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Planet Now
Blog on Effective Environmental Communication
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When we are talking about environmental issues, whether with friends or in mass media, we should use the terms that most effectively encourage our audience to care about the environment and act to protect it. The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC) recently studied the terms that Americans use to refer to “carbon emissions.” It tested the difference in reactions to the following terms: “greenhouse gas emissions,” “carbon emissions,” and “carbon pollution.” It found that the latter two terms are better for getting Americans to understand climate impacts even if the first is technically more correct since it is inclusive of greenhouse gases besides carbon. YPCCC also compared the effectiveness of the terms “climate change” and “extreme weather.” In summary, the better term to use varied by the audience. “Climate change” was more likely than “extreme weather” to encourage actions to prepare for climate change among politically liberal audiences. “Extreme weather” was a better option for encouraging conservative audiences to take action, like creating emergency preparedness kits. Moreover, public opinion analyst Frank Luntz has shared terms that focus groups have shown to encourage people to take climate action: My takeaway from these recommendations is that we should focus on terms that are positive (like “solving”) and avoid terms that are overused (like “state of the art”). It is certain that climate change has negative impacts and some of those impacts are already happening, so it makes sense to use “consequences” rather than “threats.” The best terms can be very specific for different purposes and audiences, so these recommendations are not to say that you should never use the above “lose” terms.
Most surprising to me is “principles and priorities” being better than “values.” I have studied the importance of connecting climate change to people’s values, and now I may switch the terminology that I typically use to match that recommendation. Do any of these “use” terms surprise you?
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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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