Resource Library

Discussion on climate change on Twitter is clearly politically polarized. Studying 6.8 million tweets that mentioned “fake news” and “global warming” or “climate change”, the majority of tweets focus on the United States context. The anti-Democratic online community was more active on Twitter than the anti-conservative or anti-Republican community. More than half the examined most retweeted posts contained claims about climate change being a natural cycle or even denying it exists, while about a third of these tweets stated that climate change was human-caused. This study argues that fake news as a term has a hollow meaning, as it is used as a buzzword to discredit opponents and further the political agenda of different parties not only in the United States but also in other Western countries like Australia.

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.

What if the best times are ahead of us? I have been coming back to those words from NDN Collective a lot, recently – my head spinning with post-COP press releases, analysis of infrastructure bill provisions, and early prognostications on midterm elections.
Powerful and visionary climate narratives feel more necessary than ever in these wild times. They can reawaken our imagination of what is possible; ground our sense of purpose and commitment; and summon the necessary mix of anger, hope, and courage to keep pushing for a regenerative, equitable, and beautiful world.
The importance of narrative has gained a lot of traction in recent years, and political science research affirms narrative as a “critical capacity” of effective social movements across the ideological spectrum. Color of Change’s Rashad Robinson breaks down the different dimensions of narrative work, explaining:

Narrative is the “average” of (or the patterns that emerge from) a “system of stories” about an issue, including from media, culture, and politics.
Narrative power is our ability to wield those stories through a Narrative Strategy that helps to shape and shift societal norms, rules, and our larger understanding of what is possible.
Narrative infrastructure is the set of processes and tools that help us do that over time.

This week, I’m so excited to share some of the research, tools, and resources we’ve been gathering at the Lab to support you in developing or refining your narrative strategy!