New research is incorporating social and political processes into climate science models. These models usually do not account for political “feedback loops” and only try to predict climate futures based on emissions trajectories and the impacts of policies on them. This interview with a researcher includes a discussion on other forces that are likely to affect climate futures, such as how policies that are (or are not) passed will change public opinion and other forms of political power that will in turn affect policy and have other effects on degrees of global warming. This research is brand new and is trying to make more accurate predictions about how climate policy might affect future climate scenarios.

This tool provides information about Americans' beliefs, risk perceptions, and policy preferences about climate change. This data is based on the Yale Climate Opinion Maps and exists for all 50 states, 435 congressional districts, and 3,142 counties across the U.S. The tool allows users to customize which survey questions are shown on a Factsheet, such as different beliefs about climate science, risk perceptions, policy support, and behaviors. Users can obtain these public opinion measures at levels even as local as a county or congressional district.

A recent survey that asked Americans about their willingness to "support an organization engaging in non-violent civil disobedience against corporate or government activities that make global warming worse" and about their willingness to "personally engage in such non-violent civil disobedience themselves" found: 

• Among the Six Americas segments, the Alarmed are the most likely to support an organization engaging in non-violent civil disobedience; half (50%) said they “definitely” (21%) or “probably” (29%) would support such an organization.
• 28% of the Alarmed said they “definitely” (10%) or “probably” (18%) would personally engage in non-violent civil disobedience against corporate or government activities that make global warming worse, if asked to by a person they liked and respected. The ten percent of the Alarmed who are “definitely willing” to personally engage in non-violent civil disobedience represents approximately 8.6 million American adults.
• Millennial and younger adults are more likely to support organizations engaging in non-violent civil disobedience than older generations -- with 35% stating they “definitely would” (14%) or “probably would” (21%) support them -- and also more likely to say they would personally engage in non-violent civil disobedience to protect the climate; 8% said they “definitely would” and 12% said they “probably would,” if asked to by a person they liked and respected.
• People of color are more likely than whites to support organizations engaging in non-violent civil disobedience. About one third (34%) of Black Americans “definitely would” (12%) or “probably would” (22%), and about one third (35%) of Hispanics/Latinos “definitely would” (14%) or “probably would” (21%) support such organizations.
• People of color are also more likely than whites to say they would personally engage in non-violent civil disobedience in defense of the climate; about one in six Hispanics/Latinos (6% “definitely would” and 11% “probably would”) and one in five Black Americans (5% “definitely would” and 17% “probably would”) say they would engage in such actions, if asked to by a person they liked and respected.

Many people communicating for social change are exploring how to tell diverse and inclusive stories that center marginalized communities while building understanding about how inequality persists. Intersectionality is an important tool to help us tell great stories that help us understand systemic issues. Five guiding principles to telling intersectional stories: Show, don’t tell; Provide historical context; Uplift the voices of marginalized people; Tell whole stories; and, Radically reimagine the world.

  

Scientific language about climate used in IPCC reports is often unclear to the general public. This resource performed in-depth interviews with 20 Americans about terms used throughout IPCC climate reports. Terms “adaptation” and “abrupt change” were perceived as the easiest to understand by interviewees; “mitigation,” “carbon neutral,” and “unprecedented transition” were perceived as the most difficult to understand. However, even if a term appeared to be understood, interviewees did not always understand how it applied to climate change.

A good formula for leveraging health messaging for climate advocacy: Tell people about the health consequences of climate change, health benefits of climate solutions, and include a call-to-action. This experiment found that each of these categories was worth including in a message to help motivate Americans to contact Congress. Within each of these categories, a variety of specific types of information were tested, with the most effective overall combination being a message that first described the negative impacts of climate change on air quality, then explained how transitioning to clean energy will benefit people’s health, and ended by explaining that most Americans support this solution, and many are taking action to advocate for it.             

Use visual images to make climate change feel real and immediate. This blog post offers tips on what types of visual images are best at educating audiences about the problem and engaging them on solutions. These include: know your audience, use real people not stock images, tell new stories about climate change, avoid shaming individuals, and couple disturbing images with something positive.             

Opposition to energy infrastructure is often labeled by developers as NIMBYism, but frontline communities have legitimate concerns and risk perceptions, or are left out of democratic decision making processes. In cases involving the siting of power lines, community groups are most successful in stopping the line or achieving remediation when they build broad coalitions of support within and outside of their communities and/or have government support at any level (including local, state or provincial, federal, and Indigenous).             

Using data from the Heatwave Risk Perceptions map, researchers found that:

• Women in California are more worried than men about the risk of extreme heat events; and non-White Hispanic residents are more worried than respondents who identified as “White” or “Other"
• Even though the elderly are more vulnerable to heat, we also found that older populations are the least worried about these threats
• Three times as many Democrats (27%) as Republicans (9%) are “very worried” about the local occurrence of extreme heat waves
• Fewer Hispanic respondents (48%) have central AC compared to White, non-Hispanic respondents (58%). Respondents who are homeowners (59%) are more likely to have central AC than renters (39%).

There is some link between experiencing climate change events and changing people’s beliefs, but the link is not always so clear. This resource finds that local warming can generate climate change concern, but the capacity for personal experience to promote action may rely upon the experience first being attributed to climate change. Rare extreme weather events will likely have limited impact on judgments and decisions unless they have occurred recently. However, even recent events may have limited impact among individuals who hold strong pre-existing beliefs rejecting the reality of climate change. This aligns with behavioral decision research highlighting the importance of pre-existing values and beliefs in shaping how individuals experience changes in environmental conditions.