{"id":4024,"date":"2019-12-18T22:47:43","date_gmt":"2019-12-18T22:47:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/?p=4024"},"modified":"2019-12-19T16:50:04","modified_gmt":"2019-12-19T16:50:04","slug":"ditching-the-doomsaying-for-better-climate-discourse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/2019\/12\/18\/ditching-the-doomsaying-for-better-climate-discourse\/","title":{"rendered":"Ditching the Doomsaying for Better Climate Discourse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine<\/a><\/em>
by Clay Evans<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Max Boykoff pitches strategies for more effective climate communication<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Despite its apparent provenance as a right-wing meme, when it comes to climate change, Max Boykoff rather likes the snarky expression, \u201cOK, doomer\u201d\u2014a play on \u201cOK, Boomer,\u201d the catchphrase adopted by the young to dismiss attitudes of their Baby Boomer forebears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSocial sciences and humanities research shows that sticking to doomsday language doesn\u2019t help people engage with the challenges of climate change,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSocial sciences and humanities research shows that sticking to doomsday language doesn\u2019t help people engage with the challenges of climate change,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boykoff, an associate professor of environmental studies, says that numerous prominent works, such as Jonathan Franzen\u2019s much-discussed New Yorker essay, \u201cWhat If We Stopped Pretending,\u201d which argued that it\u2019s delusional to try to stop or mitigate climate change, do little more than cause people to \u201cfreak out, tune out, turn off, become paralyzed.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boykoff\u2019s research into how to effectively communicate the serious consequences of anthropogenic climate change\u2014and his review of others\u2019 research in these areas\u2014has convinced him that such heavy-handed, apocalyptic messaging is problematic and led to his new book, Creative (Climate) Communications: Productive Pathways for Science, Policy and Society<\/em>.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf there isn\u2019t some semblance of hope or ways people can change the current state of affairs, people feel less motivated to try to address the problems,\u201d says Boykoff, who is also director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy at the University of Colorado Boulder\u2019s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boykoff even routinely dons a T-shirt emblazoned with 10 pithy words by Edward Maibach, a widely recognized expert on climate communications at George Mason University: \u201cIt\u2019s real; it\u2019s us; experts agree; it\u2019s bad; there\u2019s hope.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his new book, Boykoff delves deep into social science research to devise the most effective ways to communicate about a problem so enormous that many people simply become numb when hearing about it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCommunicating about climate change now doesn\u2019t have to be the equivalent of throwing spaghetti against a wall to see what sticks,\u201d he says. \u201cWe now have a solid decade of research that can point us to what works, as well as how, when and why it works, and under what circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the key messages of the book: Communicators should use a \u201csilver buckshot\u201d approach, rather than thinking there is a silver bullet that will convince doubters or those who have simply turned away from the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve learned that we can\u2019t rely merely on science to turn the tide, or what scientists think. We can\u2019t merely rely on a big disaster event either like \u2018Superstorm Sandy,\u2019\u201d he says, referring to the devastating 2012 storm system that some portrayed as evidence of extreme events in a changing climate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThrough research and observations, we\u2019ve found that changing people\u2019s minds doesn\u2019t happen like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on extensive research, Boykoff assembled five \u201crules of the road\u201d and five \u201cguideposts\u201d to help foster a creative and effective approach to climate-change communications. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rules of the road (along with brief descriptions from Boykoff):<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n