Abstract
Climate change presents a challenge at multiple levels: It challenges our cognitive abilities because the effect of the accumulation of emissions is difficult to understand. Climate change also challenges many people's worldview because any climate mitigation regime will have economic and political implications that are incompatible with libertarian ideals of unregulated free markets. These political implications have created an environment of rhetorical adversity in which disinformation abounds, thus compounding the challenges for climate communicators. The existing literature on how to communicate climate change and dispel misinformation converges on several conclusions: First, providing information about climate change, in particular explanations of why it occurs, can enhance people's acceptance of science. Second, highlighting the scientific consensus can be an effective means to counter misinformation and raise public acceptance. Third, culturally aligned messages and messengers are more likely to be successful. Finally, climate misinformation is best defanged, through a process known as inoculation, before it is encountered, although debunking techniques can also be successful.
Highlights
More than 160 years ago, on 10 June 1859, John Tyndall reported to the Royal Society the results of an experiment that he had conducted, which showed that “carbonic acid,” despite being a perfectly colorless and invisible gas, was able to absorb heat radiation
One of the most extensive and long-standing surveys of the American public, by Yale University and George Mason University, has found that the share of people who accept that climate change is happening has been hovering around 70% between 2016 and 2020, the share of people who are “extremely” or “very” sure that global warming is happening has risen from ∼40% to more than 50% during the same period [98]
As of 2016, less than 70% of the public recognized that most scientists agree on climate change, that share has increased from 50% in 2010 [65]
Summary
More than 160 years ago, on 10 June 1859, John Tyndall reported to the Royal Society the results of an experiment that he had conducted, which showed that “carbonic acid,” despite being a perfectly colorless and invisible gas, was able to absorb heat radiation. We refer to carbonic acid as CO2, and, following on the heels of Tyndall’s discovery, scientists recognized before the end of the nineteenth century that industrial CO2 emissions were bound to alter Earth’s climate [4]. During the last 30 years, the evidence that humans are altering the climate has become unequivocal. There is near unanimity (around 97% or more) among domain experts that Earth’s climate is being altered by emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, mainly from the burning of fossil fuels [3, 35, 36]. The impacts of climate change on human health are being felt. Climate change has measurably increased the capacity for the transmission of vector-borne and waterborne diseases, such as dengue fever and malaria [172]. Warming has been tied to an increase in the prevalence of mental health problems in the United States [128]
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