The Environmentalists' Climate Change Strategy

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Tuesday, June 06, 2006

The Environmentalists' Climate Change Strategy

The environmentalist Gristmill blog (http://gristmill.grist.org/) points out an important document in the climate change debate:

Americans and Climate Change: Closing the Gap Between Science and Action (pdf) is a report of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, "Conference on Climate Change: From Science to Action", held in October, 2005.

The report outlines a political communications strategy for how best to convince the public that "climate change is the most severe problem that we are facing today, even more serious even than the threat of terrorism." This is no small task. And the 110 "leading thinkers and actors" assembled by Yale devote over 200 pages to explaining how this might be accomplished.

A key theme of the report is that while one cannot talk about climate change without reference to scientific observations/theories/studies, getting people to actually change their behavior recalls a "values-based communications strategy."

"The facts of climate change cannot be left to speak for themselves. They must be actively communicated with the right words, in the right dosages, packaged with narrative storytelling that is based rigorously on reality, personalized with human faces, made vivid through visual imagery, and delivered by the right messengers."
Interestingly, of 39 recommendations for action, 9 deal specifically with how to convince the religious community to jump on the global warming bandwagon.

But another recommendation in particular is worth noting, due to the fact that it is being carried out right now.
#20: Embed the climate change issue in a larger set of co-benefit narratives, such as:

i) reducing U.S. dependency on Middle East oil (national security);

ii) penetrating global export markets with American innovations (U.S. stature);

iii) boosting U.S. job growth (jobs);

iv) cutting local air pollution (health).

As they say, read the whole thing.

--Isaac Post

http://environment.yale.edu/climate/americans_and_climate_change.pdf

The Environmentalists' Climate Change Strategy: "Americans and the Global Change - Closing the Gap between Science and Action"

http://www.cei.org/ (Competitive Enterprise Institute)

The Competitive Enterprise Institute is a non-profit public policy organization dedicated to advancing the principles of free enterprise and limited government. We believe that individuals are best helped not by government intervention, but by making their own choices in a free marketplace. Since its founding in 1984, CEI has grown into a $3,000,000 institution with a team of over 20 policy experts and other staff.

Check out their links:

http://www.cei.org/pages/links.cfm
 
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