The Art of Communicating Climate Science

C+S 2020 students are blogging about topics that interest them for Applications in Climate and Society, a core spring class.

Armed with her cardboard sign in Polish, which is translated to “School Strike for Climate”, and her bright, yellow raincoat, Greta Thunberg has inspired millions of people globally to call for stronger climate action.

Known for initiating the global climate strike movement, Thunberg started skipping school in 2018 to protest for the lack of action on climate crisis in front of the Swedish Parliament every day for three weeks, then every Friday, to push for a safer pathway in Swedish policies, in line with the well below 2°C target of the Paris Agreement. She was only 15 years old.

Pictures of her weekly school strikes went viral on social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter, and this has inspired many other frustrated, environmentally conscious schoolchildren globally to follow her footsteps, through a movement called Fridays for Future. Since then, the movement has grown from youth to adults. In order for effective messaging and mobilization on the climate crisis to take place, collective action and solidarity from every generation is needed. To quote Bill McKibben, “On what kind of world do we expect 15-year-olds to tackle our biggest problems by themselves?”

Today, 17-year-old Greta Thunberg is actively leaving her mark on the world, by addressing world leaders at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York, and the World Economic Forum in Davos. While millions of students around the world are inspired by her, and is continuously receiving compliments and encouragement by the likes of the Pope, Sir David Attenborough, and Malala, she remains on the unpopular side of US President Donald Trump, who said that she “must work on her anger management problem.”

One thing that we could all agree on is that Greta Thunberg has succeeded in communicating what climate scientists have struggled with. As Benjamin Ryan wrote, “Climate science has struggled mightily with a messaging problem”. Climate science communications have changed over time, as hitting people with scary climate change facts is not going to cut it anymore. Creative communications, via both physical and online mobilization such as strikes and protests, as well as social media, seems to work.

There is a communication gap between scientists and the public. There are several research centers that were established to study the science of climate change communications via scientific and social science research methods to bridge the gap, such as Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication. Some noteworthy studies that were published include the “Six Americas” and “Climate Change in the American Mind” reports. It is worthy to note that these reports are very American centric, and do not serve as a global blueprint.

Communicating the science behind climate change is challenging. It is an art, and just like any form of art, you need to practice to find success. Let me break it down for you.

Paint a Picture

The first step is to envision what you want to create. Think about the picture you want to paint, and which technique you would want to use to approach the subject matter. Climate change is happening at an unprecedented rate, and it is considered as one of the most pressing issues of our time. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C projects that the global average warming “is likely to reach 1.5°C between 2030 and 2052”, and is around 100% caused by human activities.

Framing is important to set an outline of the picture. For Thunberg, 1.5°C is her central number. Once she has framed the outline of her picture, she repeats it. By converting a very scientific, mathematical and statistical solution into a slogan, she reduces the complexity of the issue.

Tell a Story 

Climate change affects different people in different ways. Knowing your audience is important so that you could effectively get the message across. Some recent weather events such as firestorms in Australia, or wildfires in California may have sparked the conversation, but for others, existing climate-related issues such as forest protection, and indigenous rights in Malaysia were the roots of climate activism for the past decades. And now, even more than ever, there is a dire need to effectively communicate the climate crisis, for accelerated climate action.

Thunberg eloquently grounds her story with key points, bringing it back to reminding people that the planet is warming, it is our responsibility to fix it, the time is running out, the solutions are there, world leaders need to take action, and if we do not do anything about it, our future generation will remember us for our failures.

Finishing Touch

I often think about the secret to communicating climate science, about what makes an art a masterpiece. Around the world now, youth have started to take action, and many have been endorsed by leading climate scientists, as well as the United Nations. We all know of Greta Thunberg, but alongside Greta, there are many others. What is the one thing that they have in common? They are young, they understand what is going on, and they speak in a language that is easily understood.

The secret in the art of communicating climate science lies in effective messaging.