Messages from the NYC People’s Climate March: An Analysis

The analysis of the 2014 People’s Climate March reveals that participants were primarily motivated by group affiliation, personal passion, and professional relevance. Key messages focused on replacing fossil fuels with clean energy, corporate accountability, and government influence. When associating global warming with specific imagery, participants frequently cited melting ice, floods, and catastrophe, while identifying solar power, people power, and carbon taxes as primary solutions.

• Participants' primary motivations for marching included group membership, personal passion for the issue, and the fundamental connection of global warming to their professional work. Additional drivers included the desire to generate public pressure for action and advocacy for future generations.
• Visual messages at the march centered on replacing fossil fuels with clean energy, nature, and food and farming. Interviewees linked these messages to the necessity of clean energy, corporate accountability, public health improvements, and the need to influence politics and government.
• When asked for immediate associations with 'global warming,' participants frequently mentioned melting ice, floods, alarm, emotion, nature, and weather. Regarding solutions, the most common associations were energy, people, and politics.

APA

Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (2014). Messages from the NYC People’s Climate March: An Analysis. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/messages-from-the-nyc-peoples-climate-march-an-analysis/

Chicago

Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Messages from the NYC People’s Climate March: An Analysis. 2014. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/messages-from-the-nyc-peoples-climate-march-an-analysis/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Yale Program on Climate Change Communication |title=Messages from the NYC People’s Climate March: An Analysis |date=11 November 2014 |url=https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/messages-from-the-nyc-peoples-climate-march-an-analysis/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{yaleprogramonclimatechangecommunication2014messages, author = {{Yale Program on Climate Change Communication}}, title = {{Messages from the NYC People’s Climate March: An Analysis}}, institution = {Yale Program on Climate Change Communication}, year = {2014}, month = nov, url = {https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/messages-from-the-nyc-peoples-climate-march-an-analysis/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }