How to Change the Way We Talk about

By Monica Pratt

Although addressing the online consensus and taking meaningful action to rapidly morph into an online event. In pre- audience remotely from Lubbock, Texas, lessen human impacts on the environment vious years, the symposium not only high- Katharine Hayhoe, the 2020 Esri Science and curb climate change. lighted scientific work enabled by GIS tech- Symposium keynote speaker, was anything Her presentation was part of the nology but provided an opportunity for the but remote. In her dynamic and interactive fifth annual—and first virtual—Science scientific subset of the Esri user community presentation, “The First Step to Tackling Symposium, held on July 16, 2020. The to network. Climate Change,” Hayhoe took on the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) While face-to-face interactions were sac- seemingly intractable problem of building pandemic caused the symposium to rificed this year for safety’s sake, the event

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 Hayhoe advocates talking about climate change in a way that engages people and encourages positive, immediate action.

became more broadly accessible. The Examining What Is Needed effective communication, and faith. nearly 1,200 (virtual) attendees this year Dubbed “the Climate Explainer” by the In a compelling hour-long presentation, was more than doubled attendance the New York Times, Hayhoe is an atmos- Hayhoe used insights gleaned from cogni- previous year. The event attests to Esri’s pheric scientist who is a professor in the tive neuroscience and maps showing the commitment to supporting the science Department of Political Science, and a di- distribution of public opinion on climate done by its users and staff and the science rector of the Climate Center at Texas Tech change in the United States to explore that underpins its products. Esri staff are University. She is also a the approaches that have been used and actively involved in research and in organi- Champion of the Earth. She holds a bache- why they haven’t worked. The event drew zations that support science as well as pub- lor’s degree in physics and astronomy from a diverse audience that came from indus- lishing books on the scientific applications the University of and a master’s try, academia, nonprofits, consulting, and of GIS, such as the recently released GIS for degree and a doctorate in atmospheric sci- other sectors. She immediately included Science, Volume 2. ence from the University of Illinois, Urbana- the online audience with interactive polls Champaign. A prolific author of more than that captured their reactions and displayed 125 peer-reviewed papers, abstracts, and them in maps, charts, and word clouds.  Dr. Katharine Hayhoe Photo courtesy of Artie Limmer/Texas Tech other publications, she is also a frequent Hayhoe noted that when people are University. speaker on climate change and its impacts, asked to take action on climate change,

esri.com/arcuser Summer 2020 au 35  Hayhoe encouraged audience participation through polls. Responses were visualized in maps, charts, and word clouds. This word cloud was generated in response to the statement "I care about climate change because it affects...".

they most often think of what they can do (UNFCCC)—will not be met by the majority been warmer before.” She uses paleocli- as individuals. These actions can include in- of signatories to the pact. mate data to counter that argument and stalling smart thermostats, using LED light- points out that, while temperatures have bulbs, and practicing recycling. While she When More Isn’t Better been higher, they have never been this acknowledged that these are all positive The nearly universal reaction to this lack high in human history. things, they fall far short of what is necessary. of action is to conclude that people don’t The disastrous effect of climate change For example, the use of LED lightbulbs understand enough science. The response is brought home to people every day in has cut CO by 570 million tons each year. to this perceived lack is to pummel climate news headlines that describe epic wildfires, 2 This sounds impressive until it is placed change naysayers with studies and data instances of sea level rise, and extreme in context. Since the annual CO output that show the dire trajectory for the planet weather events. 2 is 33,000 million tons, using LED light- in the belief that explaining the facts is bulbs accounts for only slightly more than enough to change minds. What Will It Take? 1.7 percent of emissions. “We need more,” However, scientific evidence of climate The science is available and compelling, she said. change has been well-known since the 1820s the consequences can be observed first- Given the scope of the problem, the and is well documented. A simple search on hand, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. more required for affecting a solution is climate change in Google Scholar reveals If individual action isn’t the answer and a policy change. However, the current and more than 2.6 million studies. Numerous deluge of doomsday scientific data won’t projected states of global temperature in- national climate assessments—running into motivate policy change, what will it take to crease, as visualized by the Climate Action the thousands of pages—have been pub- make people act and—act rapidly? Tracker, show that the goal of limiting tem- lished. As Hayhoe noted, “We have plenty To answer this crucial question, Hayhoe perature increases to no more than 2 de- of science demonstrating the reality of cli- produced a visualization by the New York grees Celsius—as stipulated by the 2015 mate change driven by human actions.” Times of Pew Research Center data col- Paris Agreement of the United Nations The objection she most commonly hears lected in 2020 on the issues on which Framework Convention on Climate Change from climate change skeptics is that “it’s Republicans and Democrats are most

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department of Experimental Psychology have been made—such as the increase in at University College London. Sharot’s re- the use of renewable energy sources—to search shows that the brain is programmed demonstrate beneficial practices that are to get a kick out of new information, but it gaining traction. will only accept that information if it harmo- Instead of using data to bludgeon nizes with existing beliefs, a phenomenon people who are dismissive of climate popularly known as confirmation bias. change, Hayhoe advocates employing Like most animals, people actively insightful methods of connecting with pursue rewarding activities but withdraw people by talking about how and why ad- from situations that cause fear and anxiety dressing climate change is important to and become inactive. Continuing to shovel them—right now—and inspiring them to an ever-increasing number of scary facts action by sharing what can be done to im- about the consequences of climate change prove the situation. This will create a posi- will not only fail to change minds but will tive feedback loop that will lead to action. harden preconceptions. In short, the effort to scare people into action appears futile About the Author despite the fact that emphasizing global Monica Pratt is the founding and current doom has overwhelmingly been the most editor of ArcUser magazine, the executive widely employed strategy. editor of ArcNews magazine, the editor of When Hayhoe asked attendees to name Esri Globe, and the head of the publica- what they thought was the most convinc- tions team at Esri. She has been writing on ing scientific fact that would spur climate technology topics, specializing in GIS, for action, increases in extreme weather condi- more than 25 years. Before joining Esri in tions topped the list, followed by the melt- 1997, she worked for newspapers and in the ing ice in the Arctic and rising sea levels. financial industry. Although these facts all make a strong case for concern about climate change, they divided. It was presented in descending are often perceived as distant in time and order, and climate change tops the list as space and therefore not compelling. the most politically polarized topic in the United States. But this situation is also true Talk That Inspires Hope in other countries. and Action Using a series of thematic maps produced How can this vicious cycle be broken? Reach GIS by the Yale Program on Climate Change Hayhoe’s answer: talk about climate change Communication, Hayhoe explored this but in a way that engages people, helps Professionals, phenomenon further. These maps show by them appreciate the immediacy of the county and congressional district that for problem, and encourages positive action. Managers, & most questions related to climate change, Instead of using images of polar bears Developers party affiliation is the single most decisive trapped on shrinking ice floes, make factor influencing the type of response. people realize that climate change is some- Advertise in ArcUser and reach However, the maps also showed some- thing that will harm them personally. She more than 450,000 people who thing else. While most people of either po- urged using examples of the increasingly are actively using GIS and Esri litical affiliation acknowledged the reality of common local flooding and fires events technology in their organizations. climate change, they don’t think it will affect that necessitate changing zoning laws and them, they think they can’t do anything enhancing public safety response. about it anyway, and they never talk about it. Hayhoe also recommended localizing [email protected] Hayhoe posits that the answer to this per- and scaling data that is readily available plexing situation is not found in climate sci- from the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World ence but in the science of the human mind. to quantify these impacts in terms of She pointed to the work of Tali Sharot, a people and dollars. This same approach opright 2020 Esri All rights resered professor of cognitive neuroscience in the can be used to show where improvements

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