While numerous challenges associated with climate change exist, it remains difficult to fully comprehend its full implications on one’s life. Explanations for this range from psychological and cognitive barriers to social, political and economic impediments. This article provides the findings of a research project which investigated the lived experience of climate scientists and climate change experts to understand how they make sense of climate change. The research is based on qualitative interviews with 16 participants located in 12 different countries. The research finds that participants made sense of climate change through a diversity of ways, both professional and personal, including personal experience, emotions, exchanges with others and broader societal context. While for most, climate change started as an area of professional interest, it seems to have permeated their personal lives to a great extent. They see it as a disruption of the normal way of life and all concur about the gravity of the situation. The deeper implication of this study of the lived experiences of climate experts is that there is ground to be concerned.

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理解气候变化——专家的亲身体验

尽管存在许多与气候变化相关的挑战，但仍难以完全理解其对一个人生活的全部影响。对此的解释范围从心理和认知障碍到社会、政治和经济障碍。本文提供了一个研究项目的结果，该项目调查了气候科学家和气候变化专家的生活经验，以了解他们如何理解气候变化。该研究基于对来自 12 个不同国家的 16 名参与者的定性访谈。研究发现，参与者通过专业和个人的多种方式来理解气候变化，包括个人经历、情感、与他人的交流以及更广泛的社会背景。虽然对大多数人来说，气候变化最初是一个专业感兴趣的领域，它似乎在很大程度上渗透到了他们的个人生活中。他们认为这是对正常生活方式的破坏，并且都同意这种情况的严重性。这项关于气候专家生活经历的研究的更深层含义是值得关注。