Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Foreword
- List of contributors
- List of tables
- List of figures
- List of text boxes
- Introduction
- Part I Communicating climate change
- 1 Weather or climate change?
- 2 Communicating the risks of global warming: American risk perceptions, affective images, and interpretive communities
- 3 More bad news: the risk of neglecting emotional responses to climate change information
- 4 Public scares: changing the issue culture
- 5 The challenge of trying to make a difference using media messages
- 6 Listening to the audience: San Diego hones its communication strategy by soliciting residents' views
- 7 The climate-justice link: communicating risk with low-income and minority audiences
- 8 Postcards from the (not so) frozen North: talking about climate change in Alaska
- 9 Climate change: a moral issue
- 10 Einstein, Roosevelt, and the atom bomb: lessons learned for scientists communicating climate change
- 11 Across the great divide: supporting scientists as effective messengers in the public sphere
- 12 Dealing with climate change contrarians
- 13 A role for dialogue in communication about climate change
- 14 Information is not enough
- Part II Facilitating social change
- Part III Creating a climate for change
- About the authors
- Index
- References
2 - Communicating the risks of global warming: American risk perceptions, affective images, and interpretive communities
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 August 2009
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Foreword
- List of contributors
- List of tables
- List of figures
- List of text boxes
- Introduction
- Part I Communicating climate change
- 1 Weather or climate change?
- 2 Communicating the risks of global warming: American risk perceptions, affective images, and interpretive communities
- 3 More bad news: the risk of neglecting emotional responses to climate change information
- 4 Public scares: changing the issue culture
- 5 The challenge of trying to make a difference using media messages
- 6 Listening to the audience: San Diego hones its communication strategy by soliciting residents' views
- 7 The climate-justice link: communicating risk with low-income and minority audiences
- 8 Postcards from the (not so) frozen North: talking about climate change in Alaska
- 9 Climate change: a moral issue
- 10 Einstein, Roosevelt, and the atom bomb: lessons learned for scientists communicating climate change
- 11 Across the great divide: supporting scientists as effective messengers in the public sphere
- 12 Dealing with climate change contrarians
- 13 A role for dialogue in communication about climate change
- 14 Information is not enough
- Part II Facilitating social change
- Part III Creating a climate for change
- About the authors
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
Large majorities of Americans believe that global warming is real and consider it a serious problem, yet global warming remains a low priority relative to other national and environmental issues and lacks a sense of urgency. To understand this lack of urgency, the study on which this chapter is based examined the risk perceptions and connotative meanings of global warming in the American mind and found that Americans perceive climate change as a moderate risk that will predominantly impact geographically and temporally distant people and places. This research also identified several distinct interpretive communities of climate change: segments of the public that conceptualize and respond to the issue in very different ways. The chapter concludes with five strategies to communicate about global warming in ways that either resonate with the values and predispositions of particular audiences or that directly challenge fundamental misconceptions.
Public risk perceptions are critical components of the socio-political context within which policy-makers operate. Public risk perceptions can fundamentally compel or constrain political, economic, and social action to address particular risks. For example, public support or opposition to climate policies (e.g., treaties, regulations, taxes, subsidies) will be greatly influenced by public perceptions of the risks and dangers of climate change.
In this context, American public risk perceptions of climate change are critical for at least two reasons.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Creating a Climate for ChangeCommunicating Climate Change and Facilitating Social Change, pp. 44 - 63Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007
References
Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (2005). Impacts of a Warming Climate – Arctic Climate Impact Assessment. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
(2003). Alaska is less frozen than it once was, and the effects are devastating. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, August 10, p. 21.Google Scholar
, , , et al. (1994). What do people know about global climate change?Risk Analysis, 14, 6, 959–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clean Air-Cool Planet and (2005). Indicators of Climate Change in the Northeast, 2005. Portsmouth, NH: CACP and Durham, NH: University of New Hampshire, Climate Change Research Center.Google Scholar
(1993). Living with Risk: The Geography of Technological Heizakis. New York: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
and (2001). Only one in four Americans are anxious about the environment. Available at http://poll.gallup.com/content/default.aspx?ci=1801; accessed January 13, 2006.Google Scholar
Environmental Protection Agency (2005). Global warming – where you live. Available at from http://yosemite.epa.gov/OAR/globalwarming.nsf/content/coun-unitedstates.html; accessed January 13, 2006.
, , , et al. (1999). Confronting Climate Change in California: Ecological Impacts on the Golden State. Cambridge, MA and Washington, DC: Union of Concerned Scientists and Ecological Society of America.Google Scholar
(2005). Evangelical leaders swing influence behind effort to combat global warming. New York Times, March 10, p. 16.Google Scholar
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Working Group II (2001). Climate Change 2001: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Summary for Policymakers. Contribution of Working Group II to the Third Assessment report. Available at http://www.ipcc.ch/pub/wg2SPMfinal.pdf; accessed January 13, 2006.
, , and (1995). Environmental Values in American Culture. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
, , , et al. (2003). Confronting Climate Change in the Great Lakes Region: Impacts on Our Communities and Ecosystems. Cambridge, MA and Washington, DC: Union of Concerned Scientists and Ecological Society of America.Google Scholar
(2003). Global warming in the American mind: The roles of affect, imagery, and worldviews in risk perception, policy preferences and behavior. Unpublished dissertation, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR.
(2005). American risk perceptions: Is climate change dangerous?Risk Analysis, 25, 6, 1433–1442.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , and (2006). Trends: a compendium of data on global change. Available at http://cdiac.esd.ornl.gov/trends/emis/top2000.tot; accessed September 22, 2006.Google Scholar
McMichael, A. J. and Githeko, A. (2001). Human Health. In Climate Change 2001: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability, ed. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Working Group II. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 453–85.
and (2004). Making climate hot: Communicating the urgency and challenge of global climate change. Environment, 46, 10, 32–46.Google Scholar
, et al. (2005). Declining mountain snowpack in western North America. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 86, 1, 39–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Assessment Synthesis Team (2001). Climate Change Impacts on the United States: The Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change: Foundation Report. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.
National Climatic Data Center (2004). Climate of 2004: Wildfire season summary. Available at http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2004/fire04.html; accessed January 13, 2006.
and (2004). Observed Impacts of Global Climate Change in the US. Arlington, VA: Pew Center on Global Climate Change.Google Scholar
, , and (2000). The effects of changing weather on public health. Annual Review of Public Health, 21, 271–307.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
and (1996). The role of affect and worldviews as orienting dispositions in the perception and acceptance of nuclear power. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 26, 1427–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Physicians for Social Responsibility (2004). Death by degrees/degrees of danger. Available at http://www.envirohealthaction.org/degreesofdanger/index.cfm; accessed January 13, 2006.
and (2001). Bush drops a call for emission cuts. The Washington Post, March 14, p. A01.Google Scholar
Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA). (2005). Global warming. Available at http://www.americans-world.org/digest/global_issues/global_warming/gw_summary.cfm; accessed January 13, 2006.
, , , et al. (1994). What do people know about global climate change? 2. Survey results of educated laypeople. Risk Analysis, 14, 6, 971–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(2001). Bush's shift could doom air pact, some say. The New York Times, March 17, p. 7.Google Scholar
(2004). U.S. Drought Monitor. Available at http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html; accessed January 13, 2006.Google Scholar
, et al. (2005). Human-modified temperatures induce species changes: Joint attribution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102, 21, 7465–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
(2003). Climate panel to seize political hot potatoes. Nature, 421, 879.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Set America Free (2005). An open letter to the American people. Available at http://www.setamericafree.org/openletter.htm; accessed January 13, 2006.
, , and (1991). Perceived risk, trust, and the politics of nuclear waste. Science, 254, 1603–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , et al. (2001). Confronting Climate Change in the Gulf Coast Region: Prospects for Sustaining Our Ecological Heritage. Cambridge, MA and Washington, DC: Union of Concerned Scientists and Ecological Society of America.Google Scholar
US Census Bureau, Population Division (2005). US and World Population Clocks. Available at http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html; accessed January 13, 2006.
US Senate (1997). Senate Resolution 98 (The Byrd–Hagel Resolution). Washington, DC: The US Senate.
United States, National Energy Policy Development Group & The President of the United States (2001). Reliable, Affordable, and Environmentally Sound Energy for America's Future. Report of the National Energy Policy Development Group. Washington, DC.
University of Cambridge (2005). Large ozone losses over the Arctic. Available at http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/news/press/dpp/2005042601; accessed January 13, 2006.
and (2001). Global climate change – the latest assessment: Does global warming warrant a health warning?Global Change & Human Health, 2, 1, 12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 77
- Cited by