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. 

Post-Disaster Climate Migration Messaging Guide

National Partnership for New Americans, International Refugee Assistance Project, Refugees International, and Communities United for Status and Protection
Research & Articles
08-01-2022

Advocates can frame migration as a key solution to the new era of climate-driven extreme weather and displacement, build solidarity with displaced peoples, and build a more intersectional and powerful movement for climate action. Call for protections for people displaced by climate impacts alongside demands for decarbonization. Start with values like family, care, compassion, solidarity and treating other people how we would want to be treated. Provide aspirational calls to provide something good. Offer clear solutions and alternatives. Pivot the narrative to the real villains. Point the finger of blame and name the motivation that underpins anti-immigrant policies and narratives. Center the leadership and experiences of those directly-impacted by the climate crisis and anti-immigrant policies.

Research & Articles
06-07-2022

New Orleans is in the midst of a green infrastructure revolution. In smaller neighborhoods like Hoffman Triangle, residents are leading the way, house by house, block by block. Year-round, New Orleanians deal with a chronic kind of inundation researchers vaguely call “urban flooding.” The goal of “nature-based” (green infrastructure) solutions is to reduce the pressure on pipes and pumps by using landscaping to slow the flow of water. Projects can store water so it soaks into the soil or slowly flows into a storm drain at a rate the system can handle. Plants can also absorb water into their roots, leaching out pollutants in the process. They also come with various added benefits like improved water quality, mosquito control, and increased open space to cool the sweltering Louisiana air. The Urban Conservancy is one organization in particular doing lots of work on nature-based infrastructure in New Orleans.

White House Memo: Pushing President Biden's Full, Popular, and Bipartisan Build Back Better Agenda Forward

Gina McCarthy, White House Climate Advisor & Anita Dunn, White House Senior Advisor
Research & Articles
07-25-2021

This memo from the White House highlights public polling about key environmental provisions of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework (BIF), as well as strong poll numbers for climate-related infrastructure investments that were left out of the bipartisan plan. 

The memo shows that Americans broadly support a range of environmental policies included in the BIF:

  • Nearly three-quarters of Americans support replacing all lead water pipes and service lines (per Morning Consult)
  • The majority of Americans support investments to plug abandoned oil and gas wells and restore abandoned mines (per Morning Consult)
  • 63% of Americans support robust proposals for transit and rail investments (per Morning Consult)
  • 61% of Americans support investments to build new electric vehicle charging stations (per Navigator) 
  • 61% of voters support providing more federal assistance to cities and states to improve the resiliency of infrastructure to extreme weather events (per Data for Progress)
  • 60% of Americans support investing in clean energy to help avoid power outages, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and combat climate change (per Yahoo News/YouGov)

Additionally, Americans widely support several climate-related policies that are not included in the BIF:

  • 64% of Americans support incentives to spur clean energy deployment (per Reuters)
  • Nearly two-thirds of voters support government action to move the country to a fully clean power sector by 2035 (per Data for Progress)
  • 77% of voters support creating a Civilian Climate Corps of conservation and resilience workers (per Data for Progress)

Research & Articles
07-13-2021

A bipartisan majorities of Colorado respondents support a wide array of measures to prevent wildfires, including expanding energy efficiency programs and increasing funding for the U.S. forest service. CO respondents believe in the importance of building resilience to wildfires through better forest management across all levels of government, and among private landowners.

The Disrupted Mind

Mindworks
Research & Articles
06-28-2021

This guide explores how disruptive crises (like the COVID-19 pandemic or climate-fueled extreme weather events) have profound impacts on societal mindsets. They can cause us to deconstruct narratives (“working from home does not work”), set new norms (“we don’t let our child play with other children anymore”), shape new identities "I feel like a victim"), establish new values: (“we shall sacrifice to save others” – universalism) or build up emotions (the rise in hedonism, fear, loneliness or gratitude). After a disruption has impacted individual mindsets, societies negotiate renewed collective mindsets, i.e. narratives, norms and values, through collective sense-making processes. This happens through diverse, mostly unstructured communication ranging from political discourse to social media chatter.

Research-based recommendations for organizers and advocates include:

  • Use the "disorientation phase" following an emergency experience to introduce and amplify radically new stories that reestablish meanings. 
  • Use sensing activities, observation, and scenario planning to speed up the "re-orientation phase," including proposing and evaluating possible post-crisis trajectories.
  • Match their messages of change to existing crisis experiences and strategically create experiences that reinforce the mindset change they want to create.

Research & Articles
06-07-2021

Three-quarters of Florida respondents support funding “natural infrastructure” (solutions to reduce flood risk, such as restored beaches, wetlands and marshes) as part of the American Jobs Plan. Natural infrastructure solutions were supported by 86% of respondents, including 82% of independents, 81% of Republicans, 87% of coastal respondents and 88% of inland respondents. 89% of respondents supported preventive measures to reduce the impact of natural disasters before they occur. There was little divide among rural and suburban respondents. 85% of suburban respondents supported preventative measures, compared to 84% of rural respondents.             

Resilience Before Disaster Interactive Webinar

Climate Advocacy Lab; Amee Ravel, Asian Pacific Environmental Network​; Marguerite Young, Service Employees International Union​; Sam Appel, BlueGreen Alliance​; Shina Robinson​, Asian Pacific Environmental Network​
Research & Articles
04-12-2021

This interactive webinar covered the process of how this collaboration between environmental justice and labor forces was facilitated, how they built a shared vision around resilience, a rundown of the report's key findings, and a guided activity for how to apply the report's insights to participants' local communities and organizing work.

Poll: Texans’ Opinions on Recent Extreme Cold

Morning Consult for EDF Action
Research & Articles
02-24-2021

Survey of 500 Texans in the immediate aftermath of the extreme cold weather and resulting power outages found: 

  • Respondents expressed concern about extreme cold (78%), power outages caused by weather events (83%), and access to clean drinking water (76%). Concern spanned community types, and was highest (80%) among rural respondents. 
  • 79% say it should be a priority for the U.S. to pass legislation to address climate change
  • Majorities across Texas support a wide range of legislative measures to prevent future power outages, including: increasing use of clean energy (77%), improving energy efficiency (92%), increasing existing energy storage capabilities (88%), making power sources more resilient to extreme weater (93%), and modernizing the U.S. power grid more broadly (83%).

Research & Articles
01-26-2021

  • A majority (58%) of Iowa farmers recognize climate change is happening and (at least partially) driven by human activities. 18% understand that it is caused mostly by human activities (vs."more or less equally by natural changes in the environment and human activities") -- an 8 percentage point increase from 2011. 
  • A majority of Iowa farmers are "concerned about the potential impacts of climate change on [their] farm operation" (51%); that seed companies should be developing crop varieties adapted to coming changes in weather patterns (64%); and that they should take indiviudal steps to protect their farmland from increased precipitation (58%).
  • The University Extension was the most trusted source of information about climate change (as was the case in 2011), with 60% of farmers selecting trust or strongly trust. Scientists and soil and water conservation organizations were both trusted by 50% of respondents, followed closely by farm groups at 47% and family and friends at 46%.