Advanced search
Publication Cover
Environmental Education Research Volume 20, 2014 - Issue 3
Submit an article Journal homepage
9,152
Views
162
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Articles

Enhancing learning, communication and public engagement about climate change – some lessons from recent literature

Victoria WibeckDepartment of Thematic Studies – Unit of Water and Environmental Studies, Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.Correspondence[email protected]
Pages 387-411 | Received 09 Jan 2012, Accepted 23 May 2013, Published online: 22 Jul 2013

References

  • Akerlof, K., G. Bruff, and J. Witte. 2011. “Audience Segmentation as a Tool for Communicating Climate Change.” Park Science 28: 56-64.
  • Akerlof, K., R. Debono, P. Berry, A. Leiserowitz, C. Roser-Renouf, K. Clarke, A. Rogaeva, M. Nisbet, M. Weathers, and E. Maibach. 2010. “Public Perceptions of Climate Change as a Human Health Risk: Surveys of the United States, Canada and Malta.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 7: 2559–2606.
  • Balmford, A., A. Manica, L. Airey, L. Birkin, A. Oliver, and J. Schleicher. 2004. “Hollywood, Climate Change, and the Public.” Science 305: 1713.
  • Brönniman, S. 2002. “Picturing Climate Change.” Climate Research 22: 87–95.
  • Bulkeley, H. 2000. “Common Knowledge? Public Understanding of Climate Change in Newcastle, Australia.” Public Understanding of Science 9: 313–333.
  • Carvalho, A., ed. 2008. Communicating Climate Change: Discourses, Mediations and Perceptions. Braga: Universidade do Minho.
  • Campbell, P. 2011. “Understanding the Receivers and the Reception of Science’s Uncertain Messages.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A 369: 4891–4912.
  • Cooney, C. 2010. “The Perception Factor. Climate Change Gets Personal.” Environmental Health Perspectives 118: A485–A488.
  • Corner, A., and A. Randall. 2011. “Selling Climate Change? The Limitations of Social Marketing as a Strategy for Climate Change Public Engagement.” Global Environmental Change 21: 1005–1014.
  • Donner, S. 2011. “Making the Climate a Part of the Human World.” Bulletin of the American Meterological Society 92: 1297–1302.
  • Etkin, D., and E. Ho. 2007. “Climate Change: Perceptions and Discourses of Risk.” Journal of Risk Research 10: 623–641.
  • Eurobarometer. 2011. “Europeans’ attitudes Towards Climate Change.” Special Eurobarometer 372: Climate change. http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_372_en.pdf
  • Featherstone, H., E. Weitkamp, K. Ling, and F. Burnet. 2009. “Defining Issue-Based Publics for Public Engagement: Climate Change as a Case Study.” Public Understanding of Science 18: 214–228.
  • Feinberg, M., and R. Willer. 2011. “Apocalypse Soon?: Dire Messages Reduce Belief in Global Warming by Contradicting Just-World Beliefs.” Psychological Science 22: 34–38.
  • Few, R., K. Brown, and E. Tompkins. 2007. “Public Participation and Climate Change Adaptation: Avoiding the Illusion of Inclusion.” Climate Policy 7: 46–59.
  • George, D., J. Clewett, C. Birch, A. Wright, and W. Allen. 2009. “A Professional Development Climate Course for Sustainable Agriculture in Australia.” Journal of Environmental Education Research 15: 417–441.
  • Hamblyn, R. 2009. “The Whistleblower and the Canary: Rhetorical Constructions of Climate Change.” Journal of Historical Geography 35: 223–236.
  • Hart, P. 2011. “One or Many? The Influence of Episodic and Thematic Climate Change Frames on Policy Preferences and Individual Behaviour Change.” Science Communication 33: 28–51.
  • Herriman, J., A. Atherton, and L. Vecellio. 2011. “The Australian Experience of World Wide Views on Global Warming: The First Global Deliberation Process.” Journal of Public Deliberation 7 (1): Article 3.
  • Howell, R. 2011. “Lights, Camera … Action? Altered Attitudes and Behaviour in Response to the Climate Change Film The Age of Stupid.” Global Environmental Change 21: 177–187.
  • Hulme, M. 2009. Why We Disagree About Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Kahlor, L., and S. Rosenthal. 2009. “If We seek, Do We Learn? Predicting Knowledge on Global Warming.” Science Communication 30: 380–414.
  • Kim, B., and R. Neff. 2009. “Measurement and Communication of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from U.S. Food Consumption via Carbon Calculators.” Ecological Economics 69: 186–196.
  • Lazo, J., J. Kinnell, and A. Fischer. 2000. “Expert and Layperson Perceptions of Ecosystem Risk.” Risk Analysis 20: 179–194.
  • Leiserowitz, A. 2004. “Before and After the Day After Tomorrow. A U.S. Study of Climate Change Risk Perception.” Environment 46: 22–37.
  • Leiserowitz, A., E. Maibach, C. Roser-Renouf, and N. Smith. 2011a. “Climate Change in the American Mind: Americans’ global Warming Beliefs and Attitudes in May 2011.” Yale University and George Mason University. New Haven, CT: Yale Project on Climate Change Communication.
  • Leiserowitz, A., E. Maibach, C. Roser-Renouf, and N. Smith. 2011b. “Global Warming’s Six Americas, May 2011.” Yale University and George Mason University. New Haven, CT: Yale Project on Climate Change Communication.
  • Lorenzoni, I., S. Nicholson-Cole, and L. Whitmarsh. 2007. “Barriers Perceived to Engaging with Climate Change among the UK Public and their Policy Implications.” Global Environmental Change 17: 445–459.
  • Lorenzoni, I., and N. Pidgeon. 2006. “Public Views on Climate Change: European and USA Perspectives.” Climatic Change 77: 73–95.
  • Lowe, T., K. Brown, and S. Dessai. 2006. “Does Tomorrow Ever Come? Disaster Narratives and Public Perceptions of Climate Change.” Public Understanding of Science 15: 435–457.
  • Maibach, E., and S. Hornig Priest. 2009. “No More ‘Business as Usual’: Addressing Climate Change through Constructive Engagement.” Science Communication 30: 299–304.
  • Maibach, E., M. Nisbet, P. Baldwin, K. Akerlof, and G. Diao. 2010. “Reframing Climate Change as a Public Health Issue: An Exploratory Study of Public Reactions.” BMC Public Health 10: 299–309.
  • Maibach, E., C. Roser-Renouf, and A. Leiserowitz. 2008. “Communication and Marketing as Climate Change-Intervention Assets. A Public Health Perspective.” American Journal of Preventive Medicine 35: 488–500.
  • Manzo, K. 2010. “Beyond Polar Bears? Re-envisioning Climate Change.” Meterological Applications 17: 196–208.
  • McCright, A. 2011. “Political Orientation Moderates Americans’ Beliefs and Concern about Climate Change.” Climatic Change 204: 243–253.
  • Moser, S. 2006. “Talk of the City: Engaging Urbanites on Climate Change.” Environmental Research Letters 1: 1–10.
  • Moser, S., and L. Dilling. 2004. “Making Climate Hot: Communicating the Urgency and Challenge of Global Climate Change.” Environment 46: 32–46.
  • Moxnes, E., and A. Saysel. 2009. “Misperceptions of Global Climate Change.” Climatic Change 93: 15–37.
  • Nicholson-Cole, S. 2005. “Representing Climate Change Futures: A Critique on the Use of Images for Visual Communication.” Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 29: 255–273.
  • Niepold, F., D. Herring, and D. McConville. 2008. “The Role of Narrative and Geospatial Visualization in Fostering Climate Literate Citizens.” Physical Geography 29: 529–544.
  • Nisbet, M. 2009. “Communicating Climate Change: Why Frames Matter for Public Engagement.” Environment 51: 12–23.
  • Nisbet, M., and C. Mooney. 2007. “Framing Science.” Science 316: 56.
  • Nisbet, M., and D. Scheufele. 2009. “What’s Next for Science Communication? Promising Directions and Lingering Distractions.” American Journal of Botany 96: 1767–1778.
  • Norton, T., P. Sias, and S. Brown. 2011. “Experiencing and Managing Uncertainty about Climate Change.” Journal of Applied Communication Research 39: 290–309.
  • O’Neill, S., and M. Hulme. 2009. “An Iconic Approach for Representing Climate Change.” Global Environmental Change 19: 402–410.
  • O’Neill, S., and S. Nicholson-Cole. 2009. “‘Fear Won’t Do It’: Promoting Positive Engagement with Climate Change through Visual and Iconic Representations.” Science Communication 30: 355–379.
  • Ockwell, D., L. Whitmarsh, and S. O’Neill. 2009. “Reorienting Climate Change Communication for Effective Mitigation: Forcing People to be Green or Fostering Grass-Roots Engagement?” Science Communication 30: 305–327.
  • Ohe, M., and S. Ikeda. 2005. “Global Warming: Risk Perception and Risk-Mitigation Behaviour in Japan.” Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 10: 221–236.
  • Olausson, U. 2011. “We’re the Ones to Blame: Citizens’ Representations of Climate Change and the Role of the Media.” Environmental Communication 5: 281–299.
  • Patchen, M. 2010. “What Shapes Public Reactions to Climate Change? Overview of Research and Policy Implications.” Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy 10: 47–68.
  • Poortinga, W., A. Spence, L. Whitmarsh, S. Capstick, and N. Pidgeon. 2011. “Uncertain Climate: An Investigation into Public Scepticism about Anthropogenic Climate Change.” Global Environmental Change 21: 1015–1024.
  • Potter, E., and C. Oster. 2008. “Communicating Climate Change: Public Responsiveness and Matters of Concern.” Media International Australia 127: 116–126.
  • Ryghaug, M., K. Sorensen, and R. Naess. 2011. “Making Sense of Global Warming: Norwegians Appropriating Knowledge of Anthropogenic Climate Change.” Public Understanding of Science 20: 778–795.
  • Sampei, Y., and M. Aoyagi-Usui. 2009. “Mass-Media Coverage, its Influence on Public Awareness of Climate Change Issues, and Implications for Japan’s National Campaign to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions.” Global environmental change 19: 203–212.
  • Schweitzer, S., J. Thompson, T. Teel, and B. Bruyere. 2009. “Strategies for Communication about Climate Change Impacts on Public Lands.” Science Communication 31: 266–274.
  • Seacrest, S., R. Kuzelka, and R. Leonard. 2000. “Global Climate Change and Public Perception: The Challenge of Translation’.” Journal of the American Water Resources Association 36: 253–263.
  • Sheppard, S. 2005. “Landscape Visualisation and Climate Change.” Environmental Science & Policy 8: 637–654.
  • Spoel, P., D. Goforth, H. Cheu, and D. Pearson. 2008. “Public Communication of Climate Change Science: Engaging Citizens through Apocalyptic Narrative Explanation.” Technical Communication Quarterly 18: 49–81.
  • Stamm, K., F. Clark, and P. Reynolds Eblacas. 2000. “Mass Communication and Public Understanding of Environmental Problems: The Case of Global Warming.” Public Understanding of Science 9: 219–237.
  • Sterman, J. 2008. “Risk Communication on Climate: Mental Models and Mass Balance.” Science 322: 532–533.
  • Sterman, J. 2011. “Communicating Climate Change Risks in a Skeptical World.” Climatic Change 108: 811–826.
  • Sterman, J., and L. B. Sweeney. 2002. “Cloudy Skies: Assessing Public Understanding of Global Warming.” System Dynamics Review 18: 207–240.
  • Sterman, J., and L. B. Sweeney. 2007. “Understanding Public Complacency about Climate Change.” Climatic Change 80: 213–238.
  • Sundblad, E., A. Biel, and T. Gärling. 2008. “Knowledge and Confidence in Knowledge about Climate Change among Experts, Journalists, Politicians, and Laypersons.” Environment and Behaviour 41: 281–302.
  • Uggla, Y. 2008. “Strategies to Create Risk Awareness and Legitimacy: The Swedish Climate Campaign.” Journal of Risk Research 11: 719–734.
  • Ungar, S. 2000. “Knowledge, Ignorance and the Popular Culture: Climate Change Versus the Ozone Hole.” Public Understanding of Science 9: 297–312.
  • White, T., and R. Wall. 2008. “National, Regional and Local Attitudes towards Climate Change: Identifying Appropriate Target Audiences for Communications.” Local Environment 13: 589–607.
  • Whitmarsh, L. 2008. “What’s in a Name? Commonalities and Differences in Public Understanding of ‘Climate Change’ and ‘Global Warming’.” Public Understanding of Science 18: 401–420.
  • Whitmarsh, L. 2011. “Scepticism and Uncertainty about Climate Change: Dimensions, Determinants and Change over Time.” Global Environmental Change 21: 690–700.
  • Whitmarsh, L., G. Seyfang, and S. O’Neill. 2011. “Public Engagement with Carbon and Climate Change: To what Extent is the Public ‘Carbon Capable’?” Global Environmental Change 21: 56–65.
  • Wibeck, V., and B. Linnér. 2012. “Public Understanding of Uncertainties in Climate Science and Policy.” In Global Change Management: Knowledge Gaps, Blindspots and Unknowables, edited by P. Ibisch, F. Cybulla and L. Geiger. Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft.
  • Wolf, J., and S. Moser. 2011. “Individual Understandings, Perceptions, and Engagement with Climate Change: Insights from In-Depth Studies across the World.” Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change 2: 547–569.
  • Zhao, X., A. Leiserowitz, E. Maibach, and C. Roser-Renouf. 2011. “Attention to Science/Environment News Positively Predicts and Attention to Political News Negatively Predicts Global Warming Risk Perceptions and Policy Support.” Journal of Communication 61: 713–731.
  • Zia, A., and A. Todd. 2010. “Evaluating the Effects of Ideology on Public Understanding of Climate Change Science: How to Improve Communication across Ideological Divides?” Public Understanding of Science 19: 743–761.

Additional references

  • Bedsted, B., and L. Klüver, eds. 2009. World Wide Views on Global Warming. From the World’s Citizens to the Climate Policy Makers. Policy report. Danish Board of Technology. http://www.wwviews.org/files/AUDIO/WWViews%20Policy%20Report%20FINAL%20-%20Web%20version.pdf
  • Boykoff, M. 2007. “From Convergence to Contention: United States Mass Media Presentations of Anthropogenic Climate Change Science.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 32: 477–489.
  • Boykoff, M., and J. Boykoff. 2004. “Bias as Balance: Global Warming and the US Prestige Press.” Global Environmental Change 142: 125–136.
  • Brossard, D., and B. Lewenstein. 2009. “A Critical Appraisal of Models of Public Understanding of Science: Using Practice to Inform Theory.” In Communicating Science: New Agendas in Communication, edited by L. Kahlor and P. Stout. New York, NY: Routledge.
  • Brossard, D., J. Shanahan, and K. McComas. 2004. “Are Issue-Cycles Culturally Constructed? A Comparison of French and American Coverage of Global Climate Change.” Mass Communication and Society 7: 359–377.
  • Brownlee, M., R. Powell, and J. Hallo. 2012. “A Review of the Foundational Processes that Influence Beliefs in Climate Change: Opportunities for Environmental Education Research.” Environmental Education Research. doi:10.1080/13504622.2012.683389.
  • Chopyak, J., and P. Levesque. 2002. “Public Participation in Science and Technology Decision Making: Trends for the Future.” Technology in Society 24: 155–166.
  • Delgado, A., K. Kjolberg, and F. Wickson. 2011. “Public Engagement Coming of Age: From Theory to Practice in Sts Encounters with Nanotechnology.” Public Understanding of Science 20: 826–845.
  • Dillon, J. 2003. “On Learners and Learning in Environmental Education: Missing Theories, Ignored Communities.” Environmental Education Research 9: 125–226.
  • Doyle, J. 2007. “Picturing the Clima(C)tic: Greenpeace and the Representational Politics of Climate Change Communication.” Science as Culture 16: 129–150.
  • Funtowicz, S., and J. Ravetz. 1993. “Science for the Post-Normal Age.” Futures 25: 739–755.
  • Gamson, W., and A. Modigliani. 1987. “The Changing Culture of Affirmative Action.” In Research in political sociology, vol 3, edited by R. Braungart and M. Braungart. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
  • George, D., J. Clewett, A. Wright, C. Birch, and W. Allen. 2007. “Improving Farmer Knowledge and Skills to Better Manage Climate Variability and Climate Change.” Journal of International Agricultural and Extension Education 14: 5–19.
  • Grob, A. 1995. “A Structural Model of Environmental Attitudes and Behaviour.” Journal of Environmental Psychology 15: 209–220.
  • Hulme, M. 2007. “Newspaper Scare Headlines can be Counter-Productive.” Nature 445: 818.
  • IPCC. 2007. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007. Geneva: IPCC.
  • Irvin, R., and J. Stansbury. 2004. “Citizen Participation in Decision Making: Is it Worth the Effort?” Public Administration Review 64: 55–65.
  • Kolb, A., and D. Kolb. 2009. “The Learning Way. Meta-cognitive Aspects of Experiential Learning.” Simulation & Gaming 40: 297–327.
  • Kollmuss, A., and J. Agyeman. 2002. “Mind the Gap: Why People Act Environmentally and What are the Barriers to Pro-Environmental Behaviour?” Environmental Education Research 8: 239–261.
  • Koteyko, N., M. Thelwall, and B. Nerlich. 2010. “From Carbon Markets to Carbon Morality: Creative Compounds as Framing Devices in Online Discourses on Climate Change Mitigation.” Science Communication 32: 25–54.
  • Lewenstein, B., and D. Brossard. 2006. Assessing Models of Public Understanding in Elsi Outreach Materials: Final Report. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University.
  • Lorenzoni, I. 2003. “Present Choices, Future Climates: A Cross-Cultural Study of Perceptions in Italy and in the UK.” Doctoral thesis, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, UK.
  • Lorenzoni, I., M. Jones, and J. Turnpenny. 2007. “Climate Change, Human Genetics, and Post-Normality in the UK.” Futures 39: 65–82.
  • Lövbrand, E., R. Pielke, and S. Beck. 2011. “A Democracy Paradox in Studies of Science and Technology.” Science Technology and Human Values 36: 474–496.
  • McComas, K., and J. Shanahan. 1999. “Telling Stories about Global Climate Change: Measuring the Impact of Narratives on Issue Cycles.” Communication Research 26: 30–57.
  • Myers, T., M. Nisbet, E. Maibach, and A. Leiserowitz. 2012. “A Public Health Frame Arouses Hopeful Emotions about Climate Change.” Climatic Change 113: 1105–1112.
  • Nerlich, B., N. Koteyko, and B. Brown. 2010. “Theory and Language of Climate Change Communication.” Wileys Interdisciplinary Review: Climate Change 1: 97–110
  • Neset, T., J. Johansson, and B. Linnér, eds. 2009. State of climate visualization. CSPR report 2009: 4. Linköping: Linköping University. .
  • Neset, T., V. Wibeck, O. Uhrqvist, and J. Johansson. 2010. “Visualizing Climate Change: The Potential of Dome Presentations as a Tool for Climate Communication.” Computer Graphics Forum 12/2009.
  • Nicholls, N. 1999. “Cognitive Illusions, Heuristics, and Climate Prediction.” Bulletin of the Americal Meteorological Society 80: 1385–1398.
  • Nowotny, H., P. Scott, and M. Gibbons. 2001. Re-thinking Science: Knowledge and the Public in an Age of Uncertainty. Cambridge: Polity Press.
  • Olausson, U. 2009. “Global Warming – Global Responsibility? Media Frames of Collective Action and Scientific Certainty.” Public Understanding of Science 18: 421–436.
  • Patt, A., and D. Schrag. 2003. “Using Specific Language to Describe Risk and Probability.” Climatic Change 61: 17–30.
  • Reser, J., G. Bradley, A. Glendon, M. Ellul, and R. Callaghan. 2012. Public Risk Perceptions, Understandings, and Responses to Climate Change and Natural Disasters in Australia and Great Britain. Gold Coast: National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility.
  • Rogers-Hayden, T., and N. Pidgeon. 2007. “Moving Engagement “Upstream”? Nanotechnologies and the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering’s Inquiry.” Public Understanding of Science 16: 345–364.
  • Schäfer, M. 2009. “From Public Understanding to Public Engagement. An Empirical Assessment of Changes in Science Coverage.” Science Communication 30: 475–505.
  • Schneider, R. O. 2011. “Climate Change: An Emergency Management Perspective.” Disaster Prevention and Management 20: 53–62.
  • SEPA. 2004. The Swedish Climate Campaign – Part of Sweden’s Climate Strategy. Stockholm: Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.
  • Sturgis, P., and N. Allum. 2004. “Science in Society: Re-Evaluating the Deficit Model of Public Attitudes.” Public Understanding of Science 13: 55–74.
  • Trench, B. 2008. “Towards an Analytical Framework of Science Communication Models.” In Communicating Science in Social Contexts, edited by D. Cheng, M. Claessens, T. Gascoigne, J. Metcalfe, B. Schiele and S. Chi. New York, NY: Springer.
  • Weingart, P., A. Engels, and P. Pansegrau. 2000. “Risks of Communication: Discourses on Climate Change in Science, Politics, and the Mass Media.” Public Understanding of Science 9: 261–283.
  • Wibeck, V. Forthcoming. Social Representations of Climate Change in Swedish Lay Focus Groups: Local or Distant, Gradual or Catastrophic? Public Understanding of Science. doi:10.1177/0963662512462787.
  • Wynne, B., and U. Felt. 2007. Taking European Knowledge Society Seriously, Chair and Rapporteur, Expert Group on Science and Governance, Brussels, European Commission D-G Research. EUR: Science Economy and Society Directorate . 22700.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Order Reprints Request Corporate Permissions

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

Request Academic Permissions

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.

Related research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.