Increasing Public Understanding of Climate Risks and Choices

The Union of Concerned Scientists and the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise held a workshop in January 2012 involving 105 professionals to discuss climate communication. The event emphasized that building public understanding of climate risks in the U.S. is a psychological and social challenge requiring the integration of social sciences into the climate debate. The resulting report focuses on four themes: the need for social consensus, target audience definition, meeting audiences where they are, and focusing on risk versus rewards.

• Building a shared understanding of climate risks and choices within the United States is considered as much of a psychological and social challenge as it is a scientific one, necessitating the integration of social sciences such as psychology, sociology, and political science into the analysis of the climate debate.
• The workshop identified four primary themes for improving climate communication: the necessity of establishing a social consensus to complement the existing scientific consensus, the importance of defining target audiences, the need to engage audience members on their own terms, and a focus on the balance between risks and rewards.

APA

Union of Concerned Scientists (2012). Increasing Public Understanding of Climate Risks and Choices. https://www.ucs.org/resources/increasing-public-understanding-climate-risks-and-choices-0

Chicago

Union of Concerned Scientists. Increasing Public Understanding of Climate Risks and Choices. 2012. https://www.ucs.org/resources/increasing-public-understanding-climate-risks-and-choices-0.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Union of Concerned Scientists |title=Increasing Public Understanding of Climate Risks and Choices |date=31 January 2012 |url=https://www.ucs.org/resources/increasing-public-understanding-climate-risks-and-choices-0 |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{unionofconcernedscientists2012increasing, author = {{Union of Concerned Scientists}}, title = {{Increasing Public Understanding of Climate Risks and Choices}}, institution = {Union of Concerned Scientists}, year = {2012}, month = jan, url = {https://www.ucs.org/resources/increasing-public-understanding-climate-risks-and-choices-0}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }