Archive for the ‘communication and framing’ Category
| Newer Entries »Climate change communication framing in action
Friday, November 6th, 2009
A story today in the Washington Post, Environmental groups at odds over new tack in climate fight, highlights the framing battle different environmental groups are engaging as well as some assumptions about what environmental literacy and communication alone can do.
An introductory excerpt:
At the heart of this intra-green disagreement is a behemoth of an unanswered question. Even after years of apocalyptic warnings about climate change, how much will Americans really sacrifice to fight it?
An excerpt about framing:
On Tuesday night, climate activist Nancy Jackson was speaking to one of the most climate-skeptical audiences in the country: Kansans. She was speaking to college students here in Manhattan — a town where one religious leader was able to draw congregants to screenings of “An Inconvenient Truth” only by passing out Nerf balls, so they could hurl them at the image of Al Gore.
“Take climate change off the table, okay?” Jackson said, after reciting evidence that the climate really is changing. “You don’t have to buy it for everything I’m about to say, because everything we do [to combat climate change] is a good idea for at least three other reasons.”
She told the students that Kansas has an abundance of wind, sun and crops like corn and prairie grasses — all potential sources of renewable power. The message worked, at least on 21 year-old student Matthew Brandt. He said he doesn’t believe in climate change, but — after hearing Jackson’s talk — he was interested in windmills.
“I plan to have a wind turbine on my property” after graduation, Brandt said. “I figure it’s a good investment.”
And an alternate view:
“It’s a lack of faith in the American public,” said Kieran Suckling of the Center for Biological Diversity, an Arizona nonprofit organization, talking about the light-on-climate ads used by bigger groups. “If the scientists, the environmentalists in our country do their jobs, and explain the test of climate change, the public will come along.”
“Instead of doing that job,” Suckling said, “we’re running away from it.”
Related posts:
- Why don’t people engage climate change? Overview
- Why don’t people engage climate change? Problem 1: Environmental Literacy
- Why don’t people engage climate change? Problem 2: Communication
- Why don’t people engage climate change? Problem 3: Personal perceptions, values, and behaviors.
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/partsnpieces/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Posted in behavior, communication and framing | No Comments »
Why don’t people engage climate change? Problem 3: Personal perception, values, and behavior
Friday, November 6th, 2009
Prerequisite posts:
- Why don’t people engage climate change? Overview
- Why don’t people engage climate change? Problem 1: Environmental Literacy
- Why don’t people engage climate change? Problem 2: Communication
In earlier posts, we examined climate change engagement as problems of environmental literacy and communication. There is no doubt we can do better with both of these. But as we will see, proponents of environmental literacy and communication make a mistake if they believe engagement is simply a matter of getting more information to people. Science, it is believed, will speak for itself.
Unfortunately, it often doesn’t.
A political scientist recently told me that before the age of 25, people use information to shape their value system and perceptions of the world. After 25, they start cherry picking information that simply reinforces these beliefs (hence the world of cable news).
Although this is is a rough generalization, it suggests that a person’s values development may have a shelf life. It also reveals why issues like climate change may not resonate with people cut from certain ideological cloths—no matter how much information they encounter.
The psychology, sociology, and ethics literature has a lot to say about this problem. For simplicity, I want to pull out four challenges I think are among the most common and important with respect to climate change…
Posted in behavior, climate skeptics deniers and contrarians, communication and framing, environmentalism, gender, nature and culture, race and class, religion, social science, sustainability | 10 Comments »
Why don’t people engage climate change? Problem 2: Communication
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
Prerequisite posts:
- Why don’t people engage climate change? Overview
- Why don’t people engage climate change? Problem 1: Environmental Literacy
It’s become clear in recent years that information about climate change is conveyed poorly to the public. In fact, there are now programs like the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University and blogs like Matt Nisbet’s Framing Science that examine this issue.
There have been a number of recent studies1 that identify at least 8 reasons why communication is part of the problem:
Posted in behavior, communication and framing, nature and culture | 9 Comments »
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