C73. Barnosky, A. D., Matlock, T., Christensen, J., Han, H., Miles, J., Rice, R. E., Westerling, L., & White, L. (2016). Establishing common ground: Finding better ways to communicate about climate disruption. Collabra, 2(1), http://collabra.org/articles/10.1525/collabra.68/. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/collabra.68. Chapter 9 in V. Ramanathan (Ed.), Bending the curve: Ten scalable solutions for carbon neutrality and climate stability. Berkeley: University of California Press (www.bendingthecurve.info)

The key message of this chapter is that solving the climate problem will require motivating social and behavioral changes through effective communication. More and better communication about climate issues is needed so people will mobilize solutions. Currently most people in the world do not believe that climate change is worth doing anything about, if they have even heard of it at all. Despite the efforts of many journalists, scientists, educators, and politicians to convey the science behind and urgency of climate disruption, about a third of Americans still deny that climate is changing or that humans cause it, and nearly 60% feel that climate change is not a problem serious enough to affect them. What is more, in many parts of the world, at most 35% of adults have even heard of climate change.