{"title":"Public attention and the Amazon","authors":"Lingxiao Yan","doi":"10.1038/s41558-024-02186-w","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Climate-induced disasters can often capture the attention of both the public and the media, which make them effective channels for government accountability as governments could then be pressured into taking action. A dramatic surge of public attention on certain events could largely shape the emergent response of regulatory agencies. Yet the existence and duration of such an effect is still unknown.</p><p>Rafael Araujo of the Brazilian School of Economics and Finance, and colleagues from the USA, examined the sudden spike in global attention on forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon during August. Using a difference-in-difference setting, they find that compared with less visible but similar fires in Peru and Bolivia during the same period, the unprecedented public scrutiny from global society led to a 22% reduction in fires in this region. The effect is more pronounced in areas with denser forest cover. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that the effect avoided 24.8 million tons of CO<sub>2</sub> emissions, which accounts for 3.86% of CO<sub>2</sub> emissions that Brazil needed to abate in 2018 to reach the Paris Agreement goals. The authors also discuss the potential channels through which government actions reduced fires.</p>","PeriodicalId":18974,"journal":{"name":"Nature Climate Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":29.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-11-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Nature Climate Change","FirstCategoryId":"89","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-024-02186-w","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Climate-induced disasters can often capture the attention of both the public and the media, which make them effective channels for government accountability as governments could then be pressured into taking action. A dramatic surge of public attention on certain events could largely shape the emergent response of regulatory agencies. Yet the existence and duration of such an effect is still unknown.
Rafael Araujo of the Brazilian School of Economics and Finance, and colleagues from the USA, examined the sudden spike in global attention on forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon during August. Using a difference-in-difference setting, they find that compared with less visible but similar fires in Peru and Bolivia during the same period, the unprecedented public scrutiny from global society led to a 22% reduction in fires in this region. The effect is more pronounced in areas with denser forest cover. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that the effect avoided 24.8 million tons of CO2 emissions, which accounts for 3.86% of CO2 emissions that Brazil needed to abate in 2018 to reach the Paris Agreement goals. The authors also discuss the potential channels through which government actions reduced fires.
期刊介绍:
Nature Climate Change is dedicated to addressing the scientific challenge of understanding Earth's changing climate and its societal implications. As a monthly journal, it publishes significant and cutting-edge research on the nature, causes, and impacts of global climate change, as well as its implications for the economy, policy, and the world at large.
The journal publishes original research spanning the natural and social sciences, synthesizing interdisciplinary research to provide a comprehensive understanding of climate change. It upholds the high standards set by all Nature-branded journals, ensuring top-tier original research through a fair and rigorous review process, broad readership access, high standards of copy editing and production, rapid publication, and independence from academic societies and other vested interests.
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Topics covered in the journal include adaptation, atmospheric science, ecology, economics, energy, impacts and vulnerability, mitigation, oceanography, policy, sociology, and sustainability, among others.