"The Psychology of Climate Change Communication"

Today, it seems hard to get people to understand the climate crisis, and if you can get them to comprehend it, it is still very hard to push them into action. In the booklet titled "The Psychology of Climate Change Communication," the author break down the art of getting the message across about the climate crisis. The Center for Research on Environmental Decisions separated its communications method into steps (Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, 2009). Here are the first four steps:

The first step is that you must know your audience. Using the concept of the mental model, you will be able to shape your audience's perception when delivering the message about the climate crisis (Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, 2009).

The second step is all about getting your audience's attention. When getting the audiences attention, you will work with framing. You will place an issue in a specific context to get the interpretation you want (Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, 2009). Framing helps to organize the main ideas of a crisis, and it helps people to understand that the crisis really is a problem. This step happens to be one of my favorites.

The third step is to translate the scientific data into a concrete experience. This translating process allows the audience to get a clearer understanding of the climate crisis by taking the discussion beyond scientific talk and digits (Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, 2009).

The fourth step is to be aware of the overuse of emotional appeals. This basically means to be careful of how much emphasis you put into making your audience worry about the climate crisis because if they are overwhelmed with personal worries, they may put the concern of the climate issues on the back burner (Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, 2009).