EMSC 302
Orientation to Energy and Sustainability Policy

Effectively Getting the Message Across

PrintPrint

One of the many reasons that climate change still isn't fully recognized by Americans is because the scientific community has done such a terrible job of communicating the issue. Not to oversimplify, but it could be said that the state of the world hangs in the balance because of ineffective communication! While not every communication experience carries such weight, the importance of effective communication cannot be ignored or taken lightly!

The complexity of climate change has presented challenges in communicating related information to the general public. The following article gives some really great examples of how that happens and makes some great suggestions for scientists to reverse the situation and hopefully not continue to make the same mistakes.

Have you heard of a book or a documentary called "Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming"? In both, the authors explain how a successful information campaign can trump any real scientific knowledge.

Cover of Merchants of Doubt book.
Credit: Screenshot
from Amazon
taken by Haley Sankey,
Retrieved 2019

More about the book/movie from Merchants of Doubt:

"...historians Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway explain how a loose–knit group of high-level scientists, with extensive political connections, ran effective campaigns to mislead the public and deny well-established scientific knowledge over four decades. In seven compelling chapters addressing tobacco, acid rain, the ozone hole, global warming, and DDT, Oreskes and Conway roll back the rug on this dark corner of the American scientific community, showing how the ideology of free market fundamentalism, aided by a too-compliant media, has skewed public understanding of some of the most pressing issues of our era."

The movie is highly entertaining and while not as detailed as the book, it focuses on communication strategies and why messaging can make or break an informational campaign. If you have the opportunity, pick up the book or view the movie; you won't be disappointed.