'Creative (Climate) Communications: Productive Pathways for Science, Policy and Society'

Dr Max Boykoff
Director, Center for Science and Technology Policy Research (CSTPR)
Fellow, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES)
Associate Professor, Environmental Studies, University of Colorado-Boulder
Deputy Editor, Climatic Change
@boykoff

Abstract

Conversations about climate change at the science-policy interface and in our lives have been stuck. In this presentation I highlight some dimensions of my 2019 book ‘Creative (Climate) Communications’ that integrates lessons from the social sciences and humanities to more effectively make connections through issues, people, and things that everyday citizens care about. This has worked to enhance our understanding that there is no ‘silver bullet’ to communications about climate change. It argues that a ‘silver buckshot’ approach is needed instead, where strategies effectively reach different audiences in different contexts. Tactics emanating from this approach can then significantly improve efforts that seek meaningful, substantive, and sustained responses to contemporary climate challenges. I argue that it can also help to effectively re-capture a common or middle ground on climate change in the public arena. The book documents, analyzes and evaluates endeavors that harness creativity to try to better understand what kinds of communications work where, when, why, and under what conditions in the twenty-first century.