Resources

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

RESULTS

How should we talk to kids about climate change? The world is beautiful, but the world is changing—and you can play a part in the change. Mary Annaïse Heglar's first book is out today, and it's a children's book about climate change. It's the first of three climate books Mary has coming out in the near future (the other two are a novel, called Troubled Waters, and an essay collection of Black writers on climate). She has been busy writing up a storm since we wrapped up Hot Take (and we've roped her into editing stories for Drilled, too).

Research & Articles
02-06-2024

Here are the terms and narratives the fossil fuel industry is using to obstruct climate action. The fossil fuel industry haven’t really come up with new spin in about a century, just slightly updated versions of the same old stories on repeat, including: “Climate Policy Makes Gas Prices Higher,” “The LNG Boom Delivers Energy Security and Pricing Stability,” “Fossil Fuel Development Will Solve Poverty in the Global South (particularly Africa),” “Wind Turbines Kill Birds,” “Offshore Wind Kill Whales and Other Marine Species.” Misleading terms are also described.

Notable research of 2023

Justin Rolfe- Redding, Climate Advocacy Lab
Research & Articles
02-01-2024

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The 100 most common words appearing in the 2023 research resources we highlight below.

Inflation Reduction Act

On Climate Disinformation

Apollo Gonzales, Climate Advocacy Lab
Research & Articles
01-18-2024

Freezing temperatures and skyrocketing energy costs are knocking on our doors again in Texas, and conversations about reliable renewable energy projects are once again emerging. This has us thinking quite a bit this week about what stands in the way of siting and building renewable projects that are now well funded, thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act. Inevitably we return to the conversation about the role of misinformation.

Research & Articles
01-01-2024

This resource is a trusted source for current research and thinking on how psychological factors drive the climate crisis, how the worsening crisis affects us psychologically, and what we can do about it. You can browse Ecopsychepedia entries by one of our nine themes: Denial, Climate Emotions, Equality and Justice, the Power of Culture, Nature as Healer, Relationships, Resilience and Regeneration, Mental Health Impacts, and Success Stories.

Anger Monitor 2.0

MindWorks
Research & Articles
01-01-2024

The Anger Monitor helps harness and redirect anger for positive impact. MindWorks measures the changing quality and quantity of anger to help advocates and organizers understand and leverage this emotion in campaigns. Anger can be destructive, often exploited by populists or extremists for their own agendas. However, it can also be constructive. Many historic social movements were built on anger.

Research & Articles
01-01-2024

Entering 2024, certain narratives may be most prevalent in America. This report predicts those 2024 narratives, including the following six narratives. First, "war games": the U.S. will continue to chase global geopolitical dominance, centering values such as law and order, security, and the western world as the best. Second, "the planet keeps the score": we are on the edge of climate catastrophe, and the world as we know it may be ending. Third, "work": there has been a surge in worker power, but corporations will argue that they are the entities creating wealth and that unions are bad for the economy. Fourth, "bawdy": people, not the government, should be able to make decisions about their bodies, and while gender is expansive, men and women are biologically distinct. Fifth, debates about capitalism: some will argue that capitalism is dying, but others will argue it's the best system we have, and the role of government may be to intervene or stay out of the market economy. Sixth, "the ballot box": narratives surrounding elections may include the government is corrupt, the country is polarized, democracy is worth saving, or voting is ineffective.

How Do We Know If We Have Transformed Narrative Oceans?

Tracy Van Slyke and Erica Watson-Currie. Pop Culture Collaborative and USC/Annenberg’s Norman Lear Center
Research & Articles
12-07-2023

Here’s how to answer the persistent question about narrative change evaluation. The Pop Culture Collaborative is focused on measuring the drops, not the narrative ocean. There isn’t a shared approach that accounts for the diversity of narrative change methodologies and strategies. Evaluation efforts aren’t tracking a field’s ability to build and wield narrative power. If philanthropy wants impact evaluation, we need to help field members pay for it. The result of a multi-year investigation into overcoming these barriers to understanding narratives is INCITE — Inspiring Narrative Change Innovation through Tracking and Evaluation — an adaptable framework designed to equip both field members and funders with shared definitions, measurable objectives, learning questions, indicators, and metrics to understand and assess the impact of their individual culture change efforts as well as the field’s progress towards seeding the narrative ocean with pluralist ideas, narratives, and norms.

Research & Articles
11-09-2023

Humor is the ultimate shock absorber in impossible times. “I Want a Better Catastrophe” is the title of Andrew Boyd’s new guide to coping with escalating climate change. And if you’re anything like us, it fills you with dread and sadness and fear…but does it also make you laugh? Maybe a little? Or maybe right out loud? And notice how your body changes. The light shifts. It suddenly feels a little more doable, a little more possible, to hold the full weight of this crisis we’ve created. To open the book. To start at the beginning. To do the work. The awful, terrifying work. Gen Dread talked to Andrew about where, how, and why he derives humor from such a bleak situation, and what his approach can offer all of us who are trying our best to cope.

Later Is Too Late

Potential Energy
Research & Articles
11-01-2023

In message testing across 23 countries, our responsibility to future generations consistently ranks as the most compelling rationale for climate action. In this experiment, the narrative focused on protecting future generations produced the biggest lift in support for climate action in every country surveyed. Comparing the level of strong support (5 on a 1-5 scale) for government climate action by the groups exposed to each of these narratives, versus the control group who saw no narrative, reveals the “lift” that each narrative generates. The differences are clear. Averaged across all 23 countries, the generational urgency narrative lifts support by 11 percentage points; polluter accountability lifts support by 7 percentage points; and the climate progress narrative lifts support by just 3 percentage point. The generational urgency narrative is the winning narrative in each country, as well as overall.