Center for Climate Change Communication

Strategic Direction

To reach the public, highlight health implications of climate change, Mason professor says

Colleen Rich — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 14:17:36 +0000

To reach the public, highlight health implications of climate change, Mason professor says Colleen Rich Wed, 07/06/2022 - 10:17

Kotcher

John Kotcher, research assistant professor at ��AV’s Center for Climate Change Communication, says that emphasizing the health implications of climate change is one of best ways to engage the public to fight for better policies. Kotcher recently spoke about how to communicate about climate change:

What is climate change, and what are the ways it is already affecting our lives?

Simply put, climate change refers to long-term changes in temperature, precipitation, and associated weather patterns. These changes can occur naturally, but since the 1800s, human activities have been the primary influence on climate change mainly through the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas.

Climate change is already affecting us in a variety of different ways. For example, it's increasing the frequency and severity of extreme weather events such as major storms, floods, and droughts. It's also leading to greater humidity and longer, hotter and more frequent heat waves. Climate change also affects air quality by increasing smog, smoke from more wildfires, pollen, and mold from higher humidity and flooding.

What are the public health implications of climate change?

Increases in extreme heat can lead to more heat-related illness and death from heat stroke and dehydration. Poor air quality can cause more lung infections, asthma and allergy attacks, bronchitis, and deaths. Rising temperatures can also increase the geographic range of disease-carrying insects and animals, resulting in faster and wider spread of diseases like Zika virus. Rising temperatures and extreme weather conditions make it easier for food and water to become contaminated by bacteria, viruses, parasites, and other toxins.

How can we effectively engage the public to respond to climate change?

I think step number one is to recognize that the majority of Americans are already worried about climate change and want to see more done to address it. For example, we find that people who are alarmed about climate change and strongly support action outnumber those who are dismissive of it and oppose action by more than 3 to 1.

There are many different ways to talk about the issue, but perhaps not surprisingly a promising one that we've identified is to highlight the public health implications.

It's also important to have the right messengers who can speak to this issue in a credible way that resonates with a variety of audiences. Medical professionals are highly trusted generally speaking, but in particular Republicans tend to rate their primary care doctor as one of the sources they most trust when it comes to climate change. At the Center for Climate Change Communication, we have a program called the Medical Society Consortium on Climate Change and Health to help train and support health professionals in voicing their concerns about climate change.

When it comes to conservatives, it's also important for them to hear about issue from other conservatives. Our center has another program called RepublicEn to help foster the community of conservatives who care about climate change and speak up about the issue.

John Kotcher’s research focuses on how to effectively communicate about the public health implications of climate change and how civic organizations can most effectively recruit, organize, and mobilize citizens, including political conservatives, to demand action on climate change.

Kotcher can be reached at jkotcher@gmu.edu

For more information, please contact Anna Stolley Persky at apersky@gmu.edu

About George Mason

��AV is Virginia’s largest public research university. Located near Washington, D.C., Mason enrolls 39,000 students from 130 countries and all 50 states. Mason has grown rapidly over the past half-century and is recognized for its innovation and entrepreneurship, remarkable diversity and commitment to accessibility. In 2022, Mason celebrates 50 years as an independent institution. Learn more at gmu.edu.

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Tip Sheet

Mason Trailblazer: Edward Maibach

Colleen Rich — Mon, 11 Apr 2022 18:02:29 +0000

Mason Trailblazer: Edward Maibach Colleen Rich Mon, 04/11/2022 - 14:02

In This Story

Edward Maibach

Edward Maibach is one of the most influential scientists working on climate change. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services

��AV’s Edward Maibach is one of the most influential scientists working on climate change.

In 2021, Maibach, the director of Mason's Center for Climate Change Communication, ranked 7th overall in the Reuters Hot List identifying and ranking the world’s top 1,000 climate scientists. Only two other American scientists finished above him, including his research partner Anthony Leiserowitz of Yale University, who was identified as #2.

Also in 2021, the organization Climate One honored Maibach and Leiserowitz with its Stephen H. Schneider Award, which is given to a natural or social scientist who has made “extraordinary scientific contributions and communicated that knowledge to a broad public in a clear and compelling fashion,” according to the press release.

In 2018, he was appointed a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and in 2020 the university recognized Maibach with one of its Presidential Awards for Faculty Excellence, the Beck Family Medal for Excellence in Research and Scholarship. A member of Mason’s Institute for a Sustainable Earth and University Professor in the Department of Communication in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Maibach is an expert in the use of strategic communication and social marketing to address climate change and related public health challenges. His research has primarily focused on public understanding of climate change and clean energy, the psychological factors that influence public engagement, and the cultivation of trusted voices such as TV weathercasters and health professionals as effective climate educators.

Maibach came to Mason in 2007 to create the Center for Climate Change Communication. Now in its 15th year, the center has been studying public perceptions of climate change issues and identifying effective ways to engage the public and other stakeholders on those issues. The center's national public opinion polls conducted with Yale have consistently been featured in major media outlets throughout the country and have helped monitor attitudes and awareness about the climate crisis for more than a decade.

Maibach has also teamed with Mason colleague Mona Sarfaty to create the Medical Society Consortium on Climate Health to organize, empower and amplify the voices of America’s doctors about the dangers of climate change to our health and climate solutions that can improve it.

Recently, he began working with Mason colleagues, including Jim Kinter, director of the Mason's Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies, to help the university stand up the new Virginia Climate Center, which will serve as a climate extension service for communities in the commonwealth to increase their resilience to the impacts of climate change.

Listen to Maibach discuss the climate change misinformation war with President Gregory Washington on the Access to Excellence podcast

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Trailblazers

Three from Mason to attend United Nations climate summit

Colleen Rich — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 19:29:38 +0000

Three from Mason to attend United Nations climate summit Colleen Rich Tue, 10/26/2021 - 15:29

Ed Maibach. Photo provided

For Ed Maibach, the chance to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference is a chance to watch history take place. And perhaps influence it at the same time.

“Because if the decision is to greatly increase our global ambitions, then human civilization has a fighting chance,” said Maibach, a University Professor at ��AV and director of Mason’s Center for Climate Change Communication. “But if the decision is that we can’t come to an agreement, then the prognosis for human civilization becomes more dire.”

Maibach is one of three from Mason who will attend the conference to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, from Oct. 31-Nov. 12.

Also attending: Professor A. Alonso Aguirre, chair of the Department of Environmental Science and Policy, and Lia Zakiyyah, a PhD student in climate change communication.

Maibach is part of the delegation from the Global Climate and Health Alliance, for which he is a board member.

Alonso Aguirre. Photo by Ron Aira/Creative Services

Aguirre is part of the delegation from the Global Council for Science and Environment, for which he is a board member.

Zakiyyah is part of the delegation from her native Indonesia, where from 2015 to 2019 she was special assistant to the president’s envoy on climate change.

“The importance of this meeting is for the [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] to come out with a clear solution,” Aguirre said. “We are the climate change culprits. We need to do something about it.”

The United Nations estimates the world has warmed 1.2 degrees Celsius since the pre-industrial era. The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change aims to limit warming to below 2 degrees Celsius, preferably 1.5 degrees.

The Glasgow conference is the first of what are supposed to be meetings every five years to update plans. The 2020 conference was cancelled because of COVID-19.

“I hope the global leaders who will be there will realize there is no time for going backward,” said Zakiyyah, who also attended the conference at which the Paris Agreement was adopted. “There are some countries still quite persistent in trying to keep fossil fuels in their economies. That’s not the way forward. This is a new paradigm that we need to embrace if we really want to move forward and live in a low-carbon, resilient, and just society.”

The Mason trio has varying responsibilities.

Lia Zakiyyah. Photo provided

Aguirre will be part of a roundtable discussion: “Why Climate Literacy and Civic Skill Building Will Solve the Climate Crisis.” He also hopes to show a video called “Black Peaks,” which explains the impact of climate change in Nepal and was created in a Conservation Storytelling class led by Mason Environmental Science and Policy PhD student Jennifer Lewis.

Maibach will speak about human health at an event at the Indonesian Pavilion. He also will attend an event in which 30 pediatricians, who are biking from London to Glasgow, will deliver a “healthy climate prescription” that is endorsed by more than 450 organizations.

“All of my comments will be focused on the opportunity that the world’s health professionals have to hold the world’s leaders accountable to become more ambitious,” Maibach said. “There is no one in a more trusted, more privileged, position to speak science to power than the world’s health professionals.”

Zakiyyah will work in the Indonesian Pavilion to support outreach and soft diplomacy.

“You know, it’s not only hard negotiations to be put forward, but also communication to build trust outside of the negotiating table between parties,” she said.

But it is the opportunity for collaboration and outreach, especially to students, that most intrigues Aguirre, who will address the issue at his event.

“How can we train the next generation?” he said. “A way to do it is to bring these meetings to our students. You don’t know too much as a student what’s going on here. You think it’s very political and that it is beyond your understanding. What I want to do is livestream some of these things and bring them to the classroom, get them involved and passionate about it.”

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Department of Environmental Science and Policy (ESP)

Two Mason climate experts share a conversation about the fight against global climate change and the loss of biodiversity

John Hollis — Thu, 23 Sep 2021 19:38:35 +0000

Two Mason climate experts share a conversation about the fight against global climate change and the loss of biodiversity John Hollis Thu, 09/23/2021 - 15:38

Distinguished University Professor Ed Maibach. Photo by Shelby Burgess/Strategic Communications

��AV’s Ed Maibach likened the intricate challenges facing the planet in stemming global climate change and the loss of biodiversity to a Gordian knot, but both he and fellow Distinguished University Professor Tom Lovejoy remain optimistic that both goals can be accomplished.

The two global icons in their field spoke frankly during Wednesday’s Mason Science Series appearance at the Country Club of Fairfax called “Sustaining the Planet for Our Children and Grandchildren.” Their unscripted 40-minute conversation included their views of what must happen globally if the world is to prevent a “cascading series of public health catastrophes that will be a pox on humanity for generations to come.”

The two Mason scientists, who spoke before roughly 40 people before opening the floor up for questions, were lauded by Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm, the event’s moderator and the dean of the College of Science, as “two of the highest caliber individuals any university could have.”

Both Maibach and Lovejoy acknowledged the inherent challenges ahead, but said they remain confident that humanity would meet those challenges when presented with indisputable facts.

“Layer on top of layer on top of layer of human decisions went into creating those problems,” said Maibach, a communication scientist who is a University Professor of Communication and the director of Mason’s Center for Climate Change Communication within the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. “We’re looking for opportunities to slice through the Gordian knot, or at least start to unwind it. It’s hard because the problems have so many levels, and they’re so intertwined, but that’s the work that must be done to start to create a different path.”

Distinguished University Professor Tom Lovejoy. Photo by Shelby Burgess/Strategic Communications

Lovejoy, a renowned conservation biologist who is a University Professor of Environmental Science and Policy within the College of Science and the science director of Mason’s Institute for a Sustainable Earth, is often referred to as the “godfather of biodiversity” and first coined the phrase biological diversity in 1980.

He said it was imperative that everybody do what they can in moving forward and not obsess over the past.

“When you look at the mix at what we’ve done to the planet, you could spend a lot of time getting really down and really gloomy,” said Lovejoy, who received science’s top honor earlier this year when he was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences. “There’s no point in spending a lot of time wallowing and despairing about that. The really important thing to do is find ways to make it come out better.”

Both Maibach and Lovejoy agreed that scientists must do a better job of explaining without scientific jargon what dangers lie ahead and the roles all people can potentially play in help to avert future climate disasters.

“The reality is that all life is built on carbon,” Lovejoy said, “and when it’s destroyed, that carbon goes up into the atmosphere and raises the level of greenhouse gases. It’s really very, very simple.”

Change has historically begun one person at a time, and both scientists still believe it can happen again. But that change must start now, they added.

The College of Science hosted the event in partnership with the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

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College of Science

Climate Research

The Secret's Out: Mason is a leader in sustainability research and practices

Damian Cristodero — Thu, 16 Sep 2021 17:03:52 +0000

The Secret's Out: Mason is a leader in sustainability research and practices Damian Cristodero Thu, 09/16/2021 - 13:03

A lush campus isn’t the only thing that makes Mason green. For years, the university has been a sustainability leader.

Mason has more than 125 “Green Leaf” courses in over 25 academic programs. Those courses provide valuable grounding in the properties of sustainability.

Did you know Mason researchers have tracked climate change perceptions for more than a decade? The Center for Climate Change Communication is a nationwide asset, with its research cited regularly by elite media, including The New York Times. The center partners with more than 600 meteorologists to communicate the regional effects of climate change, educates voters, and more.

With no better time to prioritize a healthier planet, Mason launched its Institute for a Sustainable Earth in 2019 to put ideas and research into action. It connects Mason Nation with policymakers, businesses and organizations to address pressing challenges.

The buzz on campus doesn’t only surround the Office of Sustainability, which drives everything from Mason’s carbon neutrality plan to its Greenhouse and Gardens program. Mason has50 beehives under its care, as one of many initiatives to help earth thrive.

Mason is also training the next generation of climate scientists.

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Sustainability

Office of Sustainability

Sustainability Research

Honey Bee Initiative

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Meet Us

Ed Maibach ranked the most influential climate change scientist among those at U.S. public universities and number 7 worldwide

John Hollis — Thu, 29 Apr 2021 17:19:14 +0000

Ed Maibach ranked the most influential climate change scientist among those at U.S. public universities and number 7 worldwide John Hollis Thu, 04/29/2021 - 13:19

Ed Maibach is ranked the most influential climate change scientist among those at U.S. public universities and number 7 worldwide. Photo by Aaron Maibach

��AV’s Ed Maibach is the most influential scientist working on climate change among America’s public universities, according to a recent Reuters ranking of the researchers.

Maibach, a University Professor in the Department of Communication and the director of the Center for Climate Change Communication within Mason’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences, ranked 7th overall in the Reuters Hot List identifying and ranking the world’s top 1,000 climate scientists. Only two other American scientists finished above him, including his research partner Anthony Leiserowitz of Yale University, who finished second.

“This is nice for me professionally and personally,” Maibach said. “But the real importance of these rankings is the prominence of social science—two of the top 10 are social scientists. Climate science is indispensable, but if society is to put this knowledge to use, so, too, is social science. That our work is being taken seriously is a good thing.”

The three criteria Reuters used in determining the rankings were number of research papers published on topics related to climate change, how often those papers were cited by other scientists in similar fields of study, and how often those papers are referenced in the press, on social media, and in policy papers.

Their research has collectively impacted other scientists, the public, activists and political leaders about the dangers of climate change.

“We either make better decisions or we face great peril,” Maibach said.

Ann Ardis, the dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, said she was thrilled with news of Maibach’s recognition, but hardly surprised.

“In his longstanding advocacy for climate science, he has not only made significant contributions to the field, but, just as important, he has translated his expertise and his commitment to sharing the impacts of climate change in a way that is understandable to members of the public and to policymakers alike,” she said. “His work perfectly illustrates the human side of science.” 

Joining Maibach on the Reuters Hot List were fellow Mason faculty Jagadish Shukla and Bohua Huang. The full list can be seen here.

Maibach, who is also a member of Mason’s Institute for a Sustainable Earth, is an expert in the use of strategic communication and social marketing to address climate change and related public health challenges. His research has primarily focused on public understanding of climate change and clean energy, the psychology key to public engagement and the cultivation of trusted voices, such as TV weathercasters and health professionals, as effective climate educators.

He’s long been lauded for his efforts to better educate the public and policymakers alike since focusing exclusively on climate change as the world’s most pressing threat to public health and well-being since 2007.

Maibach played a critical role in the formation of the Yale/Mason Climate Change in the American Mind survey project that has consistently been featured in major media outlets throughout the country for more than a decade.

In January, Maibach and his good friend Leiserowitz were honored by the nonpartisan and San Francisco-based Climate One the as the co-recipients of the Stephen H. Schneider Award given to a natural or social scientist who has made “extraordinary scientific contributions and communicated that knowledge to a broad public in a clear and compelling fashion,” according to the press release.

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Access to Excellence podcast

Mason Momentum

Podcast — Ep 23: Climate change and the misinformation war

Damian Cristodero — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 15:59:19 +0000

Podcast — Ep 23: Climate change and the misinformation war Damian Cristodero Wed, 04/21/2021 - 11:59

In This Story

Gregory Washington

There are those who still don’t believe in climate change or that it is manmade. As Earth Day approached, Mason President Gregory Washington spoke with public health scientist Ed Maibach, director of ��AV's Center for Climate Change Communication, about overcoming climate change misinformation, which he calls the world’s most important public health initiative.

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Access to Excellence

Paris Agreement on climate change

climate change education

global warming

Earth Day

Sustainability

Mason’s Ed Maibach recognized for efforts to combat climate change

John Hollis — Mon, 11 Jan 2021 18:22:23 +0000

Mason’s Ed Maibach recognized for efforts to combat climate change John Hollis Mon, 01/11/2021 - 13:22

��AV's Ed Maibach is a co-recipient of the 10th annual Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication. Photo provided.

��AV’s Edward Maibach has been a busy man as of late, and his efforts in the fight against global climate change haven’t gone unnoticed.

Maibach, a University Professor in Communication and the director of Mason’s Center for Climate Change Communication, recently received a $250,000 grant from the Kresge Foundation for the Medical Society Consortium on Climate Health to organize, empower and amplify the voices of America’s doctors to best convey how climate change is harming our health and how climate solutions will improve it. The consortium includes 30 medical society members and 55 partner health organizations.

“For the past five years, we’ve worked to mobilize the voice of America’s doctors to clearly articulate that climate change isn’t about plants, penguins, and polar bears,” Maibach said. “It’s about people, too. It’s about our health. In a very real sense, we have skin in the game of climate change—our own skin. Who better to explain that to anybody who will listen than America’s doctors?”

Mason’s Mona Sarfaty, the director of the Program on Climate and Health within the Center for Climate Change Communication, serves as the executive director for the consortium.

The grant is just the latest accolade for Maibach, who had previously been announced as a co-recipient for the 10th annual Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication. Maibach will share the honor with Yale University’s Anthony Leiserowitz when the two men are formally recognized during a virtual ceremony on Jan. 13.

The $15,000 award, which was established in honor of Stephen Henry Schneider, one of the founding fathers of climatology, is given to a natural or social scientist “who has made extraordinary scientific contributions and communicated that knowledge to a broad public in a clear and compelling fashion,” according to the press release.

The award’s jurors decided that Maibach and Leiserowitz exemplified the rare ability to simultaneously be both superb scientists and powerful communicators in the mold of Schneider.

“No one has done more to help us understand how the American people understand climate change than Tony Leiserowitz and Ed Maibach,” said juror Naomi Oreskes. “Their work has set the standard for social scientific investigations of what Americans think about climate change and why they think it.”

Maibach has focused exclusively on climate change as the world’s most pressing threat to public health and well-being since 2007. He played a critical role in the formation of the Yale/Mason Climate Change in the American Mind survey project that has consistently been featured in numerous major media outlets throughout the country for more than a decade.

“It’s a thrill in every way,” he said of the honor. “It’s particularly a thrill to be winning this award with Tony Leiserowitz, whom I’ve been working with so closely since day one of creating our center here at Mason. So the work I have done is really the work we have done and, thus, winning this award is a double thrill.”

The Stephen H. Schneider Award is presented by Climate One, a project of the Commonwealth Club of California, a nonprofit and nonpartisan public forum founded in San Francisco in 1903.

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Climate Research

Mason climate communication researcher’s smartphone game helps combat misinformation

John Hollis — Mon, 14 Dec 2020 17:50:28 +0000

Mason climate communication researcher’s smartphone game helps combat misinformation John Hollis Mon, 12/14/2020 - 12:50

A ��AV scientist has developed a smartphone game that uses critical thinking and cartoons in the fight against dangerous climate change misinformation.

John Cook, a research assistant professor at Mason’s Center for Climate Change Communication within the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, launches his “Cranky Uncle” game on Dec. 15 after spending over a decade studying different ways to counter misinformation. The game is available for free on iPhone and Android.

“Misinformation does great damage to society,” Cook said. “An essential solution is making the public more resilient against fake news. But how? Gamification is a powerful approach that can potentially reach many millions of people.”

The game uses a resilience-building technique known as active inoculation. In the game, players are mentored by a cartoon Cranky Uncle, who is dismissive of scientific evidence on climate change, vaccines, COVID-19 and other issues. As players learn the techniques used to deny science, they gain points on their quest to become a cranky uncle.

“If you want to learn how to spot someone cheating at cards, first, you have to learn how to cheat at cards,” explained Cook.

Cook, who used to draw cartoons for a living before becoming a scientist, illustrated many of the cartoon depictions of logical fallacies. He called the cumulative impact of humor, cartoons and games a powerful one that compels players into critical thinking through gameplay.

“The deeper a player gets into the game, the more resilient they become against misinformation,” he said. 

Cook teamed up with creative agency Autonomy Co-op to develop the game.

“The issue of science misinformation is more critical than ever before,” said Autonomy CEO Jay McDowell. “We're honored to be part of such a unique and innovative approach to fighting it.”

Cook is the founder of the Skeptical Science website and the lead author of a study that found 97% scientific consensus on climate change. He spent the last decade examining how to best counter climate science denial. His research, which focused on the responses of high school seniors and college students, is designed to explain the techniques of denial to make the public more resilient against climate change misinformation.

Learn more about the game at crankyuncle.com.

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