Download If they only knew…

Science in the service of society
Reflections on an NCAR Workshop on
Communication Strategies for Climate Change
Susi Moser & Lisa Dilling (ESIG)
NCAR Directors’ Meeting
July 15, 2004
Some background
Water resources
More extremes
Impacts on
northern latitudes
IPCC: “A collective picture of a warming world”
Coral reefs
Possible futures
The societal efforts needed to achieve emissions stabilization,
let alone stabilization of concentrations, are enormous…
Lag times in societal change
Some examples…
 Design life of a power plant: 30+ years
 Design life of a dam: decades to 100 years
 Dominant economic paradigm and supporting
social structures: decades to centuries
 Habits: years to a lifetime
 Values: change over generations
Perceptions of climate change
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~90% of American public aware of “global warming”
For ~30% it is personally serious, urgent, worth worrying
about
Still confusion about causes of global warming
Global warming seen as inevitable and unfixable
Seen as signs of irreversible deterioration of moral values
Few know about solutions; most are (believed to be)
ineffective or irrelevant
Few if any studies have looked at adaptation; climate
variability
“The typical global warming news story overwhelms and
immobilizes people.”
(Frameworks Institute 2003)
Why the communication – social
change interface?
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What is not seen does not exist
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What is not understood is dismissed, denied, or
polemically discussed
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Influence on “issue culture”
What is not talked about exerts no political
pressure
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Facilitation of informed public discourse
about issue and solutions
How something is framed determines response
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Detection and naming of problem
Public agenda setting
Link between public discourse and political stage
Without knowing about accessible solutions we
will do nothing
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Critical R&D
Pioneers, models, early adopters
Promotion
>> Critical role for science
Once upon a time
there was a grant …
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History of project
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June 1999 – Adele Simmons donates $$ to NCAR for enhancing
science-NGO communication
NGO-NCAR Roundtable
Journals for Developing Country Authors: Capacity Building
Through Access
June 2004 – Workshop “Communicating Urgency – Facilitating
Social Change: New Strategies for Climate Change”
Funding: $50,000
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MacArthur: $33,250
NSF (Cliff Jacobs): up to $5,000
Walter Orr Roberts Institute: $6,750
ESIG: $5,000+
The workshop
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Innovative connection
across disciplines
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E.g.: sociology, journalism,
risk communication,
geography, anthropology,
psychology, political
science, philosophy,
economics, media studies
Inclusion of information
users, stakeholders
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E.g.: city and state
representatives, NGOs,
business representatives,
the Ad Council…
See: www.esig.ucar.edu/changeworkshop/index.html
The goals
Overarching question:
How can we improve climate change
communication in a way that effectively supports
societal response to climate change?
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Take stock of state of knowledge in pertinent fields
and identify the connections between them
Foster communication across the disciplinary,
paradigmatic, and academic/practitioner lines
Develop research agenda and response options in
context of climate change
A Framework for the CommunicationBehavior Change Continuum
Unwieldy
problem
Communication
Audience
Choice
Mental
Models
Behavior
Change
Sought
Message
Framing
Identification
of
Barriers
Messenger
Choice
Program
Design &
Planning
Communication
Channel
Choice
Behavior
Change
Tools
Message
Reception
Maintenance
Individual Behavior Change
Collective Action
(neighborhoods, organizations, businesses, cities, states, nation)
Termination
Achieved and expected outcomes
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Research and Action Agendas
Synthesis articles in Environment, BAMS, Public
Communication of Science, IHDP Update
Edited volume of papers emerging from the
workshop
New projects, new collaborations
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“Rapid response” team of scientists
Collaborative efforts (e.g., New England,
NCAR)
New focus for Public Conversations
Project
Climate change website/clearinghouse
Ongoing dialogue
Follow-on research projects in early stages
of development
Elements of success
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The Challenges
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Walking Our Talk
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Theoretical Integration/Complementarity
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Different disciplines; Levels of social change
Maintaining credibility for academics and relevance for
practitioners
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Communicating across disciplinary and professional boundaries
Balance of research and action agendas
It worked!
 Overall
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Pre-workshop
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Resourceful website, 1-pagers
Workshop
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Strong steering committee
5-minute presentations, “barn-raising”, long breaks, lots of social
interaction, flexibility in workshop format
Post-workshop
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Efforts to not loose stakeholder perspectives, follow-up
Participants/Institutions
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University community
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Federal agencies
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Tufts U., Georgia Tech, Rutgers, U. of
Oregon, U. of Wisconsin, U. of Vermont,
Colorado State U., New York U., U. of
Delaware , RAND, GKSS-Germany, U. of
California-Irvine, U. of Maryland, U. of
Aberdeen-UK, U. of Toronto
NREL, NCAR, NSF
Practitioners
Cities of San Diego, Santa
Monica, Portland; States of
New York,
Massachusetts;
NRDC, UCS, ICLEI, Public
Conversation Project, Pew
Center on Global
Climate
Change, Ad
Council,
Empowerment Institute,
… and what they said
“I was thrilled to be with
so many intelligent
people who are
approaching Climate
Protection from many
different ways. […] I was
amazed to learn about all
the actions underway,
and I also got some great
ideas to try at home, as
well as reference
material.”
Linda Pratt
City of San Diego
…more positive feedback
“I came to the program with no background in the
relevant scientific or policy issues, and found the
opportunity to get up to sufficient speed to offer
contributions. I enjoyed working people from very
diverse backgrounds, and felt like I could help
produce useful work in this area, both academically,
and in terms of public
education. ”
David Meyer
University of CA-Irvine
We should continue the dialogue…
“My overall experience? Extremely positive! I believe it
was the most intellectual stimulation I have had since
grad school. […] [What I most want to come out of
this are] continued relationships with the other
workshop participants. On Friday it started to feel like
when I was a kid leaving summer camp - I'd made all
these great, intense connections with all these new
people and all of a sudden its all over.”
Abby Young,
ICLEI – Cities for Climate Protection Campaign