Changing Planet: Impact on Lives & Values

How Smart Talk Can Cool the Planet by Eliza Strickland

Over the course of 2009, world leaders failed to reach a meaningful agreement on climate change regulations at the Copenhagen summit, and carbon dioxide emissions continued to pour into the atmosphere at an increasing rate. By all accounts, the situation got worse. Yet researchers from the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication who conducted nationwide surveys in the fall of 2008 and January 2010 saw a disturbing "America-wide shift" in public opinion: a significant decline in the number of Americans who believed that climate change was happening and was something to worry about. Despite climate researchers' urgent warnings, the American public was less convinced than ever.

Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change, is trying to figure out why the message hasn't gotten through. He and his colleagues first sorted the survey respondents into "Global Warming's Six Americas"—a spectrum of people whose opinions on climate change range through alarmed, concerned, cautious, disengaged, doubtful, and dismissive. (Take the survey below to find out which category you fall into.) "The six Americas aren't driven by sex, age, class, geography," says Leiserowitz. "They're driven by what's in people's heads and what's in people's hearts. You can find all six groups in Topeka, Kansas, and all six in New York City."  

To convince someone to take the threat of climate change seriously, you have to know which group they fall into, Leiserowitz believes. For this town hall event, Leiserowitz decided to aim at the four groups in the middle. "We didn't include the alarmed or the dismissive because they've reached their conclusions," he says. "Learning something new isn't going to change their minds."

The next step was crafting a message. Leiserowitz discarded the "frames" that are typically used in climate discussions: he ignored the science frame and its "unending debate over if climate change is really happening," he tossed the environmental frame that stresses negative impacts on wildlife, and he very happily chucked the political frame, which he finds the least useful of all.

In place of these tired storylines, the panelists introduced four new plots that Leiserowitz hopes will catch the public's attention. First, they suggested that adapting to climate change will boost America's economy, as we can provide the technology and innovations to transform the world. Replacing fossil fuels is a huge goal, says Leiserowitz—"and somebody's going to make money from that; right now it's our competitors." The panelists also introduced a health angle, acting on evidence that people haven't realized that climate change may cause big global health problems. They rounded things out with the idea that religious and young people may feel particular urgency to tend to our planet.

Leiserowitz admits that he's experimenting, but says novel strategies are necessary to bring more Americans into the discussion. "We believe that by bringing these new topics and themes into the conversation, we can show people that they have a stake in this issue—it's not just for people who care about polar bears. It's for anybody who's worried about their kid with asthma, anybody who wants America to be competitive."

As we look back at 2010, a year of stalled climate policy, talk may seem like a weak alternative to action. But if Leiserowitz can find ways to nudge doubtful and disengaged people toward being cautious and concerned, words may prove to be our best weapon against climate change.  

• When it comes to global warming, there are "Six Americas":  alarmed, concerned, cautious, disengaged, doubtful, and dismissive.
  
  
• Some frames that do not work for communicating about climate change: science, the environment, and politics.
  
  
• What are some reasons that might convince someone to support action against climate change? American success and global health.

What are your attitudes about climate change, how do they affect your lifestyle, and how do you compare with the rest of America? Take the survey developed by Anthony Leiserowitz on Facebook to find out which of the Six Americas you are, and let us know here where you fall.