RISK COMMUNICATION RESOURCES

A collection of articles on the need for, and public perception of, climate change risk communication.

 

 

Collection Resources

The Wages of Eco-Angst
David Ropeik, 2012, The New York Times

An article that explores the idea of “the perception gap” to describe why we are overly cautious about certain risks and seemingly less concerned about other significant dangers, such as climate change. 

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Communicating Emergency Preparedness: Strategies for Creating a Disaster Resilient Public
Erin Maloney, Damon Coppola, 2009, CRC Press

A book on the importance of pre-disaster communication to inform communities about risk factors and response plans, including case studies that highlight how communities have carried out public awareness campaigns to prepare for public disasters.

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Experience-based and Description-based Perceptions of Long-term Risk: Why Global Warming Does Not Scare Us (Yet)
Elke Weber, 2006, Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, Climatic Change

A journal article on how the factors that influence one's perception of risk, such as recent personal experience or an event's probability, affect risk management decisions and how the abstract and delayed nature of climate change fails to elicit visceral reactions.

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Communicating climate risk: Choices chances and chocolate wheels
Peter Hayman, 2011, SARDI Climate Applications

A presentation on communicating climate risk and navigating the concept of uncertainty with regard to agriculture in Australia.

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A Better Climate for Disaster Risk Management
Simon Mason, Richard Choularto, Molly Hellmuth, Maarten van Aalst, Catherine Vaughan, 2011, Columbia University

A report on utilizing climate information as a tool to manage risk, including case studies and research that highlight challenges and opportunities for disaster risk managers.

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Degrees of Risk: Defining a Risk Management Framework for Climate Security
Nick Mabey, Katherine Silverthorne, Jay Gulledge, Bernard Finel, 2011, E3G

A report on how climate change impacts security and how understanding the threat and adopting a risk management approach can reduce the severity of potential outcomes and increase resilience.

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Some people say: “I have personally experienced the effects of global warming.” What does that mean, and does it matter?
Edward Maibach, 2011, George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication

A survey of Americans' personal experience with global warming and weathercasters' observations of climate impacts to understand how we process risk information and if our perceptions match climatic data.

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Climate Change Risk Communication: The Problem of Psychological Denial
Peter Sandman, 2009

An analysis of climate denial (what it is, its sources, and how it's provoked) and recommendations for advocacy messaging and risk communication.

Read the article here.

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Communicating climate change risks in a skeptical world
John Sterman, 2011, Climatic Change

This study describes how our mental models lead to biases when confronted with complex systems like climate and asserts that we need new modes of communication that include interactive simulations to convey risk. 

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Climate scientists grapple with uncertainty (though not the kind you think)
Brad Plumer, 2011, The Washington Post

This article discusses how scientists' communication of uncertainty is often misinterpreted or exaggerated as well as the challenges associated with presenting data to the public on complex risks and scenarios that are difficult to quantify.  

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Public Perceptions of Climate Change as a Human Health Risk: Surveys of the United States, Canada and Malta
Karen Akerlof, Roberto DeBono, Peter Berry, Anthony Leiserowitz, Connie Roser-Renouf, Kaila-Lea Clarke, Anastasia Rogaeva, Matthew Nisbet, Melinda Weathers, Edward Maibach, 2010, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

A survey to determine whether the public believes that climate change poses a human health risk and if so, how urgent and personal are these threats perceived to be?

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Global warming, natural hazards, and emergency management
 Kim Haddow,  George Haddow, Jane A. Bullock, 2009, CRC Press

Drawing from a collection of case studies, the book is a guide for emergency managers, policy makers and community officials on how to develop stakeholder partnerships and build effective disaster-planning processes to reduce the risks of climate change.

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A National Strategic Narrative
Woodrow Wilson Center, 2011

A proposal of a new national story based on the concept of a "strategic ecosystem," which, among other things, advocates for adaptation to complex challenges, risks and threats.  

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Climate and Water in the West: Science, Information and Decision-Making
Roger Pulwarty, 2003

An examination of the vulnerability of the American West to climate impacts and possible adaptation opportunities, including a discussion of the role of risk communication.

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The Role of Social and Decision Sciences in Communicating Uncertain Climate Risks
Nick Pidgeon, Baruch Fischhoff, 2011

An analysis of the communications methods that are necessary to convey climate science and motivate the public to understand and combat climate change.

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Climate Change Risk Perception and Policy Preferences: The Role of Affect, Imagery, and Values
Anthony Leiserowitz, 2006

A survey of American climate change risk perceptions and levels of policy support.

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American Risk Perceptions: Is Climate Change Dangerous?
Anthony Leiserowitz, 2005

Research that ties together public risk perception to willingness to address politicial, social and economic risks for particular subjects.

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