Anthony Leiserowitz


Anthony Leiserowitz is a human geographer at Yale University who studies public perceptions of climate change.
He has particularly examined perceptions within the United States, where people are considerably less aware of climate change than in other countries. In the U.S., awareness of information about climate change
is heavily influenced by emotion, imagery, associations, and values; public discourse reflects a lack of understanding of the science involved in climate change, and little awareness of the potential for effective responses to it.

Early life and education

Leiserowitz grew up on a farm in Michigan and his parents were sculptors. He received his undergraduate degree at Michigan State University and then moved to Colorado, looking to work as ski bum. While there he became interested in climate change, and went to University of Oregon to study under Paul Slovic, an expert in risk perception, and received his PhD in human geography.

Career

He joined the faculty of Yale in 2007. He started to collaborate with Edward Maibach in 2008 to study people's perception of climate change.
As of 2018 he had an appointment as a senior research scientist in the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and was Director of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, a principal investigator at the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions at Columbia University, and a research scientist at Decision Research.
He was the recipient of the Environmental Protection Agency 2011 Environmental Merit Award, and as of 2013 had published around 100 scientific articles and book chapters on climate change beliefs, perceptions and behaviors.

Selected papers

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