Issue: Climate Impacts

From one perspective, we’re ending 2021 a lot like we started it. In a pandemic, experiencing one extreme weather event after another, and anxious over how power is being wielded in Congress and the White House.
At the same time, there have been a significant number of policy victories at all levels of government while new funding resources and new horizons in climate leadership are creating transformational shifts within the climate movement. Shifts that have the potential to unlock the people power we are going to need to win – and secure – the transition to a clean energy future that we all need. Below you’ll find summaries of key trends in the climate movement for 2021 – and some of the Best of the Lab from this year.

Using data on extreme weather to locally target messaging in areas experiencing it can dramatically increase impact. Through a pilot with Climate Central, the Innovation Team at the Partnership Project acquired a data set from NOAA of geographies impacted by extreme weather. They partnered with the National Wildlife Federation to examine the performance of two emails sent in July on extreme heat. They found people in the zip codes experiencing extreme heat for at least two consecutive days responded at a higher rate, doubling conversions. This confirms polling suggesting that local extreme weather influences opinions. Additional weather data sets from the NOAA are available by county, zip code, and Congressional district. This data is available for use to inform your online and offline targeting and match the right local extreme weather message/creative to the people impacted by that particular type of extreme weather. You can also watch a debrief video.

Majorities of youth and young adults around the world are worried about climate change, report negative emotions related to the issue, and find government responses inadequate. In this study, youth or young adults were considered aged 16-25. 59% are very or extremely worried and 84% are at least moderately worried. More than 50% said they feel sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless, and guilty. More than 45% said their feelings about climate change negatively affected their daily life and functioning, and many reported a high number of negative thoughts about climate—for example, 75% said that they think the future is frightening, and 83% said that they think people have failed to take care of the planet). Further, most rated governmental responses to climate change negatively and reported greater feelings of betrayal than of reassurance.

When messaging about climate impacts, don’t lead with temperature goals. For most people, “1.5°C” of global warming just doesn’t seem that bad. In the US, nearly 50% of respondents felt there would be no change or perhaps even slight improvement to life on a hotter Earth. Globally, the average person believed the U.N proposed a cap on warming of an additional 4°C (putting us on track for an utter catastrophe.) Globally, less than a third of people know what the Paris Agreement is.

This post includes a roundup of climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from this week’s public polls – including a major new report on Americans’ shifting climate change attitudes from the Yale and GMU programs on climate change communication, plus fresh polling about the Build Back Better plan and how voters view climate-friendly policies in the context of rising living costs and gas prices.

Maps, moving pictures, and photos have been shown to have powerful impacts on public opinion, even though public opinion on climate change is polarized along party lines in the U.S. Studies have found that images have a greater impact if they portray the local effects of sea-level rise and climate change on audiences in specific places (e.g., Boston, Miami), as opposed to its effects on exotic animals or locations such as polar bears at the North Pole. People surveyed report increased beliefs that climate change will cause negative results, concern for coastal communities and even belief that global warming is occurring. However, other studies have found that showing people images or maps of negative climate impacts on their own property or neighborhood may backfire, resulting in less concern, possibly because people defensively believe they made good individual decisions to purchase their property in the past. Realtor organizations have begun utilizing flood risk information in home listings, but the effects of this on homebuyer behavior are yet unknown.