Fabian Dablander

Kristian Steensen Nielsen

🔥 Our paper on techno-optimism and climate action among scientists is now published! With @colognaviktoria.bsky.social, @maiensachis.bsky.social & @jmbh.bsky.social, we studied 9,199 scientists across 115 countries. 🧵 🔗 Paper: tinyurl.com/4yb7fj97 📰 The Guardian: tinyurl.com/sy5rrbdx

Fabian Dablander reposted

@kristiansn89.bsky.social

🌍 How much personal climate agency do people have, and are they using it? I'm super excited to share our new paper. It brings together much of my thinking about how people can contribute to climate change mitigation through their different roles in society! 🧵👇 zenodo.org/records/2345...

We hope our study contributes to a critical discussion about how scientists’ broader beliefs and worldviews relate to their understanding of, and engagement in, climate action. You can read the paper at iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...

theguardian.comScientists who put faith in technology less likely to take climate action‘Techno-optimism’ may lead to reliance on unproven solutions at expense of societal changes needed

The Guardian also covered the study today: www.theguardian.com/environment/... with comments from @kevinclimate.bsky.social

Techno-optimistic scientists also reported fewer high-impact lifestyle changes. They were less likely to reduce flying or car use or adopt plant-rich diets. We found little difference for switching to EVs or renewable energy at home. On average, engagement in lifestyle changes was 18% lower.

Technological innovation is key to mitigating climate change, yet excessive faith in technology may undermine the wider social and behavioural changes needed to address it.

Techno-optimism is common: 27% agreed, 44% disagreed, 29% neither agreed nor disagreed. Levels did not differ depending on whether scientists worked on climate change, while politically right-leaning scientists were substantially more likely to be techno-optimists (48% versus 16%).

@yanisvaroufakis.bsky.social

Techno-optimistic scientists reported less civic climate action. Across all forms of civic engagement—especially signing petitions and participating in protests—techno-optimistic scientists were less likely to participate. On average, engagement was 23% lower.

We estimated the share of scientists who believe that "advances in technology will largely solve the problems caused by climate change". Using causally informed Bayesian regression models, we then estimated how techno-optimism relates to civic actions and high-impact lifestyle changes.

Fabian Dablander reposted

Yanis Varoufakis

In the first episode of Radical Thinking, a new series from the Guardian, I discuss with Aditya Chakrabortty how powerbrokers co-opt elected officials, rendering our democracies demos-free zones. Also my assessment of Andy Burnham's plans to 'rewire' the UK economy www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ72...

youtube.com“There’s no such thing as democracy” – Yanis Varoufakis | Radical Thinking with Aditya ChakraborttyYouTube video by Politics Weekly

Fabian Dablander reposted

dr. gianluca grimalda

@ggrimalda.bsky.social

Thrilled to commute back to Europe from the Pacific over 23,000km refusing to flying (again!). Press release in English: docs.google.com/document/d/1... E in italiano: docs.google.com/document/d/1... I'll reduce my carbon emissions by 6 times,~4,5t. It's negligible, but it's all I can do now. 1/

theguardian.comHow Saudi oil scientists ended up working on the world’s most important climate reportsGuardian investigation reveals fossil fuel links of IPCC authors, with experts declaring the body’s conflict of interest policy ‘not fit for purpose’

22 Sept

This is a huge scandal, yet the "IPCC said there was no process currently under way to amend its conflict of interest policy". Good moment to plug the fantastic book "The Long Heat: Climate Politics When It's Too Late" by @wimcarton.bsky.social & Andreas Malm. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Fabian Dablander reposted

KetAnthropic JoshAI

@ketanjoshi.co

16 Sept

HEY EVERYONE - NEW REPORT!!! NVIDIA is the largest company by market cap on the planet. But it hides key climate data, while claiming AI is going to be a 'net benefit' for climate. We (8 groups) put together the first ever broad critique of NVIDIA's climate record: ketanjoshi.co/2026/09/16/n...

15 Sept

I can't wait to pick up my copy of End Times Fascism by @naomiaklein.bsky.social & @astra.bsky.social today. I suspect this will be another era-defining book. The NYT interviewed them over the weekend and it's a masterclass in the complicity of the political centre: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GDK...

9 Sept

🔥Most heat deaths attributable to climate change In work led by @adamfinnemann.bsky.social and with Reinout Wiers & @jmbh.bsky.social, we estimate heat deaths attributable to climate change in the Netherlands 1971-2019 across sex & age. Link: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

youtube.comGoing undercover to expose Reform's secret donations plotYouTube video by Channel 4 News

5 Sept

This is just such excellent investigative work! www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXut... And the top two YouTube comments are gold, too: "You wouldn't see this sort of thing under the Bin." "The only shocking part was finding Nigel in Clacton" Dealing with UK politics requires a healthy dose of humour 🙃

4 Sept

One of the greatest joys of my career has been co-organising the annual Amsterdam Complexity School on Climate Change (ACSCC, @acscc.bsky.social). In a new blog post, I reflect on why we started ACSCC, what it has become, and what comes next: seven.uva.nl/en/output/bl...

lse.ac.ukDr Fabian Dablander | Assistant Professor | LSEFind out more about Dr Fabian Dablander research into how climate action and wider societal transformation can be accelerated.

2 Sept

I am excited to share that I started as an assistant professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science! I am affiliated with the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science and the Global School of Sustainability. For more information, see www.lse.ac.uk/people/fabia...

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ

2 Sept

PS: I am not very active on Bluesky anymore. Feel free to follow / connect with me on LinkedIn for more frequent updates: www.linkedin.com/in/fabian-da...

Fabian Dablander reposted

@olivia.science

15 Aug

> Jason Arday’s death was the result of a convergence of forces that reveal the fragility of the racial settlement in post-imperial and postcolonial Britain and the contradictions of its elite institutions. 1/

Dr Michele V@micheleveldsman.bsky.social

I would like this to be required reading for all academics in light of the harassment and bullying of Jason Arday paulddf.substack.com/p/who-killed...

paulddf.substack.comWho Killed Jason Arday?Earlier this afternoon, my oldest boyhood friend, a distinguished international lawyer who received his doctorate at Cambridge, called me to share the tragic news that Jason Arday, the Black British a...

Fabian Dablander reposted

Zeke Hausfather

@zekehausfather.com

2 Aug

I'm not sure folks have realized just how crazy the second half of 2026 and 2027 will be for global temperatures – on the back of a record-smashing El Niño event. Here is my latest estimate of where both years will end up compared to global temperatures since 1850.

Fabian Dablander reposted

Kevin Anderson

@kevinclimate.bsky.social

27 July

Open letter to the PM on Rosebank & Jackdaw oil and gas fields, covered in the Guardian: www.theguardian.com/environment/... Full letter here: climateuncensored.com/letter-to-th...

Fabian Dablander reposted

Zack Polanski

@zackpolanski.bsky.social

16 July

New drilling isn't just a catastrophic signal of us stepping back from our climate commitments, it also runs against the geological reality of an almost depleted resource. Our focus should be on cheap, clean fuel for the future - not propping up oil and gas. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

bloomberg.comBurnham to Back North Sea Oil and Take Control of Thames WaterWithin days of taking office incoming prime minister Andy Burnham is preparing to announce new drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea as well as taking public control of Thames Water.

Fabian Dablander reposted

AI, Media & Democracy Lab

@aimediademlab.bsky.social

23 June

🔎 How to use LLMs to analyze news coverage? @fdabl.bsky.social, postdoc at @seven-uva.bsky.social, presented to us research conducted with @jmbh.bsky.social and Simon Wimmer as part of the Climate Media Lab on how media cover climate change, which also employed a new LLM-based methodology.

🔥 Material life satisfaction increases willingness to engage in costly climate action @maiensachis.bsky.social, @jmbh.bsky.social, & I use causally informed regression models to estimate the effect of life satisfaction on climate action in a large Dutch sample (N = 22,749): osf.io/preprints/ps...

Climate concern, political trust, and the feeling that politicians care about people like oneself showed even larger effects than material life satisfaction. These factors have been established in previous studies, and our results confirm their significance in a large Dutch sample.

linkedin.com🔥 New preprint: Material life satisfaction increases willingness to engage in costly climate action Ambitious climate action requires sustained public support for policies and actions that may… | Fab...🔥 New preprint: Material life satisfaction increases willingness to engage in costly climate action Ambitious climate action requires sustained public support for policies and actions that may involv...

Our results suggest that policies increasing perceived material security can expand the social basis for climate action. They also add to a growing literature highlighting the need to combine environmental policy with progressive social policy. For more details, see www.linkedin.com/posts/fabian...

At the same time, satisfaction with one's future perspective was notably lower. While 59% reported being satisfied or very satisfied, 17% reported being not satisfied or not satisfied at all.

Our outcome measure was willingness to contribute 1% of one's household income to climate action. Material life satisfaction showed a strong effect, while satisfaction with one's social life, physical health, and mental health only showed negligible or no causal effects.

We used directed acyclic graphs to make our causal assumptions explicit and to guide covariate adjustment. We also conducted a sensitivity analysis to assess the potential impact of unobserved income confounding, which shows that the estimated effects remained robust and only mildly attenuated.

@thierryaaron.bsky.social

Across most life domains, respondents reported relatively high levels of satisfaction. Overall life satisfaction was especially high: 82% reported being satisfied or very satisfied, and only 6% reported being not satisfied or not satisfied at all.

Fabian Dablander reposted

Dr. Aaron Thierry

4 May

You can get to a high-warming world without high emissions . That's the part of this week's "RCP 8.5 is implausible" discussion that's getting missed. A short thread on why the relief is premature 🧵

🚨 Climate change coverage in The Guardian In a new preprint, Simon Wimmer, @jmbh.bsky.social, and I analyzed over 18,000 articles about climate change in @theguardian.com (2010-2025) using large language models 🧵 🔗 Link: osf.io/preprints/so...

4️⃣ 𝐀𝐝𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐫𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 Causes, impacts, & mitigation were much more covered than aspects relating to adaptation. 5️⃣ 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 The overall pattern of reporting is very similar to German newspapers, with The Guardian being most similar to left-leaning outlets.

We hope that our findings can contribute to a discussion about how the news media can best inform about the causes and impacts of climate change and the full scope of the societal transformations needed to secure a livable and sustainable future for all. 🔗 Link: osf.io/preprints/so...

2️⃣ 𝐂𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐝𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐥 𝐟𝐮𝐞𝐥𝐬 Agriculture is responsible for 1/3 of emissions, yet was mentioned ten times less than fossil fuels as a cause (in 5.8% of articles vs 59.7%). Similarly, economic growth, overconsumption, carbon inequality appeared in only 2.4-6.3% of articles.

3️⃣ 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐭-𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞 Reducing fossil fuels & shifting to renewables were the mitigation strategies that received the most attention. Shifting to a vegan/vegetarian diet or reducing livestock farming was mentioned in only 3% of articles (versus 57.2% for reducing fossil).

We used IPCC-aligned questions covering causes, impacts, mitigation, and adaptation, and large language models for deductive content analysis. The Guardian provides easy access to all their articles using an open API, so we did not have to build custom scraping tools like in previous work.