communications
Climate change and the doom-industrial complex
04/04/13 15:05
Last spring, I was asked by the editors of PLoS Biology on the occasion of the Rio+20 meeting to edit an essay by a collection of researchers based mostly in New Mexico who focus on a branch of ecological science called macroecology. This specialty looks for the physical basis (that is, from physics, not physiological) of many biological processes. A common pattern linked to physical processes such as the conservation of energy is Bergmann’s rule, which states that everything else being equal species in cold regions such as the Arctic should be larger than their near relatives in warmer regions.
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Peter Gleick, double standards, and faith in science: Lessons for communicating climate issues?
26/02/12 09:49
The leadership of progressive thinking about water and climate has taken a major hit in the past ten days with the public shaming of Peter Gleick. Many of you are probably familiar with Gleick, founder and head of the Pacific Institute, but if not, Gleick is the closest that the water community has ever had to a “face.” Gleick never pretended to represent all of the water community — he didn’t champion WASH issues, for instance, and his discussions of water issues in the developing world and climate change adaptation around water have often been somewhat simplistic. But he has been an incredibly effective champion of issues for the energy-water nexus (the connections between energy generation of all kinds and water consumption, and the high energy costs of moving water, both virtual and real water). He has also been extraordinary in communicating to corporations about water issues, even corporations whose work is not obviously and directly connected to water. More generally, the Pacific Institute has served as a very effective communications hub for global water issues.
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Defining freshwater ecosystem priorities through awareness-raising
09/12/10 10:28
New frontiers in Biodiversity communication: BioFresh launches a ‘Cabinet of Freshwater Curiosities’.
The tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 10) of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya this year underlined the magnitude of the biodiversity conservation challenge. Crucial to the legitimacy of the strategies action plans agreed at the Conference will be the support of an eclectic range of public constituencies. Biodiversity conservation is at an interesting juncture. The efficacy of dooms-day messages for changing public behaviours is increasingly questioned. There are concerns that concepts such as extinction, endangerment, threat and crisis are a turn off for many people. In response, conservation communicators are experimenting with vision-based communication techniques to re-invigorate and extend public interest in nature. Read More...
Communicating adaptation: The triumph of personal hope?
05/11/10 13:23
Several times on this blog, I’ve provided anecdotes on the tensions around communicating climate change to diverse audiences, especially about how to prepare our families, communities, and societies for additional climate change impacts. Often, the conflicts around messaging are about how to communicate hope for immediate action to create a more positive future relative to trying to frighten people with negative futures into “acting right.”
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Guest Blog: Communicating impacts and adaptation: Scientific guidelines
25/08/10 16:21
Many of us know from experience that opportunities arise at unlikely moments. “Never let a crisis go to waste,” was the famous line from Barak Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emmanuel. As the summer of 2010 dishes up one weather-related crisis 
after another, environmental-minded individuals and organizations around the globe may feel compelled and obligated to respond – both on the ground and in public statements about the genesis of these events. Is climate change to blame? In this season of extreme weather, we have an opportunity to solidify our messages and our standing as the conservation organization that can help policymakers and the public separate fact from fiction. But we must tread carefully.
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Where People Are: Hope and Fear
02/06/10 05:01
How do you engage ordinary people in the need to prepare for climate change? This is a problem the environmental movement has struggled with for a long time. My particular area of focus — climate change adaptation — is new enough that trying to describe what we do in this field can take more time than more people have patience for, much less trying to show how the field is relevant to their lives and their children’s lives.
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Climate of Doubt
02/06/10 04:59
A Chinese colleague turned to me when we were alone after a meeting. John: Do you truly believe that humans have caused climate change? I was shocked by the question. As a scientist working on climate change issues, I have seen and read many lines of evidence that the climate is changing rapidly, that humans have caused these changes, and that we must (and can) actively respond to these shifts. Almost as strange as being asked the question was having the question come from a colleague whom I believe to be one of the most effective members of our organization’s climate adaptation staff.
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