How to do climate communication
These links connect to resources for the practice of journalism and the coverage of the climate crisis.
Best practices and lessons learned
Chapter 2: Engaging Climate Communication: Audiences, Frames, Values and Norms
Source: Journalism and Climate Crisis 2017
Summary: Chapter from a book that looks at the journalistic tactics that can help the public understand the climate crisis.
Notes on how to access: This link is to the book’s summary and Table of contents. The full book may be available to borrow from your library or can be purchased from the publisher.
Communicating Climate Research: Working with the Press
Source: Priestley International Centre for Climate 15 April 2020
Summary: This webinar explores how journalists and climate researchers can cooperate to make good climate stories.
Covering Climate Change: Journalism’s Biggest and Most Difficult Story, Ever
Source: The Spinoff 16 August 2017
Summary: Five journalists recount the importance and difficulties of communicating about climate change.
Source: UNESCO 2018
Summary: A resource book to help journalists understand how to cover climate change to be relevant to Asia and the Pacific.
Source: Neiman Lab 14 July 2021
Summary: Climate journalism can learn lessons from media coverage of the complexities and uncertainties of the COVID-19 pandemic.
National Corporate TV News Largely Failed to Cover Hurricane Ida as a Climate Justice Story
Source: Media Matters for America 1 September 2021
Summary: Broadcast news coverage of Hurricane Ida did not connect the intense storm to the larger climate crisis.
Principles for Effective Public Engagement on Climate Change: A Handbook for the IPCC
Source: IPCC 8 February 2018
Summary: This webinar offers guidance on how to communicate effectively with the public about climate change.
Source: Talk.Eco
Summary: “A clearinghouse of resources for environmental communicators” working with a wide range of audiences.
Source: Peter Lang 2017
Summary: This book looks at the future of sustainable journalism in three domains: environmental, social, and economic.
Notes on how to access: This link is to the book’s summary and Table of contents. The full book may be available to borrow from your library or can be purchased from the publisher.
Communicating complex scientific topics
Dangerous News: Media Decision Making about Climate Change Risk
Source: Risk Analysis November 2005
Summary: This study examines “the role of broadcast news media decisionmakers in shaping public understanding and debate of climate change risks.”
Source: Journalism and Climate Crisis 2017
Summary: Chapter from a book that looks at the journalistic tactics that can help the public understand the climate crisis.
Notes on how to access: This link is to the book’s summary and Table of contents. The full book may be available to borrow from your library or can be purchased from the publisher.
Introduction: Journalism for Climate Crisis
Source: Journalism and Climate Crisis: Public Engagement, Media Alternatives 2017
Summary: This book looks at what journalistic practices will help the public understand and address climate change.
Notes on how to access: This link is to the book’s summary and Table of contents. The full book may be available to borrow from your library or can be purchased from the publisher.
Communicating scientific uncertainty
Chapter 3: When Uncertainty is Certain
Source: Climate Change in the Media 2013
Summary: A chapter from a book that looks at how international media outlets focus discussions of the climate crisis around notions of risk or uncertainty.
Notes on how to access: This link is to the book’s summary and Table of contents. The full book may be available to borrow from your library or can be purchased from the publisher.
Dangerous News: Media Decision Making about Climate Change Risk
Source: Risk Analysis 2005
Summary: This study examines “the role of broadcast news media decisionmakers in shaping public understanding and debate of climate change risks.”
Framing climate issues
Source: Centre for Decision Research, Leeds University Business School 16 April 2019
Summary: This video blog by Dr Astrid Kause summarises research published in Weather, Climate, and Society and looks at: 1) how communicators verbally frame communications about climate change and 2) how listeners interpret these frames based on their underlying beliefs about climate change.
Source: Science Communication 2009
Summary: Explores whether climate change messaging that promotes fear of the effects is an effective tool for inspiring action.
Chapter 2: Framing Processes in the Climate Movement: From Climate Change to Climate Justice
Source: Routledge Handbook of the Climate Change Movement 2013
Summary: Chapter 2 of a book that looks at global political and civil action to protect the environment.
Notes on how to access: This link is to the book’s summary and Table of contents. The full book may be available to borrow from your library or can be purchased from the publisher.
Framing Environmental Disaster: Environmental Advocacy and the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
Source: Routledge 2016
Summary: This book uses the case of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to examine understandings and communication about environmental disasters.
Notes on how to access: This link is to the book’s summary and Table of contents. The full book may be available to borrow from your library or can be purchased from the publisher.
Message Framing and Climate Change Communication: A Meta-Analytical Review
Source: Journal of Applied Communications September 2018
Summary: This study of framing climate communication found that readers engage with frames that emphasize the environmental, economic, and moral dimensions of climate change.
Notes on how to access: This link is to the book’s summary and Table of contents. The full book may be available to borrow from your library or can be purchased from the publisher.
Source: Media, Culture & Society 2020
Summary: This look at media framing of climate activism by German newspapers draws conclusions about how news coverage marginalizes and discredits the messages of activist movements.
How to improve climate communication
The Role of Media in Addressing Climate Change with Alan Rusbridger
Source: Oxford Climate Society 22 January 2021
Summary: The former editor-in-chief of “The Guardian” discusses the role of the media in conversations about and perspectives on climate change.
A Higher Standard Than ‘Balance’ in Journalism on Climate Change Science: An Editorial Comment
Source: Climate Change January 2008
Summary: The author argues that the journalistic notion of balance cannot be reconciled with responsible climate journalism.
A New Commitment to Covering the Climate Story
Source: Columbia Journalism Review 26 July 2019
Summary: An account of the Climate Crisis Now initiative, the goal of which is to augment the capacity of journalists and media outlets to give appropriate coverage to the climate crisis.
Call It What It Is: A Climate Emergency
Source: The Nation 3 June 2021
Summary: Advocates for more urgent media coverage of the climate crisis.
Chapter 3: Environmental Protest, Politics and Media Interactions: An Overview
Source: Journalism and Climate Crisis 2017
Summary: Chapter from a book that looks at the journalistic tactics that can help the public understand the climate crisis.
Notes on how to access: This links to the book’s summary and Table of contents. The full book may be available to borrow from your library or can be purchased from the publisher.
Chapter 6: The Media/Communication Strategies of Environmental Pressure Groups and NGOs
Source: Routledge Handbook Of Environment And Communication 2015
Summary: Chapter 6 of a book about the role of media in defining public perceptions about environmental matters.
Notes on how to access: This links to the book’s summary and Table of contents. The full book may be available to borrow from your library or can be purchased from the publisher.
Chapter 9: Reimagining Radical Climate Justice
Source: Reimagining Climate Change 2016
Summary: Chapter 9 in a book offering multiple perspectives on how to reimagine solutions to the climate crisis.
Notes on how to access: This links to the book’s summary and Table of contents. The full book may be available to borrow from your library or can be purchased from the publisher.
Climate Change Journalism: From Agony to Agonistic Debate
Source: Desenvolvimento and Meio Ambiente (Development and Environment) 28 April 2017
Summary: The authors argue for an advocacy approach to climate journalism over an objective approach.
David Attenborough Still Has Hope for Our Future
Source: New York Times 25 December 2020
Summary: Sir David Attenborough recalls his life of natural-history documentary-making and his focus on the resilience of the natural world.
Notes on how to access: The New York Times offers 10 free articles per month to non-subscribers.
In Climate Coverage, Reporting the Grim Facts, but Also the Fight
Source: New York Times 27 August 2021
Summary: Q&A with a NYT reporter about his perspective on how to cover climate matters in media reporting.
Notes on how to access: The New York Times offers 10 free articles per month to non-subscribers.
International Environmental Communication Association
Source: International Environmental Communication Association
Summary: This membership association has the mission of facilitating effective environmental communication and inspiring solutions to environmental problems.
Media Coverage of Climate Change Induced Migration: Implications for Meaningful Media Discourse
Source: Global Media and Communication 2021
Summary: Climate communication should include ways of talking about the looming problem of climate migration.
Notes on how to access: This links to the abstract of a scholarly article. Full-text of this article can be retrieved through an academic database or can be purchased from the publisher.
Why Our Secret Weapon against the Climate Crisis Could Be Humour
Source: The Guardian 13 January 2022
Summary: Considers the potential use of humour to increase the effectiveness of climate communication.
Why We Need a New Local Language of Climate Change Reporting
Source: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Univ of Oxford 22 April 2021
Summary: Journalists need new tools for reporting on the climate crisis to engage with local communities.
Insights from the newsroom
Climate Change with George Monbiot and George Marshall (Guardian Live)
Source: The Guardian / Youtube 15 May 2015
Summary: Despite the overwhelming evidence, the majority of us have become increasingly adept at ignoring or side-lining climate change. Most of us recognise the danger is real and yet we do nothing to stop it. As the Guardian sets out on its own climate change journey, George Marshall, one of the most eminent thinkers in the world on climate change talks to George Monbiot.
Climate Crisis: Does Journalism Actually Make a Difference?
Source: The Guardian 9 October 2020
Summary: The environment editor of “The Guardian” makes the case that media coverage of the climate crisis has an impact on understanding and a sense of urgency.
Reporting on the Climate Crisis: “For Years It Was Seen as a Far-Off Problem”
Source: The Guardian 26 August 2021
Summary: The former environment reporter at “The Guardian” talks about coverage of the climate crisis has changed: from a distant problem to an urgent one.
What’s on the Horizon for the Climate Desk
Source: New York Times 30 December 2020
Summary: The Times climate desk describes its journalistic choices and how it covers the climate crisis.
Notes on how to access: The New York Times offers 10 free articles per month to non-subscribers.
Why the Guardian Is Changing the Language It Uses about the Environment
Source: The Guardian 17 May 2019
Summary: The newspaper reports on and delivers the rationale for the changes to its style guide to better represent the urgency of the climate crisis.
Tracking Climate Change in 193 Countries
Source: New York Times 2 January 2022
Summary: Describes the process behind the creation of the Times’ multimedia project “Postcards from a World on Fire.”
Notes on how to access: The New York Times offers 10 free articles per month to non-subscribers.
Political pressures and climate communication
“Dig Coal to Save the Climate:” The Folly of Cumbria’s Plans for a New Coalmine
Source: The Guardian 27 May 2021
Summary: The messaging and media campaigns of a mining company in Cumbria are part of a larger communication strategy to cloud certainties around the climate crisis.
“I Don’t Want to Be Seen as a Zealot”: What MPs Really Think of the Climate Crisis
Source: The Guardian 21 May 2020
Summary: Examines the disconnect between what members of Parliament say about the climate crisis in public and in private.
Source: BBC Radio 4 3 January 2021
Summary: A discussion of how to talk about climate change to free it from political, ideological, and national interests
Understanding climate denialism
Source: Environmental Communication 2021
Summary: Achieving a better understanding of climate denialism can shape more effective climate communication and policy-making.
Notes on how to access: This links to the abstract of a scholarly article. Full-text of this article can be retrieved through an academic database or can be purchased from the publisher.
Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change
Source: Bloomsbury Publishing 2015
Summary: A look at psychological mechanisms that affect human ability to ignore or deny climate change in the face of overwhelming evidence.
Notes on how to access: This links to the book’s summary and Table of contents. The full book may be available to borrow from your library or can be purchased from the publisher.
How the BBC Let Climate Deniers Walk All over It
Source: The Guardian 8 July 2021
Summary: This editorial critiques the media’s willingness to let think tanks sponsored by fossil fuel companies drive the public conversation about climate change.
How to Talk to Climate Deniers: GMF Compact
Source: DW Global Media Forum / Youtube 26 August 2021
Summary: Conversational tools for addressing climate denialism.
Lost in Translation: Climate Denial and the Return of the Political
Source: Global Environment Politics May 2012
Summary: The author explores causes of climate denialism.
Sixty Years of Climate Change Warnings: The Signs That Were Missed (and Ignored)
Source: The Guardian 5 July 2021
Summary: Climate change denialism is not a recent phenomenon.