8.1: Preparation

Preparing well is the first step to communicating well. Preparation includes knowing general principles of communication and having access to valuable resources. It also includes acquiring an adequate knowledge of the science of climate change.

Susan Joy Hassol is a communication expert who for more than 25 years has been my partner in communicating climate change science. The website https://www.climatecommunication.org contains detailed information about the key lessons we have learned. This is a website I strongly recommend to you. It is a rich resource for information on communicating climate change science. Here in 12 words is the guiding philosophy that underlies our approach to climate science communication: Use simple clear messages, repeated often, by a variety of trusted messengers.

Many people, when attempting to communicate complex subjects, typically fail to craft simple, clear messages and repeat them often. Instead, they overdo the level of detail, so people have difficulty sorting out what is most important. In short, the more you say, the less they hear. Climate scientists often fall into this trap when trying to explain what they have learned to the broad public. They know a lot, so they want to say a lot. That’s a mistake. Think about the experts in various fields whom you may know, such as your doctor. He or she has spent many years learning a great deal about medical science, but only a very foolish doctor would try to tell you everything relevant to your health that medical science has discovered. Instead, a wise doctor speaks to you in simple clear terms.

I think that those who have studied this subject most seriously and carefully have now awakened to the complex challenges of communicating about climate change, when much more than the science is at issue. Our awareness now includes cultural and psychological issues.

Figure 8.1.1 Richard C. J. Somerville and the Dalai Lama speaking about climate change to a large audience on April 18, 2012, at UC San Diego. Reproduced with permission from Sylvia Bal Somerville.

Still, most people say they need more information about the science, so scientists and others are challenged to deliver scientific information in more accessible and effective ways. Much of what I summarize in this short chapter is based on the resources available on the website https://www.climatecommunication.org. This chapter reflects the ideas and recommendations on that website for combining accurate science with effective techniques for communicating with the public.

Trusted messengers can have an enormous impact and can motivate people to bring about change. Think of Mahatma Gandhi, or Nelson Mandela, or Martin Luther King Jr. Sharing a stage with colleagues at my university, UC San Diego, a few years ago in front of thousands of students, discussing climate change with the Dalai Lama, was a privilege for me and a memorable day in my life. You don’t have to be a Tibetan Buddhist to understand that the Dalai Lama is respected and revered worldwide. When he speaks, millions listen. The Dalai Lama is an excellent example of a trusted messenger whose statements about climate change can profoundly affect public opinion worldwide. He and I are shown in Figure 8.1.1.

Some messengers have strong credibility with specific groups of people. For example, professor Katherine Hayhoe is a climate scientist who is also an evangelical Christian, and she is an especially effective communicator to her co-religionists because they share her convictions and values. The idea that humans should be faithful stewards of God’s gift of a beautiful and valuable planet Earth to humankind—which is at heart a moral and ethical concept—resonates with many evangelical Christians.

Climate change is much more than a scientific topic. I am convinced that confronting climate change is fundamentally a moral and ethical issue. It involves considerations of intergenerational equity. What do we owe to people who will come after us? Speaking as just one citizen of the Earth, I suggest that, at a minimum, we owe our descendants a planet that is as undamaged as the one we inherited from previous generations. It’s also a matter of North-South equity. What do we in the rich nations owe to the billions of people now alive who do not yet enjoy what we would consider a bare minimum of rights and privileges? These include adequate food, access to clean water, decent health care, education, security, and, not least, the material comforts that come from a certain level of affordable energy. Our own prosperity has been built on having such energy, but we have used the atmosphere as a free dump for the waste products from our energy system, such as carbon dioxide (CO₂). We now realize these waste products can produce horrific side effects. And finally, what do we human beings owe to the natural world, now threatened with unprecedented levels of species extinctions?

Scientists and everybody else can improve their communication skills by considering their audience, knowing who the audience members are, and learning what they care most about. Why is climate change important to them? This approach to communication often means emphasizing impacts of climate change happening now, here in our own backyards, rather than impacts far away and in a distant future. It can also mean making connections between climate change and what people are experiencing in their daily lives, such as increases in extreme weather.

In addition to knowing your audience, it is important to know yourself. Analyze your own strengths and weaknesses as a climate change communicator, both in general terms and for each audience you face. Showing that you are interested in what your audience cares about, and showing that you are a warm, likable, knowledgeable, and trustworthy person, can make you a much more effective communicator. Seek feedback from your audience. Learn what others think of your abilities as a communicator of climate change science.

Figure 8.1.2 Ten different types of observations that contribute to the scientific evidence that the global climate is warming. White upward arrows indicate increasing quantities. Black downward arrows indicate decreasing quantities. From US Global Change Research Program. 2014.

Knowing your subject matter is crucial. Being well informed about the science of climate change is an obvious step in preparing to communicate it. For example, you can and should learn the most common myths and falsehoods about the science, and you can be prepared to refute them convincingly. Become something of an expert yourself first, at least in certain areas of climate change science, and only then try to communicate what you have learned. When answering a question, if you don’t know the answer, say so. Don’t guess. You’re not expected to know everything.

Facts matter. Here are some facts: The world is warming. It’s not a hoax. We measure it. The warming has not stopped. All the warmest years are recent years. The evidence for warming is not a weak thread. It’s a strong rope. The atmosphere is warming. So is the ocean. Sea level is rising. Ice sheets and glaciers are shrinking. Rainfall patterns and severe weather events are changing. Climate change is real and serious. It’s not a remote threat for the distant future. It’s here and now. Figure 8.1.2 depicts the observational evidence that our climate is warming.

All ten of the illustrated changes are consistent with a warming climate. Climate science communicators should be familiar with these aspects of the findings of climate research, and they should know important details about how these observations are made and why they are trustworthy.

The best summary of climate change science is the assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC. Five such reports have been published between 1990 and 2013. They are published in hard copy by Cambridge University Press, and the more recent ones are also available free online at the IPCC website, https:// www.ipcc.ch. These assessment reports are written by climate scientists and extensively reviewed. I’m an IPCC author. The most recent IPCC assessment report is the fifth. It was published in 2013. At this writing (2018), the sixth is in progress. We will consider the report of Working Group I of the IPCC, which covers the physical science of climate change. There are two additional working groups, devoted to topics such as climate change impacts, vulnerabilities, adaptation, and mitigation. The latest Working Group I IPCC assessment report is scientifically definitive, but it is long, about 1,500 pages, full of charts and graphs, and not easy reading. For this chapter, I’ve composed brief statements in plain English to summarize this IPCC report in only 12 points. These are scientific findings, well supported by extensive research and endorsed by every relevant major scientific organization in the world. The 12 points are shown in Figure 8.1.3 and listed here:

1. It’s warming. We’ve just seen a summary of the many kinds of evidence for that.
2. It’s us. We’ve done the detective work. It’s not natural like ice ages. It’s human-caused.
3. It hasn’t stopped. The warming is continuing. The warmest years on record are recent years.
4. The heat is mainly in the sea. Over 90% of the heat added to the climate is in the oceans.
5. Sea level is rising globally. The rate of this rise is increasing. The rise is not uniform globally.
6. Ice is melting. Ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica, as well as glaciers, are all shrinking.
7. CO₂ absorbed by the oceans makes them more acidic. That can affect the marine food chain.
8. CO₂ amounts in the atmosphere are about 45% higher than in the 1800s, due to human actions.
9. The amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere now is the highest it has been in millions of years.
10. Cumulative emissions of CO₂ and other heat-trapping substances set the amount of warming.
11. Reducing emissions of CO₂ and other heat-trapping substances will limit the warming.
12. Climate change, because it takes so long for CO₂ amounts to decrease, will last for centuries.

It's warming.
It's us.
It hasn't stopped
The heat is mainly in the sea.
Ice is shrinking.
CO₂ makes oceans more acidic.
CO₂ in the air is up 45% since the 1800s.
It/s now the highest in millions of years.
Cumulative emissions set the warming.
Reducing emissions limits the warming.
Climate change will last for centuries.

Figure 8.1.3 My summary of the key results of the Working Group I (physical science) portion of the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report, published in 2013. Climate science communicators should be able to explain these key points and the scientific evidence for them. Image: R. C. J. Somerville.