Communicating with adolescents about climate change can be challenging if we want to safeguard their emotional well-being. Here, we evaluate the emotional impact of climate change communication that is informed by self-determination theory (SDT). We conducted two experiments with samples of ethnically diverse adolescents from the United States to examine adolescents’ emotions when reading needs-aligned, needs-misaligned, and needs-neutral (control) communication about climate change. Adolescents who read needs-aligned communication reported less anxiety compared with adolescents who read needs-misaligned (Study 1) and needs-neutral (Study 2) communication. Unexpectedly, compared with adolescents who read needs-neutral communication, adolescents who read needs-misaligned communication reported more positive emotions (i.e., enjoyment, pride) when learning about climate change (Study 2). Our research provides initial evidence that SDT can inform climate change communication strategies that buffer adolescents from experiencing anxiety.
INTRODUCTION: Doctors are trusted voices for communities and can influence lawmakers on climate change. Effective climate policy advocacy requires awareness, knowledge, and skills not typically taught in medical schools. Such curriculum additions could help students describe reasons for physicians to engage in climate policy advocacy and compose advocacy presentations. METHODS: To empower engagement in climate policies and develop advocacy skills, we deployed three 90-minute workshops at three institutions for first-, second-, and fourth-year students. The workshops included background on various climate policies of concern to health care professionals, advocacy guidance, scripts and factsheets from physicians’ meetings illustrating advocacy opportunities for students and physicians, and active learning exercises. The exercises utilized advocacy templates and actual proposed actions on climate change. Students worked in small groups on advocacy presentations’ content and format. Each group shared its work, and facilitators provided feedback. RESULTS: Out of 102 participants, 29 completed a survey (28% response rate). Using a Likert scale and narratives, students reported significant improvements in readiness to advocate for legislation or policies to mitigate the health effects of climate change, awareness of advocacy opportunities, and capability to prepare advocacy documents. DISCUSSION: Workshops on climate policy advocacy can equip medical students with important perspectives on their responsibilities and opportunities, as well as skills to be effective. The physician’s voice is critical to promoting policies related to the health impacts of climate change. Targeted workshops with actual examples and exercises on climate advocacy are feasible and important additions to the curriculum.
BACKGROUND: The German status report on climate change and health 2023 identifies numerous health risks that are caused or exacerbated by climate change. One recommendation arising from the report is to strengthen education, information, and communication in the field. This article aims to serve as a basis for this. METHODS: Based on four survey waves (2022/2023) of the PACE study (Planetary Health Action Survey, n=3,845, online), the status of risk perception as well as the Readiness to Act against climate change in the adult population in Germany is examined and a target group analysis is carried out. RESULTS: Some health risks due to the climate crisis are perceived as comparatively low (e.g. mental health problems). People with higher risk perception show a higher Readiness to Act. Younger people, men, people with low education, and those living in smaller communities are identified as relevant target groups as they have a lower Readiness to Act. One third state that they never or hardly ever seek out specific information on climate change. Media use differs depending on target group. CONCLUSIONS: Target group-specific communication can help to educate people about the health impacts of the climate crisis. In the discussion of this article, implications from existing literature are discussed in detail, which offer practical guidance for effective climate change communication.
Failure of governments across the world to address climate change has fuelled social movements focused on climate-related policy and action. Research analysing these movements has focused mainly on the types of strategies employed including blockades and occupations, marches and petitions, divestment, boycotts and litigation as well as how groups are framing climate change as a problem. What has been largely missed are the ways these groups are framing the change they want to see, that is their demands to governments. Not all demands and actions have the same potential to create the changes needed to mitigate climate change. Used in public health and health promotion, the systems science Intervention Level Framework (ILF) is a tool that can help analyse to what extent different demands have the leverage to create change in a system. We use the ILF to analyse 131 demands from 35 different climate-related advocacy groups in Australia. Results show demands are more focused on lower system leverage points, such as stopping particular projects, rather than on more impactful leverage points, such as the governance structures that determine climate-related policy and decision-making mechanisms. Further, the results highlight the lack of attention on public health related topics of transport and food systems. This paper shows how a systems science framework used in health promotion, the ILF, could enable climate advocacy groups to more effectively target demands to achieve more impactful outcomes from governments, corporations and the public.
Increasing numbers of health-care professionals are aware of the need to deliver low-carbon sustainable health systems. We aimed to explore how physicians can be motivated and supported to pursue this ambition by conducting an exploratory qualitative descriptive study that involved individual in-depth interviews with climate-engaged Canadian physicians participating in health-care sustainability advocacy and action. Interview transcripts were analysed to identify themes related to the actions that physicians can take to promote sustainable health care, and the motivators and enablers of physician engagement in sustainable health care. Participants (n=19) engaged in a spectrum of health-care sustainability initiatives ranging from reducing health-care waste to lobbying and political action. They were motivated to advance health-care sustainability by their concern about the health implications of climate change, frustration with health-care waste, and recognition of their locus of influence as physicians. Participants articulated that policy and system, organisational and team, and knowledge generation and translation supports are required to strengthen their capacity to advance health-care sustainability. These findings can provide inspiration for engagement opportunities in health-care sustainability, guide service delivery and educational innovations to promote health-care professionals’ interest in becoming sustainability champions, and extend the capacity of health-care professionals to reduce the climate impact of health care.
BACKGROUND: Climate change poses a risk of health catastrophes and must be expeditiously addressed across the health care sector. Physicians are considered trustworthy and are well positioned to discuss climate change with patients. A unified strategy by all U.S. medical societies is essential to effectively mitigate their carbon footprint and address health concerns. METHODS: We conducted a review of the public facing websites of member organizations of the AMA House of Delegates and the AMA, which were scored based on inclusion of content related to climate change in position statements or policies, task forces or committees, patient education materials, practice recommendations and any official society publications. Membership in the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health or participation in the organization My Green Doctor were recorded as indicators of a commitment to providing educational resources about mitigation and adaptation to climate change. The availability of a virtual option for annual meetings, as a potential means to reduce the carbon footprint of attendees, was trended from 2021 to 2022. RESULTS: Fifty out of 111 U.S. medical organizations (45%) had at least one metric with a reference to climate change and sixty-one organizations (55%) had no evidence of such website content. Out of 111 websites, only 20% (N = 22) had position statements or policies pertaining to climate change, 11% (N = 12) had committees or task forces dealing with climate change, 8% (N = 9) provided patient education resources on climate change, 21% (N = 23) included green practice recommendations and 45% (N = 50) had an article in an official society publication addressing climate change. Only 14% (N = 15) were listed as member societies of the Medical Consortium on Climate Change and 2% (N = 2) were participating organizations with My Green Doctor. CONCLUSIONS: Viewed through the lens of medical society websites, there was a wide variation in efforts to address climate change. The high performing organizations can serve as a guide for other societies to help mitigate and adapt to the climate emergency.
Extreme heat events pose a threat to human health. Forecasting and warning strategies have been developed to mitigate heat-health hazards. Yet, studies have found that the public lacks knowledge about their heat-health risks and preventive actions to take to reduce risks. Local governmental websites are an important means to communicate preparedness to the public. The purpose of this study is to examine information provided to the public on municipal government web pages of the 10 most populous U.S. cities. A two-level document and content analyses were conducted. A direct content analysis was conducted using federal government websites and documents to create the Extreme Heat Event Public Response Rubric. The rubric contains two broad categories of populations and actions that are further specified. The rubric was then used to examine local government extreme heat event websites for the 10 most populous cities in the United States. The examination of the local government sites found that information included on the websites failed to identify the breadth of populations at greater risk for adverse heat-health outcomes and omitted some recommended actions designed to prevent adverse heat-health events. Local governments often communicated concrete and simple content to the public but more complex information was not included on their websites. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: Extreme heat is the leading weather-related cause of mortality in the United States annually. Public response to extreme heat events requires that the public understand their risk and know the actions to take to mitigate that risk. The public seeks information from local government websites. Our results found that many local government websites did not provide the information to the public on the array of conditions and factors that put people at a greater risk for an adverse heat-health event, nor did the websites include information on the variety of actions that the public should take in response to an extreme heat event in order to reduce their risks. Addressing the omission of the information on these websites may improve public response to extreme heat events.
The objective of this article is to examine the role of doctors and health professionals in communicating the health impacts of climate change and exploring how achieving climate objectives is co-beneficial to public health objectives. This article identifies the main interpretative frameworks for climate change communication identified in the literature, contextualizes the challenge of climate communication in the field of public health, and analyses the element of trust, without which the communication process is likely to fail. Awareness-raising strategies must therefore create appropriate contexts that allow the public to perceive climate change as a relevant and immediate issue. Further, to be properly considered, such information must be issued from a source the public trusts. After providing a general framework within which to examine the role of doctors and health professionals in climate communication, message content is examined along with trust in message sources and in the medical profession, and the perceptions among and training of medical professionals concerning the climate challenge are considered.The literature reviewed in this article represents the body of climate change communication research related to the role of the doctor, an area of growing interest. This review provides a timely and complete analysis of the literature on the subject with the goal of starting a necessary, but too-long postponed, multidisciplinary dialogue.
Climate change poses a multifaceted, complex, and existential threat to human health and well-being, but efforts to communicate these threats to the public lag behind what we know how to do in communication research. Effective communication about climate change’s health risks can improve a wide variety of individual and population health-related outcomes by: (1) helping people better make the connection between climate change and health risks and (2) empowering them to act on that newfound knowledge and understanding. The aim of this manuscript is to highlight communication methods that have received empirical support for improving knowledge uptake and/or driving higher-quality decision making and healthier behaviors and to recommend how to apply them at the intersection of climate change and health. This expert consensus about effective communication methods can be used by healthcare professionals, decision makers, governments, the general public, and other stakeholders including sectors outside of health. In particular, we argue for the use of 11 theory-based, evidence-supported communication strategies and practices. These methods range from leveraging social networks to making careful choices about the use of language, narratives, emotions, visual images, and statistics. Message testing with appropriate groups is also key. When implemented properly, these approaches are likely to improve the outcomes of climate change and health communication efforts.
Children are crucial to the future of climate change leadership, and even as youth, they have the ability to make a difference in achieving climate equity. Explorations of children’s climate change literature is limited, despite the push from experts to involve children in climate change education and action. A thematic analysis of picturebooks books on the topic was conducted. Data were identified from online websites and accessibility was confirmed via academic and internet search engines. Findings suggest that children’s books about climate change lack informational material and overlook the human consequences of the climate crisis. Implications for environmental health communication are discussed.
The emergence of ocean and human health (OHH) science as a distinct scholarly discipline has led to increased research outputs from experts in both the natural and social sciences. Formal research on communication strategies, messaging, and campaigns related to OHH science remains limited despite its importance as part of the social processes that can make knowledge actionable. When utilized to communicate visible, local issues for targeting audiences, OHH themes hold the potential to motivate action in pursuit of solutions to environmental challenges, supplementing efforts to address large-scale, abstract, or politicized issues such as ocean acidification or climate change. Probing peer-reviewed literature from relevant areas of study, this review article outlines and reveals associations between society and the quality of coastal and marine ecosystems, as well as key themes, concepts, and findings in OHH science and environmental communication. Recommendations for future work concerning effective ocean and human health science communication are provided, creating a platform for innovative scholarship, evidence-based practice, and novel collaboration across disciplines.
Public communication on water availability is pivotal in highlighting water conservation needs as droughts impact water resources for critical use, such as drinking water quality and accessibility. This paper presents the results of research into public communication on water availability and the implementation of water conservation measures in the Republic of Ireland. The paper analyses social media (Twitter and Facebook) communication and newspaper publications from 2018 to 2020 on water conservation and drought events, in addition, to undertaking six key stakeholder interviews made up of journalists (n = 4), political representatives (n = 1), and a water and communication expert (n = 1). Our analysis indicates that Irish newspapers’ coverage of drought and water availability was greater in 2018 compared to 2020. Uncertainty and risk was also identified as the prevalent frame, used by newspapers to cover drought events. Although the sentiments in communications on drought by the national utility, Irish Water, were scored as positive (63%), its engagement with the public on social media was considerably limited. Accessible information platforms that provides data and information on water resources were also found; nevertheless, no comprehensive national drought information management system nor national drought plan have been developed. Based on our findings, we demonstrate the need for public engagement and collaborative efforts to communicate drought and water conservation measures led by An Fóram Uisce|The Water Forum. Recommendations made in this study also aim to influence decision-making and awareness among stakeholders regarding drought communication on water conservation and resources availability.
The aim of the Compendium is to provide information and guidance on how to assess and address the risks posed by sand and dust storms and plan actions to combat sand and dust storms. The Compendium brings together information and guidance from a wide range of sources. It includes approaches and methodology frameworks on data collection, assessment, monitoring and early warning, impact mitigation and preparedness, and source mapping and anthropogenic source mitigation that are required in the development and implementation of policies related to sand and dust storms at sub-national, national, regional and global levels, taking into account the principles set out in the Policy Advocacy Framework for Sand and Dust Storms, and the cross-sectoral and multidisciplinary nature of the impact that sand and dust storms can cause to societies, economies, and the environment.
