Apple users running MacOSX 10.4 or later must install Microsoft's Silverlight software in order to view the streaming videos. Once installed, restart your browser before viewing. Silverlight 4.0 intel (14MB) | Silverlight 1.0 ppc (5MB) WATCH AND LISTEN under 10 minutes Global Warming's Six Americas Anthony Leiserowitz In this eloquent short video, the director of the Yale Forum on Climate Change & The Media explains the basic (and very important) results of this on-going public survey project tracking American attitudes about and knowledge of climate change. (6 minutes, 2011) longer Heated Words? How We Talk About Climate Change Martin Carcasson, Department of Communication Studies, Colorado State University In what ways do people discuss climate change? What are some traps that our politicians, experts, and advocates may fall into? This short clip includes different ways that we talk about climate change, some of the problems, and ways to move forward. (18 minutes, February 2009) How We Talk About Climate Change: What Works, What Doesn't, and What Might Work Jes Thompson, Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, Colorado State University This video offers ten key strategies for effective communication on this tricky topic, in the context of a discussion of how the conversation developed between 2004 and 2009. (23 minutes, February 2009) Communicating Climate Change Robert Henson, writer for National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) / University Center for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), author of the Rough Guide to Climate Change A clear and engaging look at goals and methods: translating the science (slides 42-62), convincing those inclined to skepticism (63-67), instilling concern (68-79), and motivating people to act (80-90). Henson describes where we are now in communicating about global warming and looks down the road ahead of us. (58 minutes, April 2008) READ articles & essays Communication: Start Here Changing Climates @ CSU / 100 Views of Climate Change An annotated list of excellent sources for getting started with the topic of climate change communication. Designed to print out as a single double-sided sheet. Climate Change is Everybody's Business. So How Do You Talk to Everybody? Changing Climates @ CSU / 100 Views of Climate Change This concise tip sheet summarizes six key communication principles, a few particulars for the topic of climate change, and a brief guide to a few of the resources listed on this website. Designed to print out as a single double-sided sheet, with room for hole-punching. The Frog and the Polar Bear and Climate Change for Sale Tony Davis, Grist.org, December 2011 If you're new to the topic of climate change communication, start here, with this good, quick overview of reasons Americans might not be concerned enough about climate change and some ideas about how to counter this disconnect. The Science of Why We Don't Believe Science Chris Mooney, Mother Jones, May/June 2011 This is an excellent introduction to "motivated reasoning," one major source of the difficulty of communicating about climate change (and other tricky, polarized topics). Mooney's last words: "Paradoxically, you don't lead with the facts in order to convince. You lead with the values-so as to give the facts a fighting chance." The Psychology of Climate Change Communication The Center for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED), Columbia University, 2009 The best efficient guide available for sound advice about better ways to communicate about climate change, especially with the general public and decision makers from government and business. Culling research findings from psychology, anthropology, economics, history, environmental science and policy, and climate science, this text's principles and examples are clear, practical, and interesting. The principal sections are "Know Your Audience," "Get Your Audience's Attention," "Translate Scientific Data into Concrete Experience," "Beware the Overuse of Emotional Appeals," "Address Scientific and Climate Uncertainties," "Tap into Social Identities and Affiliations," "Encourage Group Participation," and "Make Behavior Change Easier." The report is well worth reading in its entirety, but there's also a useful summary, "The Principles of Climate Change Communication in Brief." Global Warming's Six Americas Prepared by the Yale Project on Climate Change and George Mason University's Center for Climate Change Communication, this important series of downloadable surveys analyses the American public's "climate change beliefs, attitudes, risk perceptions, motivations, values, policy preferences, behaviors, and underlying barriers to action." The comprehensive landmark study from 2009 finds six groups: the Alarmed, Concerned, Cautious, Disengaged, and Doubtful. Newer studies include annual updates and a wide range of more specific surveys focusing on such topics as race and ethnicity, public health, what teens know about climate change, and the connections between opinions on this topic and political affiliations. For related information that focuses on African Americans on Climate Change, see two reports prepared by the Joint center for Political and Economic Studies: one on African Americans on Climate Change and Conservation (2009), and one on African Americans on Climate Change and 2010 Midterm Elections, which looks just at Arkansas, Indiana, Missouri, and South Carolina. Countering Misinformation The Debunking Handbook John Cook and Stephan Lewandowsky This short, clear piece offers excellent research-supported advice for debunking misinformation and incorrect "myths" about climate change (and other topics), including tips for avoiding the surprising but real backfire effects that tend to reinforce myths even when the intent is to replace them with facts. Cook is a climate change communication specialist; Lewandowsky is a cognitive scientist; both well-qualified authors are Australian. The Skeptical Science website offers many additional useful resources focused on correcting and contextualizing climate change misinformation. How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic: Responses to the Most Common Skeptical Arguments on Global Warming Coby Beck, Grist.org Ever find yourself wanting to respond with solid information to somebody who doesn't "believe in" climate change? Want help replying to letters in your local newspaper that strike you as misinformed? The series of responses by Coby Beck, posted on Grist.org, is the place to look. Indexed in several useful ways: by "stages of denial" ("climate change is natural"), by "scientific topic" ("scientific process"), by "types of argument" ("cherry picking"), and by "levels of sophistication" ("naive"). Well-informed, crystal-clear, and fun to read. Why the Global Warming Skeptics Are Wrong William D. Nordhaus, New York Review of Books, March 22, 2012 Straightforward refutation of the six main points made by skeptics in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, written by an economist from Yale whose work they misunderstand and distort. Writing an Effective Letter to the Editor The Union of Concerned Scientists offers useful, succinct tips and explains why such letters are important, even if they don't get published. Communicating the Science of Climate Change Richard Somerville and Susan Joy Hassol, Physics Today, October 2011 A leading climate scientist and science communicator summarize the urgency of improving the communication between climate scientists and the public and then offer several key tips for that improvement. For a pithy version of key tips, see Hassol's Improving How Scientists Communicate Climate Change, which was published in EOS. websites ClimateAccess.org This website offers an excellent one-stop-shopping "resource hub" focusing on "essential research, news articles, and commentary on climate change communications, behavior change, and public opinion." (It includes other elements, too, but these are central.) Significant parts of the site are public; for others, you need to apply as part of an organization working in this field. Run by the Resource Innovation Group's Social Capital Project, the Rutgers Initiative on Climate and Society, and the Stonehouse Standing Circle, the website features two mottoes: "The network for those engaging the public in the transformation to low-carbon, resilient communities" and "SHARING WHAT WORKS." TEACH classes Covering Climate Change Tom Yulsman, the Poynter Institute News University This free, online, self-directed course offers to "non-expert reporters and citizen journalists a firm grounding in the science and policy underlying climate change." Estimated time to complete: 4 hours. Writing about the Environment: Climate Change SueEllen Campbell, Department of English, Colorado State University This semester-long graduate course is taught by Dr. SueEllen Campbell, Department of English, Colorado State University. It focuses on writing clearly about climate change in a number of different genres, including editorials, science writing for general readers, and personal essay. resources "Without Evidence, There Is No Answer": Uncertainty and Scientific Ethos in the Silent Spring[s] of Rachel Carson Kenny Walker, Environmental Humanities, Spring 2013 We have seen that emphasizing doubt can confuse the public and paralyze policy. But sometimes, this article argues, a strategic rhetorical use of scientific uncertainty can work in the other direction, to articulate risk, involve the public in the conversation, and move policy forward. Though Walker's topic is chemical pesticides, the potential analogies to climate change are obvious. Misinformation and Its Correction: Continued Influence and Successful Debiasing Stephan Lewandowsky, Ullrich K. H. Ecker, Colleen M. Seifert, Norbert Schwarz, and John Cook. Psychological Science and the Public Interest, 2012. This is an excellent scholarly overview of an important topic: lucid, informative, and packed with references to relevant studies. George Mason University, Center for Climate Change Communication This center uses "social science research methods‒experiments, surveys, in-depth interviews and other methods‒to find ways of effectively engaging the public and policy makers in the problem, and in considering and enacting solutions." The website offers resources such as annotations for new journal articles from the academic literature, links to relevant blogs, and the center's own reports, including their 2011 "Climate Change in the American Mind Series," their work with meteorologists and public health officials, and the Six Americas series (on which they collaborate with the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication). Creating a Climate for Change: Communicating Climate Change and Facilitating Social Change Eds. Susanne Moser and Lisa Dilling. Cambridge University Press, 2007, 534 pp. plus index. This essential collection offers 32 essays on a wide range of topics connected to the subtitle, including but reaching far beyond key basic tips for effective communication. Among the distinguished writers are a cultural anthropologist, an Anglican priest, ethicist/philosophers, policy makers and analysts, educators, journalists, scientists, planners, psychologists, sociologists, and directors of various climate change centers. A little academic in style, but not hard to read; the editors' wrap-up essay at the end of the volume is a good place to begin.