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Collection: Talking Weather and Climate

Talking about the weather is a favorite pastime, but as things get weirder—heat waves, wildfires, tornadoes, droughts, floods—many folks are talking about the weather with mystification and even dread. According to climate models, extreme weather will become more frequent or ferocious as the atmosphere continues to warm—and we’re already seeing these impacts.

Latinos: A Moral Obligation to Cut Climate Pollution

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Several recent surveys reveal Latino voters to be some of the most stalwart supporters of environmental protections, including robust climate solutions.

Most recently, a 2012 Colorado College “State of the Rockies Conservation in the West” poll found that “across multiple issues, Latino voters express stronger pro-conservation views than their Anglo counterparts.” The survey was conducted in Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming in January.

Seeing Impacts Trumps Climate Science

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Are Americans waking up (again) about climate change?

A survey fielded this past December by the Brookings Institution (pdf) found that 62 percent of Americans think the earth is getting warmer—the highest level since the fall of 2009, and up from 55 percent last spring and 58 percent a year ago. Twenty-six percent say there’s no solid evidence. The rest are unsure. (This mirrors recent Pew findings).

What might be behind an uptick? Co-author Christopher Borick says that “seeing is believing.” Nearly half the people who say global warming is happening point to observations of temperature changes and weather as their main reasons.

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The Art of Talking Climate Science

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Let’s face it; few of us speak in perfect, clear, stirring, and memorable soundbites. But scientists are particularly apt to load their communications with so many caveats and so much detail that non-scientists have a hard time determining whether they’ve said anything definitive at all!

Scientists have good reason to be cautious in their communications—and in a politically charged environment, climate scientists are particularly gun shy. Too much simplification—let alone personal or emotional appeals—may tread too far outside the scientific norms of dispassionate objectivity, and put a scientist’s credibility on the line. For many scientists, the moral dimensions of their work are self-evident. But articulating them is risky.

The problem is that political opponents of climate action often portray the caveats and caution as evidence that scientists are unsure of their findings.

So, what should a scientist do?

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The First Rule of Talking Extreme Weather

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In the movie, the first rule of Fight Club was “you do not talk about Fight Club.” (That was also the second rule in case anyone overlooked rule #1.) There’s long been a similar but unspoken rule for journalists and scientists when it comes to making a connection between extreme weather and climate change. Don’t talk about it.

But that’s changing.

Public Opinion on Climate and Weather

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In late July, officials put nearly half of the US population under heat advisories and an unusually prolonged streak of day and nighttime temperatures broke more than 220 records. At least 22 deaths were heat related. In Canada, temperatures broke records in two dozen cities across Ontario and Quebec on one day, including the hottest ever July temperature in Toronto, at 100.2F (37.9C).

A large and growing body of scientific evidence tells us that human-made climate change makes for a hotter, wetter atmosphere where droughts, floods, and heat waves going to be more frequent and more intense.

The climate science on that score is clear.

In fact, physical science is far clearer than political science, especially when it comes to measuring popular attitudes and beliefs!

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The New Abnormal?

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wildfire, fire, smoke, stop

If you’re like me, you’ve been mentally cataloging a bunch of weather events that have seemed weird and extreme, wondering to yourself: Is this normal? Am I the only one who thinks this is odd?

Prompted by those feelings and spurred on by a nascent conversation about the connections between extreme weather and climate change, I started asking the question: Just how should climate change communicators be talking about the weather?

One possible answer came from national climate action guru Bill McKibben.

Sidestepping (stomping on?) the standard-issue disclaimer that “no single weather event can ever be directly tied to climate change,” in a Washington Post op-ed called, “A link between climate change and Joplin tornadoes? Never!”, McKibben pours on the sarcasm and tops it with a big helping of irony. He insists that we should absolutely not, under any circumstances, make connections between climate science and the devastating storms, fires, drought, bug infestations, crop failures, or floods we’re witnessing at home and across the globe. Nope! “Best not to ask yourself if there’s a connection,” he writes, “because then you’d inevitably have to wonder about all kinds of other things that you probably don’t want to wonder about, for example, whether President Obama really should have opened a huge swath of Wyoming to new coal mining” or if Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should really “sign a permit this summer allowing a huge new pipeline to carry oil from the tar sands of Alberta?”

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Talking Weather, Post Chitchat

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Talking about the weather has always been a favorite American pastime. But recent extreme weather events seem to have propelled us into a post chitchat era. With droughts, heat waves, dust storms, tornadoes, wildfires, and floods dominating the headlines, many folks are starting to talk about the weather with a sense of mystification—if not dread. And some are even beginning to connect the dots between extreme weather and scientific warnings about global warming.

Like many of you, I’ve been trying to sort out what extreme weather means for those of us who communicate regularly about climate and energy policy.

The post chitchat era poses both opportunities and risks. On the one hand, extreme weather is exactly what scientific climate models have predicted; and we shouldn’t shy away from pointing that out. On the other hand, while there’s data showing that temperatures are rising, it’s impossible to attribute any single weather event to climate change. There’s a risk of overstating the case or being accused of alarmism, opportunism, or exaggeration.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be looking at how public figures, researchers, scientists, journalists and regular American voters are talking and thinking about the links between climate and severe weather, with an eye to developing some basic messaging guidelines for climate policy champions.

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