Defense-building climate change communication and ideas of how to overcome it in meteorological studies

The environmental psychologist Per Espen Stoknes mentions five inner defenses people typically build up to protect themselves from the bad news surrounding climate change. These barriers cause people to distance themselves from the topic, leaving them unmotivated to take climate action. In order to reach people, the first two inner defenses to overcome are distance and doom. Distance stands for climate impacts that seem far away and/or in the far future. Doom addresses the mainly negative headlines about climate change, which do not motivate people to act.

Potential solutions to overcome these inner defenses or avoid building them in the first place are approachable and supportive ways of communicating about climate change using storylines. Storylines consist of coherent narratives which are relatable to the broad public. Powerful storylines for example highlight personal benefits of climate action such as healthy and climate-friendly food or attractive green cities, or social components like a neighborhood full of solar panels. However, examples of such a way of communication usually address disciplines directly involved in climate change mitigation or adaptation. For meteorological studies e.g. dealing with extreme events and their threats to society, it is challenging to apply such positive storytelling when the key messages of a study are concerning.

In this talk, we describe the problem of defense-building science communication and explore the question of how strategies for their removal or rebuilding as proposed by Per Espen Stoknes could be applied to meteorological studies. We describe the specific challenges in studies on extreme events and their impacts on the basis of summer droughts in Europe. We want to introduce our following ideas for avoiding the inner defenses of distance and doom in meteorological science communication to the scientific discussion: 1. focusing research on daily life to make it approachable and near, 2. using creative science communication formats and storytelling in order to take a positive approach to the topic, and 3. referring to climate solutions of disciplines involved in climate mitigation and adaptation for a solution-based, supportive outlook.