Creating a Climate for Change: Communicating Climate Change and Facilitating Social Change

The need for effective communication, public outreach and education to increase support for policy, collective action and behaviour change is ever present, and is perhaps most pressing in the context of anthropogenic climate change. This book is the first to take a comprehensive look at communication and social change specifically targeted to climate change. It is a unique collection of ideas examining the challenges associated with communicating climate change in order to facilitate societal response. It offers well-founded, practical suggestions on how to communicate climate change and how to approach related social change more effectively. The contributors of this book come from a diverse range of backgrounds, from government and academia to non-governmental and civic sectors of society. The book is accessibly written, and any specialized terminology is explained. It will be of great interest to academic researchers and professionals in climate change, environmental policy, science communication, psychology, sociology and geography.

Table of Contents:
Preface Susanne C. Moser and Lisa Dilling; Foreword Robert W. Kates; List of contributors; List of tables; List of figures; List of text boxes; Introduction; Part I. Communicating Climate Change: 1. Weather or climate change? Ann Bostrom and Daniel Lashof; 2. Communicating the risks of global warming: American risk perceptions, affective images and interpretive communities Anthony Leiserowitz; 3. More bad news: the risk of neglecting emotional responses to climate change information Susanne C. Moser; 4. Public scares: changing the issue culture Sheldon Ungar; 5. The challenge of trying to make a difference using media messages Sharon Dunwoody; 6. Listening to the audience: San Diego hones its communication strategy by soliciting residents' views Linda Giannelli Pratt and Sarah Rabkin; 7. The climate-justice link: communicating with low-income and minority audiences Julian Agyeman, Bob Doppelt, Kathy Lynn and Halida Hatic; 8. Postcards from the (not so) frozen North: talking about climate change in Alaska Shannon McNeeley and Orville Huntington; 9. Climate change: a moral issue The Rev. Sally Bingham; 10. Einstein, Roosevelt, and the atomic bomb: lessons learned for scientists communicating climate change Lucy Warner; 11. Across the great divide: supporting scientists as effective messengers in the public sphere Nancy Cole with Susan Watrous; 12. Dealing with climate change contrarians Aaron M. McCright; 13. A role for dialogue in communication about climate change Kathleen Regan; 14. Information is not enough Caron Chess and Branden B. Johnson; Part II. Facilitating Social Change: 15. Stuck in the slow lane of behavior change? A not-so-superhuman perspective on getting out of our cars John Tribbia; 16. Consumption behavior and narratives about the good life Laurie Michaelis; 17. Educating for 'intelligent environmental action' in an age of global warming Tina Grotzer and Rebecca Lincoln; 18. Education for global responsibility Mary Catherine Bateson; 19. Changing the world one household at a time: Portland's 30-day program to lose 5,000 pounds Sarah Rabkin and David Gershon; 20. Changing organizational ethics and practices toward climate and environment Keith James, April Smith and Bob Doppelt; 21. Change in the marketplace: business leadership and communication Vicki Arroyo and Benjamin Preston; 22. The market as messenger: sending the right signals John Atcheson; 23. Making it easy: establishing energy efficiency and renewable energy as routine best practices Lisa Dilling and Barbara Farhar; 24. Forming networks, enabling leaders, financing action: the Cities for Climate Change ProtectionTM campaign Abby Young; 25. Ending the piecemeal approach: Santa Monica's comprehensive plan for sustainability Susan Watrous and Natasha Fraley; 26. States leading the way on climate change action: the view from the Northeast Abbey Tennis; 27. West Coast Governors' Global Warming Initiative: using regional partnerships to coordinate climate action Pierre duVair, Sam Sadler, Anthony Usibelli and Susan Anderson; 28. Building social movements David S. Meyer; 29. Climate litigation: shaping public policy and stimulating debate Marilyn Averill; 30. The moral and political challenges of climate change Dale Jamieson; Part III. Creating a Climate for Change: 31. An ongoing dialogue on climate change: The Boulder Manifesto Robert Harriss; 32. Toward the social tipping point: creating a climate change Susanne C. Moser and Lisa Dilling; About the authors; Index.

About the Author :
Susanne Moser is a Research Scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research's (NCAR) Institute for the Study of Society and Environment, Boulder, Colorado. She is an Aldo Leopold Leadership Program fellow and an associate of the International Human Dimensions Program (IHDP) Core Project on Global Environmental Change and Human Security (GECHS). Lisa Dilling is a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado at Boulder. She has been awarded a Visiting Fellowship by CIRES, a John A. Knauss National Sea Grant Fellowship, and a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship.

Review :
'This book is packed with useful information.' The Psychologist '… I could not put this book down. it is filled with solid and practical information and guidelines and good common sense for any businessman who needs to know and communicate about climate change and may also have to interact with his various stake holders (including communities) on climate change. This is an excellent informing book that is a must for the reference shelf - highly recommended.' Eagle Bulletin 'Moser and Dilling … work successfully to stitch together themes across the chapter contributions: countless parenthetical cross-references to other chapters and passages as well as a useful index, build useful bridges for the readers. The volume capably pursues, appraises, interrogates and refines vital challenges on the current state of communications about climate change, and discusses future directions and possibilities.' Global Environmental Politics 'This volume is both comprehensive and eclectic. It includes academic studies of the public reaction to climate change stories, lessons from the atomic bomb era about communicating climate change, and the philosophical framework for dealing with the issue … Creating a Climate for Change offers a comprehensive and engaging look at the many issues surrounding the understanding of climate and the difficulty of changing people's habits.' Natural Hazards Observer '… Susan Moser and Lisa Dilling, the two editors of this book, deserve great praise for bringing together a maze of perspectives on communicating climate change into a genuinely insightful and fascinating read. … their approach of keeping chapters fairly short and insisting on plain English makes the book accessible and encourages readers to browse through parts of the book that are of particular interest. … As a cover-to-cover read or as a selective reference, this book provides a valuable resource for students, scholars and policy-makers with an interest in the complexities of climate change communication and social change.' Area