Description:

"Temporalities of Climate Change in U.S. News (2000-2021)"

By Oscar Stuhler, Assistant Professor of Sociology and IPR Associate.

Abstract: Questions of temporality are at the heart of climate change discourse: Does one think of climate change primarily as an event happening in the present, or as something that will take place in the future? By when must we take action to prevent its worst consequences? In this talk, Stuhler will present the first large-scale assessment of the structure and evolution of temporalities expressed in U.S. media discussions on climate change (2000-2021). To do so, the researchers developed a novel computational framework for detecting and interpreting temporal expressions in textual data. Their analyses yield three main findings: first, temporal horizons for climate change have continuously shrunk since 2000, stably targeting, on average, the year 2060. However, second, while anticipated impacts are getting closer, horizon extents for the coordination of climate action have remained highly stable—averaging around 16 years into the future at any given time. Third, contrasting this stability, the authors find a sharply expanding discourse of urgency, patterned by outbursts of urgency—eventful surges in calls for immediate action or warnings against climate change’s devastating consequences. By uncovering this disjuncture of different forms of temporality, they both illuminate a crucial aspect of the climate change debate and contribute to the sociological theory of events.

This event is part of the Fay Lomax Cook Fall 2024 Colloquium Series, where our researchers from around the University share their latest policy-relevant research.

Please note all colloquia this quarter will be held in-person only.