070. Geochemical assessment of rivers and oceans suggests effective transport of dissolved products from EW from soils, offering CDR on intergenerational timescales. Our analysis further indicates that EW may temporarily help lower ground-level ozone and concentrations of secondary aerosols in agricultural regions. Geospatially mapped CDR costs show heterogeneity across the USA, reflecting a combination of cropland distance from basalt source regions, timing of EW deployment and evolving CDR rates. CDR costs are highest in the first two decades before declining to about US$100–150 tCO 2 −1 by 2050, including for states that contribute most to total national CDR. Although EW cannot be a substitute for emission reductions, our assessment strengthens the case for EW as an overlooked practical innovation for helping the USA meet net-zero 2050 goals 5 , 6 . Public awareness of EW and equity impacts of EW deployment across the USA require further exploration 7 , 8 and we note that mobilizing an EW industry at the necessary scale could take decades. A state-level analysis of the impact of enhanced weathering deployment on carbon sequestration on agricultural land suggests that enhanced weathering could help the USA meet net-zero 2050 goals.

Public understanding of climate change is well researched, but little is known about public perceptions of ocean acidification. New survey data shows that public awareness of ocean acidification in Great Britain is low compared to that of climate change. Public engagement with climate change is critical for maintaining the impetus for meaningful emissions cuts. Ocean acidification (OA) is increasingly recognized by marine scientists as an important, but often overlooked, consequence of anthropogenic emissions 1 , 2 . Although substantial evidence now exists concerning people’s understanding of climate change more generally 3 , very little is known about public perceptions of OA. Here, for the first time, we characterize in detail people’s understanding of this topic using survey data obtained in Great Britain ( n = 2,501) during 2013 and 2014. We draw on theories of risk perception and consider how personal values influence attitudes towards OA. We find that public awareness of OA is very low compared to that of climate change, and was unaffected by the publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report. Using an experimental approach, we show that providing basic information can heighten concern about OA, however, we find that attitude polarization along value-based lines may occur if the topic is explicitly associated with climate change. We discuss the implications of our findings for public engagement with OA, and the importance of learning lessons from communications research relating to climate change.

Nearly two decades since the last nuclear power station was built and began operating in the UK, nuclear energy is firmly back on the political agenda domestically and elsewhere in the world. Yet since the 1980s, little research has investigated perceptions of nuclear power in the UK, particularly those of communities living in very close proximity to such facilities. Using biographical narrative interviews (n = 61), we explore how local residents living close to two nuclear power stations in the UK (Bradwell, Essex and Oldbury, South Gloucestershire) have come to view their local facility. We reveal how the power station is constructed through processes of familiarisation and/or the normalisation/normification of risk as part of everyday life; how this ordinariness is juxtaposed with moments of extraordinariness in which, due to direct and mediated events, the power station is reframed as a risk issue; and how risk awareness is associated with moments of anxiety which ebb and flow through our interviewees' lives. We conclude that biographical experiences dynamically unfolding through space and time can be interrupted by risk events (mediated and direct, real and symbolic, nuclear and non-nuclear) to disrupt the usually taken-for-granted ordinariness of a power station's presence in a particular locality. Our findings suggest that those involved in debate about new nuclear build must be sensitive to the heterogeneity of the extraordinary in nuclear affairs and the importance of socio-cultural histories of place.

Decision-makers need to be able to respond to the question 'how much adaptation is enough?' even though there is seldom a simple answer.

Unlike other disciplines in the human sciences, psychology has undervalued the role of qualitative research methods in scientific inquiry. This has done a disservice to psychology, depriving its practitioners of skills which can simultaneously liberate and discipline the theoretical imagination. ‘Grounded theory’ is one useful approach to the systematic generation of theory from qualitative data, and alternative criteria can be advanced for judging the adequacy of research where qualitative methods have been used. An advantage of qualitative research is that theory is generated which is contextually sensitive, persuasive, and relevant.