What’s Wrong With the Way We Communicate Climate Change?

Climate Change is one of the defining issues of our time. Multiple studies have shown that 97 percent or more of actively publishing climate scientists agree that climate change is taking place, and that it is manmade. The American public is also becoming increasingly aware of the issue. According to Dr. Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, 73 percent of Americans acknowledge that climate change is happening, an all-time high—and up from a low of 57 percent in 2010. A large majority of 62 percent also recognize that climate change is the result of manmade greenhouse gas emissions. And Dr. Leiserowitz notes that every single Congressional district has a majority of adults who think that global warming will harm future generations (as depicted in the map below).

Courtesy: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication

 

And yet, significant shares of the public do not accept the scientific consensus and reject the need for action. Indeed, the United States is a laggard compared to other countries (in Japan, for example, 95 percent of the public realize that climate change is happening). Why is this the case? That question is almost as loaded as that of climate change itself, but groups like the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC) are trying to answer it. Our March 28 Congressional briefing, Climate Change in the American Mind, featured Dr. Leiserowitz, who presented the results of their latest polling.

Amongst the wealth of eye-opening work YPCCC has produced, the map below is particularly interesting.

 

Courtesy: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication

 

Considering that almost all scientists do indeed think climate change is happening, why do so few Americans acknowledge it? The YPCCC and other groups believe it has something to do with how the issue of climate change is communicated.

One reason that the reality of climate change has failed to permeate many communities across the United States is the perception that it is a distant and abstract threat that they won’t have to deal with. This notion is illustrated rather alarmingly in the YPCCC graph below, which shows just how few Americans think that climate change will affect them.

 

Courtesy: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication

 

Save for a few pockets scattered across the South, very few think the issue will impact them personally. Herein lies the key to communicating the issue’s importance: people need to understand that climate change can and will affect them, and in many cases already is.

The deluge of scary scientific projections that are blanketing the news add little to the personal experience of climate change. To advance awareness of the issue successfully, climate communicators must use framing to make climate threats relatable to individuals.

Framing is such an essential aspect of climate communication that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s handbook on “Principles for Effective Communication and Public Engagement on Climate Change” cites framing techniques more than once:

1. Be a confident communicator.

2. Talk about the real world, not abstract ideas

3. Connect with what matters to your audience

4. Tell a human story

5. Lead with what you know

6. Use the most effective visual communication

An example of how important framing can be when communicating climate change is the ineffectiveness of an appeal centered around coral bleaching to an Army veteran in Lincoln, Nebraska. While coral bleaching does affect that individual, those effects are indirect at best and are certainly abstract. On the other hand, citing the inundation of Omaha’s Offut Air Force Base in March 2019 is likely to get that veteran's attention. After historic flooding that was likely amplified by the effects of climate change, 1.2 million square feet of building space, or around a third of the base, was immersed in floodwaters.

Omaha Offut Air Force Base from space (credit: NASA)	Omaha Offut Air Force Base during the March 2019 flooding (credit: NASA)

 

Examples like this localize climate change by showing that its effects are not just limited to developing and coastal regions. Climate impacts can even have major national security repercussions. In framing the story of climate change this way, the issue becomes directly relatable to the individual.

While the variety of different viewpoints in the United States makes it nearly impossible to tailor perfect arguments for every individual, climate communicators can certainly do a lot better. Knowing who your audience is and what they care about is the starting point.

 

Author: CJ Greco