03
Communicating Climate Change: 101
Businesses, NGOs and the public sector face enormous challenges when trying to effectively communicate a complex issue such as climate change to a skeptical audience.
After all, only a small percentage of the public sees global warming as a very serious problem, according to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.
A lot of science communications experts have spent a good deal of time and resources studying effective communication of complicated topics that lead to changes in behavior. One of the latest resources is a study called “The Psychology of Climate Change Communication” by Columbia University’s Center for Research on Environmental Decisions. The study takes readers on a 48-page journey that elucidates the psychology and mental models of what informs and influences behavior and beliefs. The last part of the study provides the most interesting insights from a communications perspective. It outlines eight steps for effectively communicating climate change and climate science – but these steps are applicable to many different scenarios.
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Know your audience. Like any communications effort, knowing who your target audience is and understanding what makes them believe what they believe or what shapes their opinion is essential for understanding what messages and stories resonate.
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Provide relevant context. When we know why and how an issue is relevant to us, we’re more apt to pay attention and act.
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Make the data relevant. What does that mean? It means don’t say “Temperatures reaching upwards of 40.5 Celsius indicate that today’s global warming may have been accelerated due to anthropogenic causes” when you can say “Today’s warm temperatures may have been accelerated by human activity.”
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Avoid emotional numbing. We’ve all had moments in our lives when our worries get the better of us leaving us too paralyzed to take any action. Similarly, when we’re inundated with messages that cause worry or fear, our audiences may lose sight of the issue and call to action.
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Acknowledge scientific and climate uncertainties. Audiences will accept uncertainty if it’s backed up with resources and information that explain, simply, why there’s uncertainty. You don’t want to overstate or overpromise and it’s better to be honest about what you do and don’t know.
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Identify groups and affiliations. When you can create a sense of group responsibility, it may help influence behavior. For example, targeting niche groups within a larger group may be more effective than targeting the broader audience who may not be able to harness a singular sense of responsibility.
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Leverage the power of group participation. Social networks, need I say more?
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Lower the bar. Don’t make your call to action so difficult that no one will want to do it. You’ll get a lot more engagement if you keep it simple and accessible.
Beyond communicating about climate change, let us know how/if you’ve ever applied these principles to your communications efforts. We’d love to hear about your results.
22
Earth Day in the Workplace [Infographic]
Pam Jenkins
Many of the events surrounding Earth Day are focused on doing something today to improve our environment. To build off of today's efforts and see real benefits, we should think about what we can do year-round to make the world a cleaner place to live.
Strikingly, statistics show that a large portion of our collective environmental impact occurs at the office. Below, we’ve put together some facts and figures about how we waste energy at the office, and some tips to reducing the energy we consume in the workplace. As you can see, a few simple changes can go a long way toward a cleaner Earth.
Happy Earth Day.
