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 IPCC: “A collective picture of a warming world” Impacts on northern latitudes 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

       ~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?

    

What is not seen does not exist

 Detection and naming of problem  Public agenda setting

What is not understood is dismissed, denied, or polemically discussed

 Facilitation of informed public discourse about issue and solutions

How something is framed determines response

 Influence on “issue culture”

What is not talked about exerts no political pressure

 Link between public discourse and political stage

Without knowing about accessible solutions we will do nothing

   Critical R&D Pioneers, models, early adopters Promotion >> Critical role for science

Once upon a time there was a grant …

  History of project  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     MacArthur: $33,250 NSF (Cliff Jacobs): up to $5,000 Walter Orr Roberts Institute: $6,750 ESIG: $5,000+

The workshop

  Innovative connection across disciplines  E.g.: sociology, journalism, risk communication, geography, anthropology, psychology, political science, philosophy, economics, media studies Inclusion of information users, stakeholders  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?

 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 Communication Behavior Change Continuum

Unwieldy problem

Communication

Audience Choice Mental Models Message Framing Messenger Choice Communication Channel Choice Message Reception Behavior Change Sought Identification of Barriers Program Design & Planning

Individual Behavior Change Collective Action

(neighborhoods, organizations, businesses, cities, states, nation) Behavior Change Tools Maintenance Termination

Achieved and expected outcomes

    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  “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

  The Challenges   

Walking Our Talk

 Communicating across disciplinary and professional boundaries

Theoretical Integration/Complementarity

 Different disciplines; Levels of social change

Maintaining credibility for academics and relevance for practitioners

 Balance of research and action agendas It worked!



Overall

 Strong steering committee   

Pre-workshop

 Resourceful website, 1-pagers

Workshop

 5 minute presentations, “barn-raising”, long breaks, lots of social interaction, flexibility in workshop format

Post-workshop

 Efforts to not loose stakeholder perspectives, follow-up

Participants/Institutions

   University community  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 Federal agencies  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, Center for Psychology & Social Change

… 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