The Art of Communicating Climate Change to the Public

What is the best way to communicate the consequences of manmade climate change to the general public? Upon first glance, communicating the issue of anthropogenic climate change to the general public seems difficult since it is not immediate or an everyday occurrence or struggle for most people like worrying about whether one will have a job tomorrow or enough money to pay the bills.  As such, the challenge of communicating on climate change is present since there are a myriad of other issues that are more apparent and immediate.  Consequently, those who are concerned with climate change must find a way to effectively communicate the seriousness of it and what the consequences of it are or will be if nothing is done to address it.

The challenge is communicating climate change so as to make it relevant to the daily lives of individuals. In particular, climate change at least in the U.S. has been polled as "a very serious threat to 'you and your community by 19%.'" As such, communicating climate change is an art where individuals should "highlight the current impacts of climate change on regions within the U.S. Research suggests that it may be more effective to frame climate change with local examples in addition to national examples." Consequently, policymakers, climate change advocates, scientists, and the media cannot simply talk in terms of melting glaciers or polar bears' habitats disappearing if the goal is to get individuals to take action to combat the real threat of manmade climate change.  After all, melting glaciers and disappearing habitats for polar bears are not immediately visible or apparent to the average Joe.

As a result, it is true that to effectively communicate climate change, it is a good idea to state what the impacts are in one's community if no action is taken either now or in the distant future.  However, it may still be difficult to assert with any degree of confidence what the current impacts of climate change are in a particular community since events and scenarios are likely to change day to day as well as in the future.  Nevertheless, to get the attention of individuals, communicating the current impacts of climate change is a good idea since that is more likely to get peoples' attention than something that happens farther away on a national scale.  For example, a farmer in the midwest would be more concerned with prolonged drought conditions that affect their livelihood more so than melting glaciers since the immediate need is for them to be able to make a living as a farmer.  To get the farmer's attention, it would be necessary to show them that the prolonged drought can be explained by manmade climate change.  As a result, they would be more likely to get involved in some way to address the issue if explained in local terms like that--it is affecting their livelihood.

Photo Credit: geograph