Climate Change communication: moving from problem to solution to action

There is a strong view among climate change researchers and communicators that the persuasive tactic of arousing fear in order to promote precautionary motivation and behavior is neither effective nor appropriate in the context of climate change communication and engagement. Yet the modest research evidence that exists with respect to the use of fear appeals in communicating climate change does not offer adequate empirical evidence—either for or against the efficacy of fear appeals in this context—nor would such evidence adequately address the issue of the appropriateness of fear appeals in climate change communication. Extensive research literatures addressing preparedness, prevention, and behavior change in the areas of public health, marketing, and risk communication generally nonetheless provide consistent empirical support for the qualified effectiveness of fear appeals in persuasive social influence communications and campaigns. It is also noteworthy that the language of climate change communication is typically that of “communication and engagement,” with little explicit reference to targeted social influence or behavior change, although this is clearly implied. Hence underlying and intertwined issues here are those of cogent arguments versus largely absent evidence, and effectiveness as distinct from appropriateness. These matters are enmeshed within the broader contours of the contested political, social, and environmental, issues status of climate change, which jostle for attention in a 24/7 media landscape of disturbing and frightening communications concerning the reality, nature, progression, and implications of global climate change. All of this is clearly a challenge for evaluation research attempting to examine the nature and effectiveness of fear appeals in the context of climate change communication, and for determining the appropriateness of designed fear appeals in climate change communications intended to both engage and influence individuals, communities, and “publics” with respect to the ongoing threat and risks of climate change. There is an urgent need to clearly and effectively communicate the full nature and implications of climate change, in the face of this profound risk and rapidly unfolding reality. All such communications are, inherently, frightening warning messages, quite apart from any intentional fear appeals. How then should we put these arguments, evidence, and challenges “on the table” in our considerations and recommendations for enhancing climate change communication—and addressing the daunting and existential implications of climate change?

Communicating Uncertainty about Climate Change: The Scientists’ Dilemma

Impacts of climate change on public health in Australia

Water sprays from an open fire hydrant in Brooklyn, New York, in the midst of a July 2010 heat wave that affected much of the eastern United States.In 2007 the New York City Department of Environmental Protection first teamed up with Alianza Dominicana, a Washington Heights community organization, to educate city residents about the appropriate use of fire hydrants and other ways

ABSTRACTMedia play a major role in framing key political issues such as climate change, and the melting of the Arctic snow and ice has become a bellwether of global climate change through the mediations of the region and its wildlife. While Arctic change has scientific significance for understanding global warming, it also plays a key role in the popular communication of global climate change and its impacts. This article addresses questions such as how the Arctic and its sea ice have become become powerful images of climate change, and what roles scientific activities, technologies, and networks play in relation to media and mediation. Drawing upon earlier research on the role of the media and framing in relation to climate change in general and upon Arctic climate change in particular, we explore how media framings are linked with various dynamics such as scientific practice and the institutional structure of the media system.

Climate change and its net negative impacts on global food production systems thereby its threats on food security are unequivocal. In Sri Lanka, large volume of literature elucidated the statistically significant increase of ambient temperature, increase of variability in rainfall and increase of weather extremes in response to climate change. Increasing weather extremes found to increase prolonged droughts and flash floods. These changes directly and indirectly affects the agriculture sector of Sri Lanka, thus impose greater consequences to the economy and national food security. Studies of climate change impacts on almost all major crops have clearly elucidated the yield reductions in the future climate of Sri Lanka. Moreover, farm animal production, fisheries and forestry also seem to be negatively affected by climate change. Sea level rise as a result of global warming, poses another threat to coastal agricultural areas due to inundation and salinity development. Climate change impacts and vulnerability show greater regional variations in Sri Lanka as the country has a greater diversity of agro-ecology. Awareness on climate change and its impacts on agriculture is increasing among the relevant stakeholders including farming communities. However, the implementation of field level adaptations are far below the rate of increasing trends of climate change. Farming systems and traditional agricultural practices can provide wide range of opportunities for climate change adaptation and mitigation in the country. Nevertheless, there are challenges and uncertainties in implementing climate change adaptation especially at farmer levels. To overcome these challenges, relevant national policy frameworks need to be strengthened, in a way that can promote farm level adaptations which can empower the coping capacity of farmers to the negative impacts of climate change. Collaborative and participatory research programs need to be promoted for the generation and dissemination of new findings. These findings are important to develop and strengthen both long term and near term regional-specific, multiple adaptation planning at different levels to sustain the food security and economic growth of Sri Lanka in the face of climate change. Climate change communication could facilitate the effective dissemination of knowledge and expertise towards adaptation. Although, numerous research findings available on different aspects of climate change in Sri Lanka, there is a lack of collection of findings, which is a major obstacle for the effective communication. Thus, this chapter synthesizes the available findings on climate change impacts in agriculture, discusses existing and potential adaptation measures, highlights the importance of communicating climate change information to the relevant parties and suggests future prospects. This work is aimed at comprehensive communication of existing knowledge on this topic with researchers, policy makers, extension officers, granting institutions, students and other interested individuals or organizations.

Chapter Ten - Climate Change

Climate change communication is a crucial strategy for addressing the major challenges of climate change, and the knowledge mapping analysis and overview of it helps to clarify research progress. Based on CiteSpace, 428 pieces of domestic and foreign literature are collected to clarify the basic status of climate change communication research and summarize research hotspots and prospects. The study found that: (1) The earliest traceable English literature on climate change communication appeared in 2000. The number of articles published has risen steadily since 2008, reaching its first peak in 2015. (2) In contrast, research into Chinese climate change communication began late and progressed slowly. The Chinese literature on climate change communication first appeared in 2009. Although domestic research generally continues to pay attention to this phenomenon, there is still room for development compared with international research. (3) The research hotspots for climate change communication are obtained through keyword co-occurrence analysis. Public perceptions of climate change are strongly influenced by political ideology. Since climate change has political attributes, people from different political parties or groups form their views on climate change through identity protection. (4) The research content on climate change communication can be summarized into the following six aspects: the development of climate change communication research; differences in public perceptions of climate change; factors influencing climate change communication; key elements of the climate change communication process; the important role of the media in climate change communication; and effective strategies for climate change communication. Finally, the shortcomings of this study are summarized and future research prospects on climate change communication are put forward from the perspectives of research methods, research contexts, and research paradigms.

International audience

How does framing affect policy support for emissions mitigation? Testing the effects of ocean acidification and other carbon emissions frames

Climate Change is the most important challenge that humanity faces today. rapid increase in global temperatures during the last century due to an exponential increase of greenhouse gas concentrations is altering the climate beyond our capacity of adaptation. In order to mobilize the society towards bold, informed, coherent responses, public institutions should work together to raise awareness of the problem. University must have a leading role in Climate Change communication, education and research in order to improve our capacity for Climate Change mitigation and adaptation. Climate Change is a complex problem that requires a multidisciplinary approach. In this paper we discuss the role of the university in front of this planetary issue. We discuss the challenges and opportunities that the university has as a source of knowledge through research but also as educators of a new generation that will be left to deal with this issue. At the University of Salamanca, we have launched a series of seminars titled The University facing the challenges of Climate This initiative aimed to create a dialogue involving multiple parties (academics, local community and the general public) as a way to exchange ideas and look for possible strategies to tackle Climate Change. format of the seminar, including a face to face discussion between the parties and a virtual platform (Youtube channel), enhances the impact of our initiative. Additionally, the usage of digital media for Climate Change education and communication is discussed. Due to the widespread lack of materials in Spanish, this seminar, up to date and in an accessible format, is a powerful tool for Climate Change communication and education.

Online climate change polarization has increasingly received academic interest over time. Online media facilitate and accelerate processes of climate change polarization. Yet, throughout the years, online climate change polarization became a fuzzy concept, holding different meanings in different academic contexts. By reviewing the available evidence, the current article identified three ontological distinctions in online climate change polarization research: (1) focus on different groups that polarize; (2) either investigate the positions, relations, or emotions of actors; and (3) states or processes of polarization. Based on the latter two ontological distinctions, the article reconceptualizes online climate change polarization as a multidimensional phenomenon, by introducing a framework comprising six dimensions of polarization. Accordingly, by identifying gaps in the literature, the article proposes a future research agenda.This article is categorized under: Perceptions, Behavior, and Communication of Climate Change > Communication Perceptions, Behavior, and Communication of Climate Change > Perceptions of Climate Change Perceptions, Behavior, and Communication of Climate Change > Behavior Change and Responses

‘Climate Change Perception and Changing Agents in Africa & South Asia’ presents first-hand experiences of climate change perception. Now more than ever understanding public perceptions of climate change is fundamental in creating effective climate policies, especially within countries that are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Striving to present a comprehensive study of climate perception in Africa and South Asia, this volume presents seven in-depth case studies from Cameroon, the Eastern Himalayas, Kenya, Nepal, and Zimbabwe. In order to combat climate change, effective communication is essential in order to educate, persuade, warn and mobilize the masses. Therefore, climate change communication is shaped not only by our different experiences and beliefs but also by the underlying cultural and politic values of a country. Within this volume, climate change communication is examined from Cameroonian, Kenyan and Zimbabwean perspectives. From the role of stakeholders to practical field experiences, the individual case studies present an interesting and informative portrait of climate change communication. It is often the poorest and most vulnerable people who are most affected by the impacts of climate change. Therefore, community-based adaptation is an approach that is aimed at empowering communities in the process of planning for and coping with climate change. In this book, this progressive and innovative approach is examined from a grass-roots perspective that looks to both the Eastern Himalayas and Zimbabwe. Readers are presented with case-studies that investigate the importance of indigenous knowledge, community-based research and the role of social workers in climate change mitigation. This high-quality resource puts forward a well-informed and accessible discussion of climate change perception that will be of interest to both students and scholars, alike.

Climate Change and the Health of the Public

This paper is based on a study that advances the argument that Africa’s approach to understanding climate change dynamics is compromised by the fact that instead of complementing each other universalistic science and indigenous technical knowledge (ITK) seem to be pulling into diametrical opposite directions. The aim of the paper then is to identify the fissure in communication that arise from these different perspectives and how best the two worldviews may be merged so as to craft the most sustainable solutions for climate change adaptation, mitigation and communication. The paper engages literature review on ITK and universal science and uses case studies from across the region to demonstrate this in the thesis of the paper. Interviews have also been conducted with key informants who include environmentalists and traditional leaders. The problem with gathering information on ITK knowledge is that most of the information is undocumented and in most cases is known by a few people usually the elderly. The results indicate that universalistic science has a tendency to ask for collective action based on regional and global trends to climate change while indigenous technical knowledge begins with an observation that ‘something is wrong somewhere’ but it is the responsibility of the individual to make sure they do the right thing in a bid to achieve environmental harmony. In the latter, there is reference to Spiritism and Nature because the “spirits are angry”. To some extent these beliefs by ITK seem to be well placed with the only problem being that much of the information remains enclosed and unknown to many. Communicating ITK then becomes the way to go considering the potential impacts of such initiatives in the realm of climate change. Yet, in universalistic science such claims are hogwash and absurd. In most cases, in Africa the division is also explained by the generation gap between the youthful and elderly as well as between religious inclinations that different people adhere to. This paper will useful to policy makers, academics and community members so that they all get to accept and appreciate the utility of ITK in climate change communication.