Gambling, literally, on climate change : The Indicator from Planet ... - NPR
How gambling could shift people's attitudes on climate change : The Indicator from Planet Money : NPR
Gambling, literally, on climate change
Surveys suggest that more than a third of Americans believe the seriousness of global warming is exaggerated, and only about half say climate change is a serious threat to the country's well being, with Republicans much more likely to be skeptical.
Researchers at Columbia Business School and Northwestern University think inaction on climate change is in part due to this skepticism. In a study published this month, those researchers found that individuals who participated in a "climate prediction market"—that is, bet money on weather- and climate-related events like heat waves and wildfires shifted their opinions on climate change.
Today, we speak with one of the authors of that study, Professor Sandra Matz, about lessons from this study and their idea for a scaled-up "climate prediction market."
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Related Knowledge Center: Climate science
What began as a theory in the 1890s — that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide could increase global temperatures — had progressed to a scientific fact a century later. Scientists across a range of disciplines are studying the impact of the still-growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere as they call for industrial and governmental policies to slow, then halt, the warming of the planet.