Making Climate Change Matter To Americans: Comprehensive Guide to Effective Climate Change Communication Released Today

NEW YORK, Dec. 11, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- To strengthen climate communication and boost American motivation to address climate change, Columbia University's Center for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED) and ecoAmerica today issued a new guide, Connecting on Climate: A Guide to Effective Climate Change Communication.

The Connecting on Climate guide includes ten principles for climate change communication based on research from a range of social science fields including psychology, anthropology, communications, and behavioral economics. One principle includes emphasizing climate solutions and the benefits for everyday Americans, supported by research indicating that doing so can increase people's willingness to engage on the issue.

This new guide is designed as a follow up to CRED's popular 2009 guide, The Psychology of Climate Communication: A Guide for Scientists, Journalists, Educators, Political Aides, and the Interested Public.

"The first communication guide we published in 2009 synthesized research to date on why our minds understand and react to climate change the way that they do," said Elke Weber, co-director of CRED and the Jerome A. Chazen Professor of International Business at Columbia Business School. "The new communication guide builds on that by explaining how to improve communication based on what research tells us is effective."

The 2014 guide includes new research on values, worldviews, identities, and climate solutions. It blends CRED's expertise in social science research with ecoAmerica's research on American climate values and best practices for communication.

"Americans have other priorities, like caring for their families and paying for increased food and healthcare costs," said Bob Perkowitz, founder of ecoAmerica. "More and more, they are seeing climate change impact all of these. We need to show them how steps to address climate change will bring health and economic benefits. The goal of this guide is to help anyone engaging Americans on climate solutions to make relevant climate connections."

Printed and downloadable copies of the guide are available free of charge at http://www.connectingonclimate.org.  

The project was supported by funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation provided to CRED and the MacArthur Foundation and the Linden Trust for Conservation provided to ecoAmerica.

About the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions

The Center for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED) is an interdisciplinary center that studies individual and group decision making under climate uncertainty and in the face of environmental risk. CRED's objectives address the human responses to climate change and climate variability as well as improved communication and increased use of scientific information on climate variability and change. Located at Columbia University, it is affiliated with The Earth Institute. http://www.cred.columbia.edu

About ecoAmerica

ecoAmerica grows the base of popular support for climate solutions in America with research-driven marketing, partnerships, and national programs that connect with Americans' core values to bring about and support change in personal and civic choices and behaviors. http://ecoAmerica.org

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SOURCE ecoAmerica

Related Links

http://www.cred.columbia.edu