PA33D:
Breaking through the Noise: Effective Climate Communication with People, Policymakers, and Pundits II


Session ID#: 8823

Session Description:
Public attitudes toward climate change range from deeply engaged to disempowered to dismissive. How are scientists effectively working with citizens, media outlets, and policymakers to accurately inform dialogues and decisions around climate change, including possible solutions? This session will feature scientists, educators and communications professionals working to break through the noise in local, regional and national conversations about climate change. From citizen science to public forums, social media, business partnerships, traditional media outreach, new online communication initiatives, and direct engagement with policymakers, scientists and scientific institutions are actively working to improve public understanding of climate science and create space for integrating climate science into decision-making. Scientists and communicators are learning how to cut through divisive preconceptions, tell better stories, and  share their own values as they explain the significance of their work. This session will cover lessons learned from failures, success stories, and new climate communication outreach efforts and initiatives.
Primary Convener:  Gretchen T Goldman, Union of Concerned Scientists Washington DC, Washington, DC, United States
Conveners:  Aaron Huertas, Union of Concerned Scientists Washington DC, Communications, Washington, DC, United States and Kristin Wegner, GLOBE Program, The GLOBE Implementation Office, Boulder, CO, United States
Chairs:  Kristin Wegner, GLOBE Program, The GLOBE Implementation Office, Boulder, CO, United States and Brenda Ekwurzel, Union of Concerned Scientists, Washington, DC, United States
OSPA Liaison:  Aaron Huertas, Union of Concerned Scientists Washington DC, Communications, Washington, DC, United States

Cross-Listed:
  • ED - Education
  • GC - Global Environmental Change
  • SI - Societal Impacts and Policy Sciences
Index Terms:

0815 Informal education [EDUCATION]
6309 Decision making under uncertainty [POLICY SCIENCES]
6615 Legislation and regulations [PUBLIC ISSUES]
6620 Science policy [PUBLIC ISSUES]

Abstracts Submitted to this Session:

Communicating the Signal of Climate Change in The Presence of Non-Random Noise (Invited) (58653)
Michael E Mann, Pennsylvania State University, Philadelphia, United States
Effective Climate Communication with Difficult Audiences (Invited) (60877)
A Scott Denning, Colorado State University, Department of Atmospheric Science, Fort Collins, CO, United States
The Deep End of the Pool: Strategy, Skills and Priorities for Climate Communication (Invited) (67438)
Sarah E Myhre, University of Washington Seattle, Seattle, WA, UNITED STATES; University of Washington, Future of Ice Initiative and the School of Oceanography, Seattle, WA, United States
Working with invalid boundary conditions: lessons from the field for communicating about climate change with public audiences (58470)
Andrew Gunther, Center for Ecosystem Management and Restoration, Oakland, CA, United States
Creating Effective Dialogue Around Climate Change (Invited) (59957)
Jeffrey Theodore Kiehl, UC Santa Cruz, Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Santa Cruz, CA, United States
Improving Climate Change Communication Skills through Community Outreach (58550)
Janel Hanrahan, Lyndon State College, Lyndonville, VT, United States
Engaging Communities Where They Are: New Hampshire’s Coastal Adaptation Workgroup (62890)
Cameron P Wake1, Sherry Godlewski2, Kirsten Howard2, Julie Labranche3, Steve Miller4, Julia Peterson5 and Catherine Ashcraft1, (1)University of New Hampshire Main Campus, Durham, NH, United States, (2)NH Department of Environmental Services, Concord, NH, United States, (3)Rockingham Planning Commission, Exeter, NH, United States, (4)Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Greenland, NH, United States, (5)University of New Hampshire Main Campus, Durham, United States
Pre Normal Science and the Transition to Post-Normal Policy (63281)
Joshua B Halpern, Howard University, Chemistry, Washington, DC, United States

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