Article

Communicating the Urgency and Challenge of Global Climate Change: Lessons Learned and New Strategies

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Abstract

Climate change can sometimes be characterized as a "creeping environmental problem"--it is complex and long-term, involves long system lags, lacks the immediacy of everyday experience and thus is hard to perceive, and feels overwhelming to most individuals. Climate change thus does not typically attain the status of an urgent concern, taking priority over other matters for individuals, organizations or in the policy arena. We review the major reasons behind this lack of urgency, and document the observed consequences of previous communication strategies, including lack of public understanding, indifference, confusion, fear and uncertainty. We find that certain emotional motivators such as fear and guilt, while oft-employed, do not actually result in improved recognition of the urgency of the issue, nor do they typically result in action. Rather, positive and engaging approaches may be more likely to achieve this goal. We propose seven strategies to improve the communication of climate change and its urgency: 1) Abide by basic communication rules and heed the warnings of communication experts; 2) Address the emotional and the temporal components of "urgency"; 3) Increase the persuasiveness of the message; 4) Use trusted messengers-broaden the circle; 5) Use opportunities well; 6) Tap into individual and cultural strengths and values; and 7) Unite and Conquer. The multi-faceted nature of the proposed strategies reflects the unique challenges of the climate change issue as well as the need to engage all levels and sectors of societies in the solution, from individuals, to businesses, to governments. These strategies and results emerged from a multi-disciplinary, academic/practitioner workshop on the topic held at NCAR in summer 2004.

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... Consequently, concerns about violent conflict, disease and hunger, terrorism, and other risks may overshadow considerations about the impacts of climate change and adaptation. This work also indicates, consistently with findings in the wider climate change risk literature (e.g., Moser and Dilling, 2004), that individuals tend to prioritise the risks they face, focusing on those they consider -rightly or wrongly -to be the most significant to them at that particular point in time. Furthermore, a lack of experience of climate-related events may inhibit adequate responses. ...
... 4. Appealing to fear and guilt does not motivate appropriate adaptive behaviour. In fact, communications research has shown that appealing to fear and guilt does not succeed in fostering sustained engagement with the issue of climate change (Moser and Dilling, 2004). Analysis of print media portrayal of climate change demonstrates public confusion when scientific arguments are contrasted in a black-andwhite, for-and-against manner (Boykoff and Boykoff, 2004;Carvalho and Burgess, 2005;Ereaut and Segnit, 2006). ...
... From several years the phenomenon of CC is also studied by psychologists and cognitive scientists, who wonder why this global issue is still so little known and understood, and why it raises up opposite reactions among people, as well as a low interest and an excessive underestimation of the problem, or a high level of worry which can be transformed in an uncontrolled fear or an effect of apathy. Climate change seems to be psychologically distant (Lorenzoni et al., 2007; Moser & Dilling, 2004), and humans have a natural inclination to discount the future (Liverani, 2010). The greatest damage of it will fall on the next generations, will be more evident in a long term future, and still seems to be " far away " . ...
Thesis
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The scientific community has been debating climate change (CC) for over two decades. In the light of certain arguments put forward by the aforesaid community, the EU has recommended a set of innovative reforms to science teaching, such as incorporating environmental issues into the scientific curriculum, thereby helping to make schools a place of civic education. However, despite these European recommendations, relatively little emphasis is still given to climate change within science curricula. The main goal of the research project described in this thesis is to study if, how and why the scientific contents related to CC could be reconstructed so as to integrate the many dimensions involved in the issue. Specifically, the project set out to create and test innovative materials and activities for secondary school students, designed to foster: i) effective and meaningful understanding of the concepts involved in CC (disciplinary dimension); ii) a growing personal involvement in environmental issues supported also by the maturation of rational arguments for moving consciously through the political, economical, social and ethical dimensions (societal dimension); iii) epistemological reflections aimed at problematizing the traditional and outdated image of science which is still widespread among citizens (epistemological dimension). In the design and analysis of the materials, we start from the conjecture that behind many conceptual difficulties and psychological barriers lie particular epistemological obstacles related to a naïve and stereotypical view of science. In order to reach the main goal, the work has been organized according to four research questions (RQs): RQ_1: What operational criteria can be identified for reconstructing physics so as to integrate the many dimensions considered in the main goal? RQ_2: (a) Which models of greenhouse effect and GW are effective for implementing the criteria identified? (b) What experimental activities can be designed in order to promote an inquiry-based approach to the study of environmental issues, and to help students understand the models and their multi-dimensionality? RQ_3: How do secondary school students react to the proposed materials? Are the materials effective in achieving the main goal of the research? RQ_4: Which analytic methods can be used to investigate the multiple dimensions of a teaching/learning classroom experience? In Chapter 1, the analysis of a selection of research papers and international reports is presented. The selected papers and reports concern: the conceptual difficulties that students usually encounter in dealing with physics concepts related to CC; the sociological and behavioural reactions of citizens facing CC; the crucial points regarding the scientific debate on CC; the status of the research on modelling in science education. The match among the main results in so many different research fields led us to point out some design principles which guided the process of instructional design of a multidimensional proposal on climate change intended for upper secondary school students (grade 11th, 12th and 13th). The design principles, the teaching materials and the developed conceptual path are described in chapter 2. The multidimensional conceptual path was implemented in four different teaching experiences and many data were collected in order to keep tuned the many dimensions involved in the study. The contexts of implementation, the role of each one and the data sources properly designed are described in chapter 3. The materials and the data tools were initially validated in a pilot-study which aimed to test and revise both the teaching materials and the data sources (chapter 4). On the basis of the results of this pilot-study, the materials have been reviewed in order to emphasize the epistemological dimension. Specifically, the results led us to make the epistemological fil rouge on the models and modelling stronger and more evident; to revise (in form and content) the lesson on complexity; and to insert specific tools of investigations aimed at indepth investigation of the epistemological dimension. The data collection and data analysis focused initially on the single dimensions (conceptual, behavioural, epistemological) and later on the correlations among them. This strategy implied the development of new and original analytic tools able to bootstrap from the data results related to each dimension, but also analytic techniques that could render the results of each dimension comparable to each other (chapters 5-6-7). As a global result, the analyses highlighted a positive overall trend both on the three dimensions considered individually and with respect to the identification of positive influences and impacts among the different dimensions. Nevertheless, some critical elements emerged from the analyses. As far as the disciplinary dimension is concerned (chapter 5), the conceptual path revealed to be effective in providing a chance i) to resolve the problem of confusing climate change with different environmental phenomena, like the ozone layer depletion and general pollution, and ii) to relate the greenhouse effect to the properties of absorbance, reflectance and transmittance. The analysis, however, revealed the permanence in the students of conceptual difficulties which are well-documented in the research literature, such as i) the difficulty in managing the concept of emission and ii) the confusion between heat and radiation. These two problems are those in which there is the greatest discrepancy between common sense and scientific thinking and, as our other studies on thermodynamics show, they must be addressed indepth from the moment that the basic physics concepts of thermodynamics and electromagnetism are introduced. However, the type of analysis we were able to carry out did not allow us to thoroughly investigate the nature of these unresolved problems. As far as the societal dimension is concerned, the data analyses showed positive behavioural responses in all the teaching experiments. The analysis of the mutual interaction between knowledge and behavioural response (chapter 6) strengthens this result. Moreover, the evolution of a certain type of knowledge and, mainly, the introduction of the epistemological perspective of complexity appeared potentially able to provide students with the cultural tools necessary to rationally navigate through the jungle of ideological/media wars about environmental issues. The epistemological dimension constituted the particularly original feature of this research work (chapter 7). As we said above, this study originated from the conjecture that climate change represents not only a societal and disciplinary but also an epistemological challenge. Scientific debates imply sophisticated epistemological argumentations which refer, more or less implicitly, to a refined way of looking at modelling in climate science. In the light of the results of our analysis, we can assert that, under certain conditions, specific epistemological know-how can positively impact not only productive disciplinary engagement, but also a more personal and authentic involvement in climate change. The decision to keep together the societal and conceptual dimensions, thanks to the epistemological dimension, proved to be a successful choice. It offered the students the opportunity to understand the increasing importance of the role of models and modelling in coping with scientific issues that have direct impact on the social aspects of people's lives (e.g. climate change, earthquakes, nuclear physics, modern physics applied to medical studies). Besides the epistemological dimension, the other element of originality of the research work is the construction of new analytic methodologies constructed to exploit the data and correlations between the different dimensions. These new methods can make, in our opinion, a positive contribution to the current debate on methodology in science education research.
... Since the early 2000s, many anthropogenic climate change (ACC) communicators (e.g., climate scientists, environmental activists, environmental/science journalists, and sympathetic policy makers) have come to realize that a more nuanced strategy than just conveying scientific facts is necessary for increasing public acceptance of the evidence of ACC and public support for dealing with ACC. A prominent aspect of such a communication strategy involves framing messages in ways that resonate with the general public —or certain segments of the general public (e.g., Gore, 2006; Moser & Dilling, 2004; Nisbet, 2009; Nisbet & Mooney, 2007; Revkin, 2009). At least some of the motivation for this interest in framing is a desire to counteract, or at least neutralize, the influence of organized ACC denial, which has become entrenched in the United States over the last two decades ( Michaels, 2008; Oreskes & Conway, 2010). ...
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Prior research on the influence of various ways of framing anthropogenic climate change (ACC) do not account for the organized ACC denial in the U.S. media and popular culture, and thus may overestimate these frames' influence in the general public. We conducted an experiment to examine how Americans' ACC views are influenced by four promising frames for urging action on ACC (economic opportunity, national security, Christian stewardship, and public health)-when these frames appear with an ACC denial counter-frame. This is the first direct test of how exposure to an ACC denial message influences Americans' ACC views. Overall, these four positive frames have little to no effect on ACC beliefs. But exposure to an ACC denial counter-frame does significantly reduce respondents' belief in the reality of ACC, belief about the veracity of climate science, awareness of the consequences of ACC, and support for aggressively attempting to reduce our nation's GHG emissions in the near future. Furthermore, as expected by the Anti-Reflexivity Thesis, exposure to the ACC denial counter-frame has a disproportionate influence on the ACC views of conservatives (than on those of moderates and liberals), effectively activating conservatives' underlying propensity for anti-reflexivity.
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... g . Moser and Dilling 2004 ) . Natural variability masks the climate change signal and hence climate change is not perceived as a challenge , and climate change impacts were not stated as a motivating factor for adaptations 268 H . Amundsen by those interviewed . ...
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... " (Hansen 2009, 70) Advocates of climate change mitigation have lucidly conveyed the risks of irreversible damage resulting from crossing the thresholds related to the functioning of the climate system. Some scholars have pointed out the dangers of alarmist climate discourse discouraging people and paralysing environmental management (Dilling and Moser 2004), while others are concerned that the full implications of climate change are still not taken seriously enough (Hansen 2009). Besides the debate on the risk of abrupt climate change, potential catastrophic consequences related to other kinds of nonlinear changes in socioecological systems have been discussed extensively both in popular and scholarly forums (e.g., Gladwell 2000; Lenton et al. 2008; Scheffer et al. 2009). ...
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... Studies have shown that communication strategies based on fear, frequently fail in achieving the desired behavioral outcomes. Instead of bringing people closer to the issue, an alarmist repertoire can in that way distance the public from global warming (Dilling and Moser, 2004;Ereaut and Segnit, 2006).sustain their political preferences, the newspapers emphasize different aspects in the climate change debate and assign different credibility to the claims-makers. ...
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Decision-making for conservation management often involves evaluating risks in the face of environmental uncertainty. Models support decision-making by (1) synthesizing available knowledge in a systematic, rational and transparent way and (2) providing a platform for exploring and resolving uncertainty about the consequences of management decisions. Despite their benefits, models are still not used in many conservation decision-making contexts. In this article, we provide evidence of common objections to the use of models in environmental decision-making. In response, we present a series of practical solutions for modellers to help improve the effectiveness and relevance of their work in conservation decision-making. Global review. We reviewed scientific and grey literature for evidence of common objections to the use of models in conservation decision-making. We present a set of practical solutions based on theory, empirical evidence and best-practice examples to help modellers substantively address these objections. We recommend using a structured decision-making framework to guide good modelling practice in decision-making and highlight a variety of modelling techniques that can be used to support the process. We emphasize the importance of participatory decision-making to improve the knowledge-base and social acceptance of decisions and to facilitate better conservation outcomes. Improving communication and building trust are key to successfully engaging participants, and we suggest some practical solutions to help modellers develop these skills. If implemented, we believe these practical solutions could help broaden the use of models, forging deeper and more appropriate linkages between science and management for the improvement of conservation decision-making.
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This working paper is highlighting the importance of effective communication strategies to increase the public awareness on climate change issues. The study was focused basically on the climate change campaign strategies at developed countries, in particularly Japanese “Team Minus 6%” campaign. Successful climate change campaign is attributed to its communication strategies and attractive content. The lesson learned from successful campaign can help to duplicate the experience at other part of the world.
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Most people think climate change and sustainability are important problems, but too few global citizens engaged in high-greenhouse-gas-emitting behavior are engaged in enough mitigating behavior to stem the increasing flow of greenhouse gases and other environmental problems. Why is that? Structural barriers such as a climate-averse infrastructure are part of the answer, but psychological barriers also impede behavioral choices that would facilitate mitigation, adaptation, and environmental sustainability. Although many individuals are engaged in some ameliorative action, most could do more, but they are hindered by seven categories of psychological barriers, or "dragons of inaction": limited cognition about the problem, ideological worldviews that tend to preclude pro-environmental attitudes and behavior, comparisons with key other people, sunk costs and behavioral momentum, discredence toward experts and authorities, perceived risks of change, and positive but inadequate behavior change. Structural barriers must be removed wherever possible, but this is unlikely to be sufficient. Psychologists must work with other scientists, technical experts, and policymakers to help citizens overcome these psychological barriers.
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While the world is becoming smaller in some senses, the intellectual terrain is becoming ever more difficult to traverse. The physical world is changing at an accelerated pace because of human activities. New technologies and intellectual breakthroughs have profoundly changed our understanding of the environment but also have revealed vast chasms of ignorance at the boundaries between disciplines. Disciplines have fractured, multiplied, and coalesced like volcanic islands in a sea of turmoil. The net result is that interdisciplinary collaborations are increasingly needed to extend research frontiers and address issues at the interface of science and society.
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In 2000, US Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson mobilized the US public health infrastructure to deal with escalating trends of excess body weight. A cornerstone of this effort was a report entitled The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity. The report stimulated a great deal of public discussion by utilizing the distinctive public health terminology of an epidemic to describe the growing prevalence of obesity in the US population. We suggest that the ensuing controversy was fueled in part by the report's ambiguous usage of the evocative term "epidemic." In some passages, the report seems to use "epidemic" in a literal sense, suggesting that rising prevalence of excess body weight should be defined technically as a disease outbreak. Other passages of the report present the same key term metaphorically, leaving readers with the impression that the epidemic language is invoked primarily for rhetorical effect. Here, we explore dynamics and implications of both interpretations. This analysis sheds light on the ongoing public argument about the appropriate societal response to steadily increasing body sizes in the US population; likewise, it capitalizes on the accumulated knowledge that the field of public health has garnered from combating diverse historic epidemics. Our interdisciplinary approach deploys critical tools from the fields of rhetoric, sociology and epidemiology. In particular, we draw from metaphor theory and public address scholarship to elucidate how the Call to Action frames public deliberation on obesity. We turn to the applied public health literature to develop a reading of the report that suggests a novel approach to the problem - application of the Epidemic Investigation protocol to streamline the public health response and reframe the public argument about obesity.
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This chapter explores campus climate action in North America. Campus climate action occurs when universities themselves initiate an action to take the lead, along with other sectors, to set standards for carbon emissions that are significantly more restrictive than those set forth by the government. The chapter discusses the initiatives that are developing across campuses, with a special focus on education, curriculum, operations, and research. It also investigates the four ways in which university and college action is significant beyond the campus level: Leveraging collective purchasing power, framing cost-efficient actions, showing the plausibility of greenhouse gas reductions, and providing citizen education. The chapter then comments on the importance of campus climate change action in the North American multilevel governance setting.
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Climate change projections are usually presented as 'snapshots' of change at a particular time in the future. Instead, we consider the key question 'when will specific temperature thresholds be exceeded?' Framing the question as 'when might something happen (either permanently or temporarily)?' rather than 'what might happen?' demonstrates that lowering future emissions will delay the crossing of temperature thresholds and buy valuable time for planning adaptation. For example, in higher greenhouse-gas emission scenarios, a global average 2 °C warming threshold is likely to be crossed by 2060, whereas in a lower emissions scenario, the crossing of this threshold is delayed by up to several decades. On regional scales, however, the 2 °C threshold will probably be exceeded over large parts of Eurasia, North Africa and Canada by 2040 if emissions continue to increase -- well within the lifetime of many people living now.
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Mitigating climate change is recognized as an increasingly urgent task that requires understanding a range of different strategies, including voluntary behavior change. Among the psychological barriers to behavior change are perceptions of powerlessness and the commons dilemma. This paper examines the association between these factors in a sample of New Zealand citizens and clarifies their importance in relation to other barriers to action to mitigate climate change, including uncertainty and perceived risk. Stronger perceptions of powerlessness and the commons dilemma were related to lower levels of action to mitigate climate change and lesser importance being placed upon climate change as an influence on individual actions. The perceived risk of climate change and the perception that humans influence climate change were the strongest predictors of mitigation action.
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To date, most investigation into climate adaptation has focused on specific technological interventions and socio-economic aspects of adaptive capacity. New perspectives posit that socio-cognitive factors may be as or more important in motivating individuals to take adaptive actions. As applied to the puzzle of adaptation thus far, motivation theory suggests that perhaps the most relevant such socio-cognitive factor is perception, a puzzle in itself comprised of such component pieces as risk perception and self-efficacy. I propose the application of social identity theory, concepts from which have only begun to be addressed in the context of adaptation, as a potentially fundamental link between perception and adaptive motivation. To assess this theoretical groundwork, this paper details an exploratory case study of social identity and the communication of climate-related information among coffee producers in Chiapas, Mexico. A qualitative analysis of interviews with farmers is supported by a quantitative analysis of survey data to examine the role of social identity in perception of information, risk perception, and perceived adaptive capacity, which are considered indicators of adaptive motivation.
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Coral reefs occur near the geosphere-atmosphere-hydrosphere interface, and as such are vulnerable to changes in any of these spheres. The effects of climate change are usually considered less threatening than the more obvious impacts of human environmental degradation, because 1) it occurs slowly; 2) it is hard to detect; 3) the paucity of baseline observations; 4) it rarely occurs independently of other non-climate factors; and 5) the controversial label of "climate change" biases interpretation of scientific results. Nonetheless, two main consequences of fossil fuel burning have been identified as major factors that could affect the future of coral reef ecosystems: increasing sea surface temperature and decreasing ocean pH. Coral bleaching is readily accepted as a likely climate change impact, because 1) it occurs rapidly and has acute affects; 2) it is usually obvious when it occurs; and 3) there is strong scientific evidence that it is related to ocean warming. In fact, the bleaching phenomenon is so serious that many consider it the main threat to the future of coral reefs. In contrast, decreasing ocean pH has received much less attention, because 1) it occurs slowly and has chronic effects; 2) it is not obvious and is difficult to measure; and 3) scientific evidence is difficult to obtain. This talk will address the most recent predictions of ocean temperature and ocean pH over this century, and what that means for coral reef ecosystems and future conservation efforts. One major question regarding sea surface temperature rise is whether various ocean feedbacks will cap maximum temperature in some regions; i.e., is there an ocean thermostat? Another major question is how rising temperature and decreasing carbonate ion concentration will combine to affect calcification rates on corals and coral reefs. The discussion will draw from geologic history, climate modeling, and biological principles.
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Meeting the manifold challenges connected to climate change makes high demands on individual competencies. To prepare actors for those challenges learning settings are needed in higher education that are suitable for that goal. A theoretical framework for relevant key competencies can be found in the discourse of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). In this paper we introduce and discuss two learning settings that employ adapted sustainability science approaches: the syndrome approach and scenario analysis. Both approaches are discussed with reference to their didactic goals to foster the acquisition of the corresponding competencies. The usefulness of these two approaches in creating appropriate learning settings is demonstrated in empirical studies.
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Institutions and institutional change are mentioned often but rarely specified in discussions of climate adaptation. Policy change is proposed, but the detail of policy processes less often discussed. Adaptation to increased climate change and variability will require policy interventions to change behaviors across multiple sectors, requiring policy processes constrained or enabled by institutional settings. Detailed discussion of how to redesign policy processes and institutions are especially rare at the crucial jurisdictional scales of national and sub‐national policy and planning. We review coverage of policy and institutions in the adaptation literature and clarify key issues by drawing on the domains of public policy, institutional change, and sustainable development. The distinction between, but close dependencies among, institutions, institutional systems, organizations, policy processes, policy instruments, and management are emphasized. We propose that the climate policy literature has rapidly become large enough that a tendency of self‐referencing has developed, and that insights can be gained from other areas. Within existing parameters of law, politics, and governance, options are identified that could embed considerations of climate adaptation into policy processes and institutional systems, with focus on enabling cross‐sectoral policy integration (‘mainstreaming’), decision making under conditions of uncertainty, vertical (‘cross‐scale’) policy coordination, issues of capacity and devolution, and policy evaluation and learning. The value of seeking lessons from past policy interventions and from cognate policy sectors is explored. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This article is categorized under: Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change > Institutions for Adaptation
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The present research examines whether collective guilt for an ingroup's collective greenhouse gas emissions mediates the effects of beliefs about the causes and effects of global warming on willingness to engage in mitigation behavior. In Study 1, we manipulate the causes and effects of global warming and then measure collective guilt. Results demonstrate that collective guilt for Americans' greenhouse gas emissions is stronger when participants believe that global warming is caused by humans and will have minor effects. Study 2 employs the same manipulations and then measures collective guilt and collective anxiety, as well as willingness to conserve energy and pay green taxes. This study replicates the effect from Study 1 and rules out collective anxiety as a plausible alternative mediator. Collective guilt for Americans' greenhouse emissions was the only reliable mediator of the effect of beliefs about global warming on willingness to engage in mitigation behaviors. The importance of collective guilt as a tool for promoting global warming mitigation is discussed.
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The film The Age of Stupid depicts the world in 2055 devastated by climate change, combining this with documentary footage which illustrates many facets of the problems of climate change and fossil-fuel dependency. This study investigates the effects of the film on UK viewers' attitudes and behaviour through a three-stage survey. Analysis of changes in attitudes focussed particularly on respondents' concern about climate change, motivation to act, fear about the potential for catastrophe, beliefs about responsibility for action, and sense of agency. The film increased concern about climate change, motivation to act, and viewers' sense of agency, although these effects had not persisted 10-14 weeks after seeing it. It was also successful in promoting some mitigation actions and behavioural change, although respondents reported barriers to further action, such as limited options for improving home energy efficiency among those in rented accommodation. However, filmgoers were atypical of the general public in that they exhibited very high levels of concern about climate change, knowledge about how to reduce their carbon emissions, and contact with organisations campaigning about climate change, before they saw the film. The paper considers how these factors may have enabled viewers to respond to the film as they did, as well as policy implications for those seeking to develop effective climate change communications.
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Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time, and the media have been demonstrated to play a key role in shaping public perceptions and policy agendas. Journalists are faced with multiple challenges in covering this complex field. This article provides an overview of existing research on the media framing of climate change, highlighting major research themes and assessing future potential research developments. It argues that analysis of the reporting of climate science must be placed in the wider context of the growing concentration and globalization of news media ownership, and an increasingly 'promotional culture', highlighted by the rapid rise of the public relations industry in recent years and claims-makers who employ increasingly sophisticated media strategies. Future research will need to examine in-depth the targeting of media by a range of actors, as well as unravel complex information flows across countries as media increasingly converge.
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The film The Day After Tomorrow depicts the abrupt and catastrophic transformation of the Earth's climate into a new ice age, playing upon the uncertainty surrounding a possible North Atlantic thermohaline circulation (Gulf Stream) shutdown. This paper investigates the impact of the film on people's perception of climate change through a survey of filmgoers in the UK. Analysis focuses on four issues: the likelihood of extreme impacts; concern over climate change versus other global problems; motivation to take action; and responsibility for the problem of climate change. It finds that seeing the film, at least in the short term, changed people's attitudes; viewers were significantly more concerned about climate change, and about other environmental risks. However, while the film increased anxiety about envi-ronmental risks, viewers experienced difficulty in distinguishing science fact from dramatized science fiction. Their belief in the likelihood of extreme events as a result of climate change was actually reduced. Following the film, many viewers expressed strong motivation to act on climate change. How-ever, although the film may have sensitized viewers and motivated them to act, the public do not have information on what action they can take to mitigate climate change.
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Over the past 20 years, there have been dozens of news organization, academic, and nonpartisan public opinion surveys on global warming, yet there exists no authoritative summary of their collective findings. In this article, we provide a systematic review of trends in public opinion about global warming. We sifted through hundreds of polling questions culled from more than 70 surveys administered over the past 20 years. In compiling the available trends, we summarize public opinion across several key dimensions including (a) public awareness of the issue of global warming; (b) public understanding of the causes of global warming and the specifics of the policy debate; (c) public perceptions of the certainty of the science and the level of agreement among experts; (d) public concern about the impacts of global warming; (e) public support for policy action in light of potential economic costs; and (f) public support for the Kyoto climate treaty.
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Christopher J. Bosso and Deborah Lynn Guber. 2003. “The Boundaries and Contours of American Environmental Activism.” In, Environmental Policy: New Directions for the Twenty-First Century, 5th edition. Norman J. Vig, and Michael E. Kraft, eds. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 79-101.
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The release of the Hollywood blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow, a disaster movie depicting abrupt and catastrophic climate change, sparked wide-ranging predictions about the film's political implications. A national survey on risk perceptions, behavioral intentions, and political preferences tell us about the movie's impact.
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The use of front groups, PR firms, think tanks, and willing scientists and economists has provided corporations with the means to confuse the public and obstruct political attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In the US and Australia in particular, such tactics have enabled the fossil fuel industry to hijack the greenhouse debate.
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In a survey of 1,218 Americans, the key determinant of behavioral intentions to address global warming is a correct understanding of the causes of global warming. Knowing what causes climate change, and what does not, is the most powerful predictor of both stated intentions to take voluntary actions and to vote on hypothetical referenda to enact new government policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Identifying bogus causes (e.g., insecticides) correlates with the belief that the globe will warm, but is only weakly related to voluntary actions and not at all related to support for government policies. General pro-environmental beliefs and perceptions that global warming poses serious threats to society also help to explain behavioral intentions. The explanatory power of an air pollution framework is substantial in bivariate analyses, but has little explanatory power in multivariate analyses that include knowledge, risk perceptions, and general environmental beliefs. Translating public concern for global warming into effective action requires real knowledge. General environmental concern or concern for the negative effects of air pollution appear not to motivate people to support programs designed to control global warming.
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This study examined the influence of need for cognition (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982) on adaptive and maladaptive responses to fear appeals. After measuring their need for cognition, participants read a high versus low threat message about breast cancer, followed by a persuasive message that recommended breast self-examination. Interaction effects between need for cognition and threat on measures of precautionary motivation supported our main hypothesis that fear appeals only result in adaptive coping (i.e., danger control) among respondents who are high in need for cognition. If possible, persuasive communicators may thus consider screening participants first on their need for cognition. On the other hand, predicted main effects of threat information on maladaptive coping (i.e., fear control) suggest that fear appeals should be used with caution, preceded by extensive pilot testing.
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In this study, the authors examined the effect of a brief but intense antipollution message on verbal commitment (stated willingness to act) and on three forms of immediate behavioral commitment (donating money, donating time, and signing a petition). Exposure to the antipollution message produced significantly more verbal commitment and financial donations but not more time donations than did exposure to a control message. Nearly every participant signed the petition. To determine whether environmental fear appeals should be targeted at specific audiences, the authors computed correlations between seven individual difference variables and environmental concern. None of the individual difference variables were significantly related to financial or time donations. However, political orientation was significantly correlated with verbal commitment.
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This chapter proposes that the potential for abject terror created by the awareness of the inevitability of death in an animal instinctively programmed for self-preservation and continued experience lies at the root of a great deal of human motivation and behavior. This chapter presents the results of a substantial body of research that attests to the broad influence of the problem of death on human social behavior and illuminates the processes through which concerns about mortality exert their influence. The chapter overviews the primary assumptions and propositions of terror management theory and a description of the initial research conducted to test the theory. It presents a detailed consideration of more recent research that establishes the convergent and discriminant validity of the mortality salience treatment and the robustness of its effects through the use of alternative mortality salience treatments and comparison treatments, and replications by other researchers; it extends the range of interpersonal behaviors that are demonstrably influenced by terror management concerns. Moreover, it demonstrates the interaction of mortality salience with other theoretically relevant situational and dispositional variables, and provides an account of the cognitive processes through which mortality salience produces its effects. Finally, this chapter discusses the relation of terror management motives to other psychological motives and gives a consideration of issues requiring further investigation.
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The sociological literature on global environmental change emphasizes the processes by which the problem of global warming is socially constructed. However, the opposing efforts to construct the "non-problematicity" of global warming advanced by the conservative movement are largely ignored. Utilizing recent work on framing processes in the serial movements literature and claims-making from the social problems literature, this paper analyzes the counter-claims promoted by the conservative movement between 1990 and 1997 as it mobilized to challenge the legitimacy of global warming as a social problem. A thematic content analysis of publications circulated on the web sites of prominent conservative think tanks reveals three major counter-claims. First, the movement criticized the evidentiary basis of global warming as weak, if not entirely wrong. second the movement argued that global warming will have substantial benefits if it occurs. Third, the movement warned that proposed action to ameliorate global warming would do more harm than good. In short, the conservative movement asserted that, while the science of global warning appears to be growing more and more uncertain. the harmful effects of global warming policy are becoming increasingly certain. In order to better understand the controversy over global warming. future research should pay attention to the influence of the conservative movement by identifying the crucial roles of conservative foundations. conservative think tanks, and sympathetic "skeptic" scientists in undermining the growing scientific consensus over the reality of global warming.
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In an effort to avoid serious ecological disruption and global climate change,low-carbon energy strategies need to be implemented on a world-wide scale along with the introduction of carbon policies and carbon management.
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A neo-Gramscian theoretical framework for corporate political strategy is developed drawing from Gramsci's analysis of the relations among capital, social forces, and the state, and from more contemporary theories. Gramsci's political theory recognizes the centrality of organizations and strategy, directs attention to the organizational, economic, and ideological pillars of power, while illuminating the processes of coalition building, conflict, and accommodation that drive social change. This approach addresses the structure-agency relationship and endogenous dynamics in a way that could enrich institutional theory. The framework suggests a strategic concept of power, which provides space for contestation by subordinate groups in complex dynamic social systems. We apply the framework to analyse the international negotiations to control emissions of greenhouse gases, focusing on the responses of firms in the US and European oil and automobile industries. The neo-Gramscian framework explains some specific features of corporate responses to challenges to their hegemonic position and points to the importance of political struggles within civil society. The analysis suggests that the conventional demarcation between market and non-market strategies is untenable, given the embeddedness of markets in contested social and political structures and the political character of strategies directed toward defending and enhancing markets, technologies, corporate autonomy and legitimacy. Copyright Blackwell Publishers Ltd 2003.
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Health-relevant communications can be framed in terms of the benefits (gains) or costs (losses) associated with a particular behavior, and the framing of such persuasive messages influences health decision making. Although to ask people to consider a health issue in terms of associated costs is considered an effective way to motivate behavior, empirical findings are inconsistent. In evaluating the effectiveness of framed health messages, investigators must appreciate the context in which health-related decisions are made. The influence of framed information on decision making is contingent on people, first, internalizing the advocated frame and, then, on the degree to which performing a health behavior is perceived as risky. The relative effectiveness of gain-framed or loss-framed appeals depends, in part, on whether a behavior serves an illness-detecting or a health-affirming function. Finally, the authors discuss the cognitive and affective processes that may mediate the influence of framed information on judgment and behavior.
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Psychology has a central role to play in speeding the transition to a sustainable future, because a central aspect of sustainability is widespread behavior change. To date, however, most programs promoting sustainable behavior have featured information-intensive campaigns that make little use of psychological knowledge. Community-based social marketing is an attractive alternative approach in which promoters identify the activity to be promoted and the barriers to this activity and then design a strategy to overcome these barriers, using psychological knowledge regarding behavior change. The strategy is piloted to test its effectiveness and later evaluated when it is implemented on a broader scale. Unlike many information-intensive campaigns, community-based social marketing has been shown to have a much greater probability of promoting sustainable behavior. Two case studies are provided to illustrate the approach and its possible results.
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Humanity already possesses the fundamental scientific, technical, and industrial know-how to solve the carbon and climate problem for the next half-century. A portfolio of technologies now exists to meet the world's energy needs over the next 50 years and limit atmospheric CO2 to a trajectory that avoids a doubling of the preindustrial concentration. Every element in this portfolio has passed beyond the laboratory bench and demonstration project; many are already implemented somewhere at full industrial scale. Although no element is a credible candidate for doing the entire job (or even half the job) by itself, the portfolio as a whole is large enough that not every element has to be used.
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This journal issue contains 13 papers devoted to the study of the environmental crisis in the Aral Sea Basin. As a result of water extraction the water level of the Aral Sea has declined significantly over the past 30 yr and a salinisation problem has developed. Various aspects relating to the crisis are explored, including: a historical chronicle of the Aral Sea and human activity in the surrounding region; the history of economic development in the region and its impact on the environment; human impact and changes in the biota of the Aral region; the salt balance of the Aral Sea; environmental deterioration and effect on health in the eastern Aral region; the role of systems analysis and an integrated approach in water resources development; water resources management in semi-arid region; and the rejuvenation of Lake Erie and its implications for managing the Aral Sea. -from Editor
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The goal of this article is to provide specific guidelines to help create effective proenvironmental public service announcements (PSAs). Campaign designers are encouraged to initially identify and investigate the optimal target audience and then draft and test reactions by samples of that audience using pilot messages. Designers are also advised to consider research on attitude persistence, memory, and social norms and apply this research to the message content and presentation style. The article concludes with an application of research from social psychology to a series of overall guidelines for effective PSAs. If environmental campaign developers follow these specifications, the chance of PSA success should be enhanced.
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Drawing on results from earlier studies that used open-ended interviews, a questionnaire was developed to examine laypeople's knowledge about the possible causes and effects of global warming, as well as the likely efficacy of possible interventions. It was administered to two well-educated opportunity samples of laypeople. Subjects had a poor appreciation of the facts that (1) if significant global warming occurs, it will be primarily the result of an increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere, and (2) the single most important source of additional carbon dioxide is the combustion of fossil fuels, most notably coal and oil. In addition, their understanding of the climate issue was encumbered with secondary, irrelevant, and incorrect beliefs. Of these, the two most critical are confusion with the problems of stratospheric ozone and difficulty in differentiating between causes and actions specific to climate and more general good environmental practice.
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Environmental degradation in the Aral Sea basin in Central Asia has been a touchstone for increasing public awareness of environmental issues. The Aral crisis has been touted as a "quiet Chernobyl" and as one of the worst human-made environmental catastrophes of the twentieth century. This multidisciplinary book is the first to comprehensively describe the slow onset of low grade but incremental changes (i.e., creeping environmental change) that affected the region and its peoples. Through a set of case studies, it describes how the region's decision-makers allowed these changes to grow into an environmental and societal nightmare. It outlines many lessons to be learned for other areas undergoing detrimental creeping environmental change, and provides an important example of how to approach such disasters for students and researchers of environmental studies, global change, political science and history.
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Climate change has been widely reported as a scientific and environmental issue. In six months' news coverage of climate change in New Zealand, reporting of basic scientific facts was overwhelmingly accurate. News sources rated over 80% of stories no worse than slightly inaccurate. However, one story in six contained significant misreporting. Some stories overstated the advance of climate change or confused ozone depletion and the greenhouse effect. Scientific sources rated coverage overall worse than their own individual judgments showed it to be. Examination of ways in which stories came about leads to recommendations on how scientists and journalists can work together to better inform the public about climate change.
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The New York Times and a few other major national news organizations, along with their sources of information, were effective in placing the global environment on the American agenda of problems during the late 1980s. This appears to have been an unplanned outcome, largely the result of a few specific environmental problems with different constituencies all becoming important news stories at about the same time. Each story reinforced the attention given to the others, so that their global linkages and common elements were emphasized. This case illustrates the interplay among national news media, prominent news sources, and extraneous events in shaping national concerns.
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How do we as cities, nations, and global communities best respond to global climate change? Mitigation - curtailing greenhouse gas emissions dominated initial discussions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and international conferences on global climate change. Now that climate change has become a clear and present danger, however, adaptation - lessening the harm and maximizing the benefits of climate change - has received more attention. Analysis reveals that integrating the two responses, though challenging, may be the most effective approach.
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This article argues that, in public and policy, contexts, the ways in which many scientists talk about uncertainty in simulations of future climate change not only facilitates communications and cooperation between scientific and policy communities but also affects the perceived authority of science. Uncertainty tends to challenge the authority of climate science, especially if ii is used for policy making, but the relationship between authority and uncertainty is not simply an inverse one. In policy contexts, many scientists are compelled to talk about uncertainty but do not wish to imply that uncertainty is a serious challenge to the authority of scientific knowledge or to its substantial use in policy making. ''Boundary-ordering devices,'' the contextual discursive attempts to reconcile uncertainty and authority in science, depend critically for their success on their ''dual'' interpretation: at a general level across a boundary and differently on either side of it The authors empirically identify a range of such boundary-ordering devices in the climate field.
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An empirical content analysis of a decade of coverage of climate change in five national newspapers in the US is presented. The analysis is based on the perspective, drawn from social problems theory, that the content of news discourse can be understood in terms of claims-making and framing. Climate change is also discussed in terms of Downs' issue-attention cycle, a five-stage model describing the rise and fall of social attention to important issues. Climate change, as a news story, is described as exhibiting three phases that are related to the sources quoted and the frames presented in the news coverage. Results of the analysis show that scientists tend to be associated with frames emphasizing problems and causes, while politicians and special interests tend to be associated with frames emphasizing judgments and remedies. Results also show how scientists declined as news sources as the issue became increasingly politicized.
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Book
Since the first Earth Day in 1970, environmentalism has become woven into the fabric of American life. Concern for environmental quality has spawned extraordinary changes in how we think, work, and recreate, in what we buy, and how we govern. But popular consensus on the environment is more complicated than it appears. The real question is no longer whether Americans side with environmentalism, but rather what kind of commitment they bring to the table. This book argues that understanding public opinion—the grassroots of the “green” revolution—is essential to sustaining genuine environmental progress. The long-term success of the environmental movement will be measured not only by its legislative achievements, but by its ability to persuade average Americans to back up their words with action, and to further alter their voting patterns, buying habits, and lifestyles. The Grassroots of a Green Revolution uses polling data from a wide variety of sources to explore the myths, inconsistencies and tensions that characterize public thinking on environmental issues. The book defines and describes key characteristics of public opinion—including direction, strength, stability, distribution, and consistency—and traces the way in which those qualities influence the behavior of citizens and consumers alike. In the end, that body of evidence is used to weigh the significance of environmental concern within the arena of U.S. politics and policymaking, and to provide pragmatic advice for decisionmakers in their efforts to motivate Americans to act in an environmentally-responsible way.
Article
The purpose of this report is to imagine the unthinkable to push the boundaries of current research on climate change so we may better understand the potential implications on United States national security. We have interviewed leading climate change scientists, conducted additional research, and reviewed several iterations of the scenario with these experts. The scientists support this project, but caution that the scenario depicted is extreme in two fundamental ways. First, they suggest the occurrences we outline would most likely happen in a few regions, rather than on globally. Second, they say the magnitude of the event may be considerably smaller. We have created a climate change scenario that although not the most likely, is plausible, and would challenge United States national security in ways that should be considered immediately.
Article
Protection motivation theory (PMT) was introduced by Rogers in 1975 and has since been widely adopted as a framework for the prediction of and intervention in health-related behavior. However. PMT remains the only major cognitive model of behavior not to have been the subject of a meta-analytic review. A quantitative review of PMT is important to assess its overall utility as a predictive model and to establish which of its variables would be most useful to address health-education interventions. The present paper provides a comprehensive introduction to PMT and its application to health-related behavior, together with a quantitative review of the applications of PMT to health-related intentions and behavior. The associations between threat- and coping-appraisal variables and intentions, and all components of the model and behavior were assessed both by meta-analysis and by vote-count procedures. Threat- and coping-appraisal components of PMT were found to be useful in the prediction of health-related intentions. The model was found to be useful in predicting concurrent behavior, but of less utility in predicting future behavior. The coping-appraisal component of the model was found to have greater predictive validity than was the threat-appraisal component. The main findings are discussed in relation to theory and research on social cognition models. The importance of the main findings to health education is also discussed, and future research directions are suggested.
Article
Public understanding of global warming, also known as global climate change, is treated here as an example of a mass communication problem that has yet to be adequately solved. A survey of metropolitan area residents found that although people are aware of this problem in a general sense, understanding of particular causes, possible consequences, and solutions is more limited. Both mass media and interpersonal communication appear to make a positive contribution to understanding, as well as to perpetuating some popular misconceptions.
Article
A set of exploratory studies and mental model interviews was conducted in order to characterize public understanding of climate change. In general, respondents regarded global warming as both bad and highly likely. Many believed that warming has already occurred. They tended to confuse stratospheric ozone depletion with the greenhouse effect and weather with climate. Automobile use, heat and emissions from industrial processes, aerosol spray cans, and pollution in general were frequently perceived as primary causes of global warming. Additionally, the [open quotes]greenhouse effect[close quotes] was often interpreted literally as the cause of a hot and steamy climate. The effects attributed to climate change often included increased skin cancer and changed agricultural yields. The mitigation and control strategies proposed by interviewees typically focused on general pollution control, with few specific links to carbon dioxide and energy use. Respondents appeared to be relatively unfamiliar with such regulatory developments as the ban on CFCs for nonessential uses. These beliefs must be considered by those designing risk communications or presenting climate-related policies to the public. 20 refs., 4 tabs.
Book
This book will change the way we understand the future of our planet. It is both alarming and hopeful. James Gustave Speth, renowned as a visionary environmentalist leader, warns that in spite of all the international negotiations and agreements of the past two decades, efforts to protect Earth's environment are not succeeding. Still, he says, the challenges are not insurmountable. He offers comprehensive, viable new strategies for dealing with environmental threats around the world. The author explains why current approaches to critical global environmental problems - climate change, biodiversity loss, deterioration of marine environments, deforestation, water shortages, and others - don't work. He offers intriguing insights into why we have been able to address domestic environmental threats with some success while largely failing at the international level. Setting forth eight specific steps to a sustainable future, Speth convincingly argues that dramatically different government and citizen action are now urgent. If ever a book could be described as essential, this is it.
Article
Surveys show most Americans believe global warming is real. But many advocate delaying action until there is more evidence that warming is harmful. The stock and flow structure of the climate, however, means "wait and see" policies guarantee further warming. Atmospheric CO 2 concentration is now higher than any time in the last 420,000 years, and growing faster than any time in the past 20,000 years. The high concentration of CO 2 and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) generates significant radiative forcing that contributes to warming. To reduce radiative forcing and the human contribution to warming, GHG concentrations must fall. To reduce GHG concentrations, emissions must fall below the rate at which GHGs are removed from the atmosphere. Anthropogenic CO 2 emissions are now roughly double the removal rate, and the removal rate is projected to fall as natural carbon sinks saturate. Emissions must therefore fall by more than half even to stabilize CO 2 at present record levels. Such reductions greatly exceed the Kyoto targets, while the Bush administration's Clear Skies Initiative calls for continued emissions growth. Does the public understand these physical facts? We report experiments assessing people's intuitive understanding of climate change. We presented highly educated graduate students with descriptions of greenhouse warming drawn from the IPCC?s nontechnical reports. Subjects were then asked to identify the likely response to various scenarios for CO 2 emissions or concentrations. The tasks require no mathematics, only an understanding of stocks and flows and basic facts about climate change. Overall performance was poor. Subjects often select trajectories that violate conservation of matter. Many believe temperature responds immediately to changes in CO 2 emissions or concentrations. Still more believe that stabilizing emissions near current rates would stabilize the climate, when in fact emissions would continue to exceed removal, increasing GHG concentrations and radiative forcing. Such beliefs support wait and see policies, but violate basic laws of physics. We discuss implications for education and public policy.
Article
The US political system poses both opportunities and obstacles for those who hope for a more constructive dialogue on climate issues. At least until early 2005, the administration is likely to continue its present course of misrepresenting the scientific consensus, opposing mandatory domestic limits on greenhouse gas emissions, and obstructing international diplomacy. Depending on the outcome of the 2004 presidential and congressional elections, those tendencies could continue for many more years. At the same time, however, there are significant changes in other parts of the US polity that are already creating a new climate policy regime and bode well for policy changes in the long term. This article examines the obstacles to engaging the national administration and key members of congress, as well as the opportunities for engaging other groups.
ON ABRUPT CLIMATE CHANGE: THE DANGERS OF A TEMPTING METAPHOR on alarmists, see S
  • Flipping The
FLIPPING THE "SWITCH" ON ABRUPT CLIMATE CHANGE: THE DANGERS OF A TEMPTING METAPHOR on alarmists, see S. Boehmer-Christiansen, " Global Climate Protection Policy: The Limits of Scientific Advice, Parts 1 and 2," Global Environmental Change 4 (1994): 140-59, 185-200;
The Heat Is On: The Climate Crisis, the Cover-Up, the Prescription (Boulder
  • R Gelbspan
R. Gelbspan, The Heat Is On: The Climate Crisis, the Cover-Up, the Prescription (Boulder, CO: Perseus Books, 1997);
and Activists Have Fueled A Climate Crisis-And What We Can Do To Avert Disaster
  • R Gelbspan
  • S Opotow
  • L Weiss
R. Gelbspan, The Boiling Point: How Politicians, Big Oil And Coal, Journalists, and Activists Have Fueled A Climate Crisis-And What We Can Do To Avert Disaster (Boulder, CO: Perseus Books, 2004); and S. Opotow and L. Weiss, " Denial and the Process of Moral Exclusion in Environmental Conflict," Journal of Social Issues 56 (2000): 475-90.
This was also a clear finding in the early days of risk communication studies; see, for example, S. Krimsky and A. Plough
  • D Sarewitz
D. Sarewitz, " How Science Makes Environmental Controversies Worse," Environmental Science & Policy 7 (2004): 385-403. 4. This was also a clear finding in the early days of risk communication studies; see, for example, S. Krimsky and A. Plough, Environmental Hazards: Communicating Risks as a Social Process (Dover, MA: Auburn House Publishing Co., 1988).
Communicating Climate Change
C. Tickell, " Communicating Climate Change," Science, 2 August 2002, 737.
National Research Council (NRC) Board on Sustainable Development
  • Defries
Defries), One Earth, One Future: Our Changing Global Environment (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1990); National Research Council (NRC) Board on Sustainable Development, Our Common Journey: A Transition Toward Sustainability (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1999);
Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis
A summary of research progress over the past decade is available in J. T. Houghton et al., eds., Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis, Contribution of Working Group I to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001). See also K. E. Trenberth, " Stronger Evidence of Human Influences on Climate: The 2001 IPCC Assessment," Environment, May 2001, 8-19.