A team of researchers from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication has found that talking about the links between climate change and extreme weather events is not only scientifically valid but is an effective way to help people connect their own lives and experiences to the issue of climate change.
In early July, temperatures in California’s Death Valley National Park reached 125 degrees Fahrenheit or higher for nine straight days. That followed a June heatwave in the eastern U.S., with nearly 100 million under an excessive heat advisory. Then, in August, a heat wave in Chicago had districts canceling or dismissing classes early just as the school year had begun.
Scientists say extreme weather events like these are becoming more frequent and severe due to climate change. Communicating the link between climate change and extreme weather is increasingly essential in encouraging climate action.
"We have found that communicating these links can help depolarize the issue," said Anthony Leiserowitz, the founder and Director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC) at the Yale School of Environment. "Weather can help ground the conversation in lived experience, which is not interpreted by most Americans as ‘political.'"
In 2023, YPCCC launched a project with Climate Central, World Weather Attribution, and the Global Strategic Communications Council to inform and inspire climate action by communicating the links between climate change and extreme weather. During a panel that is part of a Climate Week NYC program series on scalable and transformative climate solutions hosted by Yale Planetary Solutions, YPCCC, Potential Energy Coalition, the Bezos Earth Fund, these partners and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, and the Global Strategic Communications Council will present research on attribution science, communication science, and examples of successful messages.
"As climate change intensifies extreme weather events, our research shows that half of Americans perceive this trend as a natural change, rather than what it really is: a fossil fuel pollution problem," said John Marshall, the CEO of Potential Energy Coalition. "By unifying around the right messages, we can help ordinary people understand how climate change already impacts the people and places they love today, and dramatically increase support for action."
Over the past decade, attribution science has emerged as a new capability to quantify climate change's role in individual extreme weather events such as heat waves, hurricanes, and wildfires. As people naturally seek out information during extreme weather events, it's an opportunity to build an understanding of climate change and increase support for climate action.
Weather can help ground the conversation in lived experience, which is not interpreted by most Americans as ‘political.’”
"Beyond the enormous scientific value of these advances, they also support the message that climate change is happening and human caused. It is not distant in time and space; it's very much here and now and will get much worse if we do not reduce carbon pollution quickly," said Leiserowitz.
In 2023, YPCCC researchers conducted an experiment around a July 2023 U.S. heat wave. They informed study participants that climate change made the heat wave at least five times more likely and also explored whether adding different explanations of the relationship between climate change and heat waves increased understanding. They found that expressing the magnitude as a percentage was more effective than the standard heat wave framing, leading to a six-percentage point increase in the belief that climate change made the July 2023 heat wave more likely.
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"When we provide a short explanation of what climate change is and how it connects to extreme weather, large majorities of people immediately say climate change is happening, are worried about it, and support government action," Leiserowitz said.
About 17 years ago, YPCCC, in partnership with the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication conducted their first Climate Change in the American Mind nationally representative survey, in which researchers found that many Americans perceived climate change as a problem distant in time and space, not understanding that climate impacts were — even then — already having devastating impacts on people across the United States. As a result, many did not worry much about climate change or view it as a high priority. They also found that one of people’s most trusted sources of information about climate change was meteorologists, particularly those who do daily TV broadcasts. It sparked a larger project to engage the nation's weather forecasters as climate communicators.
“We still have much to learn about how people respond to these messages, but so far we see pretty clearly across political and national boundaries that they do help people understand that climate change is happening, is already having serious consequences, and to support greater climate action,” Leiserowitz said.
