The size of the crowd at last Friday’s learning session, "Let’s not talk about climate change," revealed a common concern among local government agencies, environmental groups and non-profits: talking about climate change in Oregon doesn't result in behavior change.
"One of the major challenges we have is climate change," said Metro Councilor Rex Burkholder at the June 10 event. "How do we communicate to the public about the changes we need to make? And how do we talk about the positive parts of the solutions that we are bringing forward?"
Hosted by Metro, the presentations by Carlson Communications and Davis, Hibbitts and Midghall highlighted recent research on communication best practices based on an extensive literary review and public opinion polling. Findings revealed that though people are concerned about climate change and believe it is happening, it isn’t a priority when making decisions about behavior. This raised the question, if information about the human impact on climate change isn’t working, what will?
"We need to reach people through local values," Leslie Carlson explained during her presentation. "Economic growth, clean air and water and health are values people will change behavior for, and the side benefit is that these things are better for the climate."
Audience members agreed that traditional communication strategies aren't working – as one participant put it, "We need to develop a climate change app to reach people." Research shows that more and more, people are looking to trusted local sources for information rather than public information campaigns. Social networking sites including Facebook and Twitter are rapidly taking the place of traditional print media and Internet search engines as preferred methods for information.
"There is an issue about who should be the spokesperson for climate change," said Adam Davis during his presentation highlighting the results from focus groups and public opinion surveys he conducted for Metro. "It can’t be the government. It must be representatives from trusted sources in our communities like small businesses, educational organizations and non-profits."
Participants shared examples of successful communication strategies for climate change. They found that what worked was focusing on what really motivated people – local, relevant issues and solutions. Additional best practice recommendations included using peer-to-peer influence, connecting climate with the economy and celebrating local successes.