In a new paper titled “Using Virtual Simulations of Future Extreme Weather Events to Inform Climate Change Risk,” published in PLOS Climate ", Terry van Gevelt and his research team completed part of a larger study.

The paper outlines how researchers from various universities in the US, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, Nanjing and Guangzhou in China have sought to reduce the psychological distance of climate change. team that they showed 3D  virtual simulation of the increase in storms in Hong Kong. a representative sample of 1,507 Hong Kong residents to see if it would change their behavior and attitudes regarding climate change. “The main goal was how to communicate the risks of future climate impacts to a broad audience.” public , but also to other stakeholders and decision makers "," said Professor van Gevelt. "Traditional communication methods do not seem to be very effective in reducing the psychological distance of climate change from the mainstream." human or policymaker, and so we're interested in testing a whole range of new or unconventional approaches. This is the very first part of the project that we decided to put out there to see what happens." Psychological distance refers to how important an event is to a person – the greater the psychological distance, the less important the event. (Stuart Pallister, Singapore Management University)