Resources

Search below for resources covering the intersection of climate engagement, social science and data analytics.

RESULTS

Research & Articles
09-30-2022

Recognize the disruptive potential of climate gentrification. This study looks at the current and potential impact of climate gentrification on low- and middle-income renters in Miami and Tampa, as areas away from the immediate coast become more desirable due to a growing awareness of climate risks. The authors have created a Climate Gentrification Risk Index to help local officials identify areas vulnerable to climate gentrification and plan for long-term land use changes. 

Research & Articles
06-24-2022

“Partisan responding” is making it more difficult to interpret public opinion polls in today’s polarized political climate. This is helpful to understand for any advocates using polling in their political work. "Partisan responding” refers to respondents treating polls as a way to express their loyalty to the political party they support, including on questions that aren’t overtly political in nature. Some of the most common evidence for this phenomenon is how partisans tend to give more positive ratings of the country’s economic situation, and even their own financial situations, when their party holds the presidency. Partisan responding is also widespread in polling on energy and environmental issues. Self-identified Republicans, for example, have been much more likely than Democrats to express concern about the country’s energy situation since President Biden took office and much less likely than Democrats to report direct experience with extreme weather events.

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.

Climate Opinion Factsheets

Jennifer Marlon, Liz Neyens, Martial Jefferson, Peter Howe, Matto Mildenberger and Anthony Leiserowitz. Yale Program on Climate Change Communication
Research & Articles
02-22-2022

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.

Poll: Who is willing to participate in non-violent civil disobedience for the climate?

George Mason Center for Climate Change Communication & Yale Program on Climate Change Communication
Research & Articles
01-24-2022

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.

Why Intersectional Stories Are Key to Helping the Communities We Serve

Annie Neimand, Natalie Asorey, Ann Christiano, and Zakyree Wallace. University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. Stanford Social Innovation Review
Tips & How-Tos
09-28-2021

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.

  

Public understanding of climate change terminology

Wändi Bruine de Bruin, Lila Rabinovich, Kate Weber, Marianna Babboni, Monica Dean and Lance Ignon. Climatic Change
Research & Articles
08-12-2021

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.

Advocacy messages about climate and health are more effective when they include information about risks, solutions, and a normative appeal: Evidence from a conjoint experiment

John Kotcher, Lauren Feldman, Kate T. Luong, James Wyatt, Edward Maibach, George Mason University, Rutgers & Climate Nexus. The Journal of Climate Change and Health.
Research & Articles
07-31-2021

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.             

How to Effectively Show Climate Change in 25 Images

Jennifer R. Marlon, Yale University. Shutterstock Blog.
Tips & How-Tos
07-29-2021

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.             

End of the Line: Environmental Justice, Energy Justice, and Opposition to Power Lines

David Hess (Vanderbilt University), Rachel McKane (Brown University), and Caroline Pietzryk (Vanderbilt University). Environmental Politics
Research & Articles
07-18-2021

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).