Americans rarely talk about climate change with family and friends.
Tragically,
research shows that this climate silence reinforces the dangerously wrong
belief that climate change isn’t an existential threat requiring urgent action.
But
a major new study led by Yale researchers finds that just discussing the issue
with friends and family leads them to learn more facts about the climate
crisis, which in turn leads to greater understanding and concern about the
issue.
The
study, titled “Discussing global warming leads to greater acceptance of climate
science” was published in the journal Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Climatologist Michael Mann said that this study “casts doubt on claims in some quarters that the climate change issue has become too ideologically-driven for facts to matter.”
“[It]
confirms what might seem common sense,” Mann wrote in an email to
ThinkProgress. “The more people actually understand about the science of
climate change, the more they are likely to accept the scientific consensus —
that climate change is real, human-caused, and a threat to human civilization.”
“Meaningful
discussions and dialogue is how humans learn,” environmental sociologist Robert
Brulle told ThinkProgress over email. “This study clearly shows that
non-polarized discussions within a trusted social network can lead to increased
understanding and acceptance of climate science.”
Brulle,
who has authored numerous studies on climate communications, added, “Engaging
in, rather than avoiding, climate change discussions is something that we
should all be doing.”
Yet,
most Americans “rarely” or “never” talk about climate change with family and
friends, according to the latest research from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.
This
climate silence leads the public to underestimate how many other Americans
realize climate change is happening. They “underestimate the social consensus
on global warming,” as the Yale researchers explained. Remarkably, the Yale survey
found that the public estimates that just 54% of other Americans realize
climate change is happening, but in reality, 69% do.
At
the same time, a 2018 study found
that “only 11 percent of the U.S. public correctly estimate the scientific
consensus on climate change as higher than 90 percent.” It also found that
telling people how big the actual consensus is “increases their perception of
the scientific norm by 16.2 percentage points on a 100-point scale.”
Inspired
by the fact that increased awareness increases acceptance, the authors of the
PNAS study decided to find out what would happen if they tracked over time
“changes in perceptions of scientific consensus as a result of discussion with
family and friends.”
They
also tracked how perceptions of the consensus affect climate change discussions
as well as how discussions indirectly affect people’s understanding of, and
concern about, climate change.
The study concluded that “increased perceptions of scientific agreement led to increases in discussions about climate change.” This suggests that “climate conversations can initiate a positively reinforcing cycle between learning, worry, and further conversation.”
In
other words, talking about the climate crisis to family and friends motivates
them to learn about the overwhelming scientific consensus that global warming
is happening and humans are the cause — along with other key facts. Increased
understanding of the consensus in turns leads to an increase in understanding
and concern about the climate.
The
study’s lead author, Yale social psychologist Matthew Goldberg, told The Los Angeles Times that talking more about
climate change is “massively important, particularly because we are not doing
it enough.”
There
are a variety of ways to communicate the consensus message to friends and
family. The simplest version is to state that 97% of climate scientists
understand that humans are causing climate change.
A
more specific version: The overwhelming majority of climate scientists — 97% —
understand that humans are the primary cause of global warming since 1950.
And
a good analogy? We are as certain that humans are responsible for recent
climate change as we are that cigarettes are dangerous to your health.
However
you say it, experts agree: It’s vital everyone talk about climate change with
as many of their friends and family as possible.