In this final lecture for the course that I teach at American University on "Communication, Culture and the Environment," my goal is to leave the students with a sense of hope by focusing on research and strategies that promote the ability of local publics to collaborate together on actions that prepare and protect their communities and regions against the risks of climate change and in the process promote networks of trust and cooperation that create the demand for national policy action that results in the types of innovative technologies needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the long term. You can find out more about the course here: http://climateshiftproject.org/com-589-communication-culture-and-the-environment-spring-2014/

1. Climate Resilience and Innovation in a Polarized Society:
Strategies to Inform Communication and Collaborative Action
@MCNisbet
Final Lecture in Spring
2014 course on
“Communication,
Culture and the
Environment”
Matthew C. Nisbet
Associate Professor
School of Communication
American University
Washington D.C.

2. Risk Perceptions and Personal Experience
@MCNisbet

5. @MCNisbet
Present protection will need to be upgraded to avoid average global flood losses from socio-economic change, climate change, and
subsidence that total US$1 trillion or more per year. This estimate optimistically assumes 10 cm SLR in 2030, 20 cm in 2050,
and 30 cm in 2070 with equal global distribution.
Nature Climate Change 3, 802–806 (2013)

6. Boston Society of Architects (2013) ; Mass Gov (2011). City of Boston.gov Climate Action Web Site

8. Climate Ready Boston (2013)

9. Climate Change as Public Health Threat
Extreme Heat and Infectious Disease
@MCNisbetClimate Ready Boston (2013); Centers for Disease Control (2013).

10. Public Engagement and Communication?
@MCNisbetCity of Boston Climate Action Plan (2011); Boston Harbor Association (2013); Marty Walsh for Mayor (2012)
Holding community meetings in each neighborhood, particularly those closest to
the waterfront, will enable us to hear each other‟s concerns and brainstorm best
approaches to specific local problems where a one-size-fits-all measure might not
be the best solution. Finally, I will seek to expand and foster current city
relationships with leading climate researchers at our exceptional colleges and
universities….

11. Framing Science?
Context and Identity Shape Perceptions of Complex Debates
@MCNisbet

12. Framing Science?
Context and Identity Shape Perceptions of Complex Debates
@MCNisbet

13. Audience Segmentation and Public Perceptions
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14. Preparing and Planning Ahead for Climate Impacts
A Public Health Prevention Approach
@MCNisbetMaibach EW, Roser-Renouf C, Leiserowitz A (2008). Communication and Marketing as Climate Change Intervention
Assets: A Public Health Perspective. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 35(5), 488-500.

15. In Depth Interviews w/ 70 subjects by Segment
@MCNisbetMaibach, E., Nisbet, M.C. et al. (2010). BMC Public Health 10: 299.

16. Segment 4-6:
Sentence Specific Reaction to Essay
@MCNisbet
-10
-8
-6
-4
-2
0
2
4
6
8
10
O1 O2 O3 O4 O5 T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 T7 B1 B2 B3 B4 C1 C2
DISENGAGED DOUBTFUL
DISMISSIVE POPULATION
Maibach, E., Nisbet, M.C. et al. (2010). BMC Public Health 10: 299.

17. Provoking Anger Across Audience Segments:
Identifying Boomerang Effects
@MCNisbetMyers, T., Nisbet, M.C., Maibach, E.W., & Leiserowitz, A. (2012). Climatic Change.

18. Morality Binds, Divides and Blinds Us to Threats
@MCNisbet
“A basic principle of moral psychology is that „morality
binds and blinds.‟ In many pre-agricultural
societies, groups achieved trust and unity by circling
around sacred objects. In modern societies, much larger
groups bind themselves together by treating certain
books, flags, leaders or ideals as sacred and by
symbolically circling around them. But if your team
circles too fast, you lose the ability to see clearly or think
for yourself. You go blind to evidence that contradicts
your group‟s moral consensus, and you become
enraged at teammates who suggest that the other side is
not entirely bad.” – New York Times, Nov. 7, 2012

19. Energy Resilience and Climate Disruption
Warmer, Wetter Future with More Extremes
@MCNisbet

20. Engaging A Broader Public Via Energy Resilience?
@MCNisbetMASSPIRG 2013. Moving Off the Road.

21. Engaging A Broader Public Via Energy Resilience
@MCNisbetMASSPIRG (2013). Moving Off the Road; MA Gov (2010) Clean Energy & Climate Plan 2020

22. Will Oil Prices Triple in Next Five Years?
@MCNisbetNisbet, Maibach, & Leiserowitz (2011). American Journal of Public Health.

23. Oil Price Spikes and Risk to Economy?
@MCNisbetNisbet, Maibach, & Leiserowitz (2011). American Journal of Public Health.

24. Oil Price Spikes and Risk to Public Health?
@MCNisbetNisbet, Maibach, & Leiserowitz (2011). American Journal of Public Health.

25. Voices from Coastal Communities
Fatalism and Low Efficacy
@MCNisbet
Moser, S. C. (in press). In: Successful Adaptation to Climate Change: Linking Science and Practice in a Rapidly Changing
World, ed. S.C. Moser and M.T. Boykoff, Routledge, London.

26. Community Dialogue After Hurricane Isabel
Anne Arundel County, Maryland
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27. Community Dialogue and Polarization
GMU, USNA, Dewberry
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Timeline of Actions
 2003 Hurricane Isabel floods Annapolis, coastal communities
 2007 Gov. O‟Malley creates MD Commission on Climate Change
 Science Working Group uses 2007 IPCC models to estimate sea-level rise
projections for state from 2.7 ft to 3.4 ft by 2100.
 Recommend planners anticipate 1ft rise by 2050 and 2ft rise by 2100.
 Anne Arundel County and Annapolis begin their own evaluation process.
Project Focus
• County mail survey, N = 300
• Deliberative forums, 2 moderators at each table, N = 40
• Risk projection web site
CASI Final Project Report (2013).

28. Cultural Identity Explains Substantial Proportion
of Risk Perceptions and Policy Preferences
@MCNisbetCASI Final Project Report (2013).
“Local policy discourses on
sea-level rise are not emerging
into a neutral arena, but one in
which cultural meanings have
already begun to form. In this
environment, traditional
communication strategies of
providing „objective‟
assessments are unlikely to
staunch further issue
polarization, as has been case
in Virginia and North Carolina.”

29. Brokering Shared Identity and Outlook
Localized Dialogue Softens Cultural Cognition
@MCNisbetCASI Final Project Report (2013).

30. Cultural Identity Explains Substantial Proportion
of Risk Perceptions and Policy Preferences
@MCNisbetCASI Final Project Report (2013).

31. http://www.futurecoast.info/

32. Experts and Coastal Property Owners
From Trusted Sources of Information to Brokers of Dialogue
@MCNisbetCone, J et al 2013. Reframing Engagement Methods for Climate Change Adaptation. Coastal Management, 41: 345-360.

33. Experts and Coastal Property Owners
From Trusted Sources of Information to Brokers of Dialogue
@MCNisbetCone, J et al 2013. Reframing Engagement Methods for Climate Change Adaptation. Coastal Management, 41: 345-360.

34. Research Informs Design of Communication
@MCNisbet

35. Creating Shared Understanding & Consolidating Views
Recommendations
@MCNisbet
Recommendations
 Feature adaptive strategies – effective and failed – in engagement efforts.
 Property owners prefer to hear about experiences of neighbors more so than advice
from scientific experts.
 Host local meetings with property owners, experts, and officials to discuss
changes, impacts, and risks that they are experiencing.
 Participants believed that simply coming together was productive in its own right.
 Identify and highlight “early adopters,” local property owners who have already started
to engage in adaptive behaviors.
“What is required is creating conditions for helping communities make
meaning out of the science and its findings for themselves and their local
conditions in ways that support their including that science into their regular
decision-making…Good models that put scientists, communicators, and
publics into dialogue about what they know, what it means, and how to put it
to work suggest using group processes and visible thinking routines for
creating and sustaining dialogues about climate change.”

36. Preparing and Planning Ahead for Climate Change
Building a Civic Science Infrastructure and Network
@MCNisbet
Nisbet, M.C., Hixon, M., Moore, K.D., & Nelson, M. (2010). The Four Cultures: New Synergies for Engaging Society on
Climate Change. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 8, 329-331.

37. www.ClimateShiftProject.org/Courses
@MCNisbet