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Planet Now
Blog on Effective Environmental Communication
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Discussions about climate change with friends and family members can lead to frustration if those people do not trust climate science. However, a March 2021 report from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication said 70% of Americans think that climate change is happening and only 15% of Americans deny that climate change is happening (other Americans are undecided). Instead of spending time and energy attempting to convince people about climate facts, environmental communicators should show those people who already trust climate science how to take steps to slow the problem. To encourage people to make environmentally friendly decisions in their own lives, environmental communicators can share stories about why they care about the environment and the steps they are taking to protect it. For example, I began caring about human impacts on the environment as a kid when I saw neighborhoods replace forests in my rapidly growing hometown of Apex, North Carolina. My concern about climate change led me to start an environmental club at my high school and study the environment in college. I was shocked to learn that the world’s oceans will likely have more plastic than fish by 2050! Now that I am older, I recognize that sometimes people need to cut down trees for homes and that trees probably once stood in the same spot as my own home. Nevertheless, my experience seeing deforestation helped me realize that humans should be careful about how they affect the environment, especially when polluting oceans or releasing greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change and its devastating consequences, including severe hurricanes, wildfires and droughts. Why should you read my advice about environmental communication? I am in the Environment and Science Communication dual-degree program at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at UNC-Chapel Hill. Through this program, I have taken several courses in environmental science, environmental policy, sustainability and communication. In September 2020, I published a book called Planet Now: Effective Strategies for Communicating about the Environment. My next goal is to use this blog to share strategies from my classes and research to help people learn how to effectively communicate about the environment to slow climate change. Some people may not have personal stories about climate change, but they could use several other strategies to communicate about the environment. These strategies can help them influence other people to take steps to reduce climate change. In this blog, I will share strategies to help people discuss climate-related problems and solutions with other people in their lives, especially those people who are willing to listen. People who want to help the environment should have a communications strategy for discussing the urgent problem of climate change, so they need to plan it now, or rather, “Planet Now.”
1 Comment
Wendy Norton
1/18/2022 10:28:32 pm
Look forward to following your blog to learn ideas on how to better communicate about the environment!
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Welcome to my blog! It is a combination of posts from my strategic writing (spring 2022) and personal branding (spring 2023) courses at UNC. I hope you will enjoy reading the posts and learning about the environment and communication.
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