Communicating Climate Change

This episode presents a different perspective, from a climate communication practitioner, photojournalist Gary Braasch. He discusses his new book, Earth Under Fire, highlighting his reasons for telling the climate story as he has and offering some insights into the reception that the book’s been receiving. Passionate and committed, Braasch is definitely one of those “out on the front lines,” translating and communicating climate science for public audiences. As such, his experience may have particular interest to this Web site’s audience.

Braasch’s own site presents the two photographs that he discusses in the conversation:

http://www.earthunderfire.com/portfolio/

Episode 7. Gary Braasch

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[Note: the following news story highlights the podcasts to date; follow the link to the complete story]

Presidential hopefuls and policy-makers across the political spectrum seem to have absorbed the news that the changing global climate is a cause for serious concern and action. But communicating successfully with the American public about the issue is still very much a work in progress.

“People are convinced that climate change is here,” said Susanne Moser, of the Institute for the Study of Society and Environment at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). But “people don’t know a lot about the solutions,” she added. “They feel quite disillusioned or pessimistic that their little action will address this global overwhelming problem.”

Complete story

To help listeners, we’ve added table of content files to the original podcast postings. See below in Episode 1: Anthony Leiserowitz and Episode 2: Susanne Moser.

Now all podcasts have these handy contents lists.

Dr. Maibach is a professor in the Department of Communication at George Mason University and also the director of the Center of Excellence in Climate Change Communication Research. Among topics of our conversation are a communication model which he has been developing, the results of a recent and very large climate survey he conducted, and Americans’ perceptions of the threat from global warming.

As with the conversation with Baruch Fischhoff (below), this one is divided into two parts. Both parts are linked here in this one post.

Episode 6: Ed Maibach

Part one (duration: 15:57)

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Part two (duration: 17:57)

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Here’s the shorter, second part of the conversation with Dr. Fischhoff, in which he discusses a range of intriguing topics, including whether climate change is different in kind, or only degree, from other communication challenges; the role of emotions in decision making; and panic and human resiliency.

Although this part could be listened to independently of the first part (Episode 4), the conversation tends to build on what came before, and the listener is encouraged to hear the previous episode first. As before, a table of contents with time indicators is provided for those who want to hear a particular topic.

Episode 5: Baruch Fischhoff, part two (duration: 14:45)

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Episode 4 is the first part of a two-part conversation with Dr. Baruch Fischhoff of Carnegie Mellon University. A prominent national expert on risk analysis and communication, Fischhoff makes a persuasive case for a “nonpersuasive” approach when communicating with the public about scientific and technical issues such as climate change.

Episode 4: Baruch Fischhoff, part one (duration: 23:54)

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Dr. Chess is a human ecologist at Rutgers University who studies public participation in government decision-making. In our conversation, she offers insights about effective public participation and also highlights challenges, including those associated with climate change.

While the conversation would be ideal to hear as a continuous whole, for those who like to jump to topics that might be of particular interest, I’m including a table of contents with the start time and topic “headline.” Click on the link below and the table of contents will pop up in a window alongside your media player. Then use the control bar on your player to advance to the desired start time. Friendly disclaimer: I’m not responsible for missing-context effects which may occur.

• Episode 3: Caron Chess (Duration: 22:13)
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Dr. Moser is a research scientist with the Institute for the Study of Society and Environment at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. She discusses communication and social change (see fuller description in “Coming Soon” post below).

• Episode 2: Susanne Moser (Duration: 25:30)
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Dr. Susanne Moser, a natural scientist, social scientist, and communicator with the National Center for Atmospheric Research, explores communication and social change, discussing such ideas as the information deficit model of communication, the social tipping point, barriers to action, and the development of positive myths and narratives. Says Moser, “The reason I think social science would be really, really helpful for communicators is that it allows us to actually be effective. To actually achieve what I assume communications can achieve. Theories and practices of communication have evolved over time. We ought to stay up with that. . . .”

Dr. Leiserowitz is director of the Yale Project on Climate Change and a research scientist who specializes in risk perception and decision-making.

• Episode 1: Anthony Leiserowitz (Duration: 26:30)
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