The oceans provide half of the oxygen in the atmosphere and have absorbed 30% of human-caused carbon emissions and 90% of the heat produced by global warming over the past few decades. They are changing as carbon emissions continue to increase, and concern about ocean acidification is growing. While public understanding of this change is
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What determines whether we act in an environmentally-friendly way? A (mostly) psychological perspective
The carbon emissions of any one person are minute in the context of global climate change. And yet, in aggregate, in the developed world at least, our environmental footprints give rise to the host of problems faced today: we are all a small part of something bigger. The recognition of the importance of individual actions
Individual and structural level action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: beyond recycling
One of the key questions for anyone concerned about climate change mitigation is: “what must we do about it?” For climate change communication and engagement projects that translates to: “what recommendation should we be giving to people or policy makers in order to reduce emissions?” In climate change action one might distinguish between individual level
How psychological distance and personal experiences influence perceptions of and response to climate change
Many people think of climate change as an issue that is predominantly distant and abstract. This blog post elaborates on these perceptions and talks about if and how they may change because of communications or personal experiences of climate-related weather events. Climate change as a psychologically distant issue Surveys show that many people think of
Trust and its role in climate change communication
People who distrust scientists are less likely to agree with the scientific consensus on climate change, and more likely to support climate sceptic governments. For this reason, enhancing trust in climate science is often seen as a silver bullet to help increase public concern about climate change and grow support for climate policy. However, trust
The power of narrative approaches to communications
The use of narratives and storytelling in science can sometimes have negative connotations, based on the assumption that a story is something that is made up, while science produces objective and falsifiable knowledge. But stories and narratives are simply a form of communication. Just like statistics, although they can be false or manipulative, they can
Public understanding of climate change: variability and influences
Public awareness of, and concern about climate change is an important ingredient for bringing about policy change. How best then can we characterise public understanding of this topic? Beliefs about climate change have been described as being as complex as the issue itself but it is possible to point to some key patterns and trends. Back
Do people need to know more to care more?
Are the public disengaged with scientific topics like climate change simply because they lack knowledge in the subject? It might be easy to assume this, but research has shown that the relationship between scientific literacy and concern about/engagement with climate change is not straightforward. That doesn’t mean we should dismiss knowledge as a factor that
Communicating uncertainty
Uncertainty is very ordinary. We all navigate uncertainties in our everyday life: the weather, when we might get sick, who’ll win an election, whether the bus will be on time or get stuck in traffic. We often see arguments for inaction on climate change based on uncertainty – if we don’t know for sure how
Workshop 2: The science is settled? Exploring expert views
If there’s one thing about public engagement with climate change you can be certain about, it is that climate change doesn’t communicate itself. There is now a wealth of climate communication research, plus decades of practitioner expertise on public engagement to draw on. But how much agreement is there among climate communication specialists on what