Ways of overcoming the psychological distance of climate change
By Hannah Cohen, a Monash School of Journalism student
“ In order to reform the psychological distance between lay people and climate change, mainstream media outlets need to set better standards for scientific reporting as an integral part of their journalistic practice.”
With global efforts to mitigate climate change taking a backseat amid the pandemic, it is more important than ever that we overcome the psychological distance associated with climate change through the way the issue is communicated to lay people.
The speed at which the country has adapted to the coronavirus has highlighted the ingrained ignorance that we as a society maintain when it comes to the importance of climate action.
Even the nearly unanimous conclusion among climate scientists that climate change is contributed greatly to by human activity still doesn’t seem to convince 56% of Australians; the uncertain, the doubtful and the dismissive, that climate change requires an immediate response.
There is no hope of reversing the jarring lashings our climate system has endured, but the pandemic has demonstrated if we wait until we see impact, it will be too late to stop the cascading effects of climate change.
In the midst of a pandemic sweeping our earth, when the UN Climate Change is postponing crucial meetings, we can no longer rely solely on the momentum from climate summits.
Typically, when an outcome seems far removed, it is likely that the elements of risk seem isolated and irrelevant enough to ignore.
But our proactive response to the pandemic has illuminated that effective communication of key information is imperative to inciting appropriate action, even when such action may seem disproportionate to the current situation.
Let's use this as motivation to crack down on psychological distance from climate change and act with the same immediacy we demonstrate when trying to flatten the curve, because the way climate change is communicated is seminal.
While scientists tend to stay out of the press’s spotlight and are wary of advocacy, it is important to note that one of the root causes of psychological distance from climate change stems from a lack of understanding and then as a result, failure to take action.
The first, essential step to overcoming psychological distance through the development of more comprehensive delivery of information requires the recruitment and collaboration of climate scientists, decision scientists, and social scientists with the help of a designer.
Together, these experts respectively fact check, identify which of these facts are most important for decision making and analyse the perceived notions surrounding such facts to map out how this communicated information is likely to be interpreted amongst the public, highlighting any areas for improvement.
Through this process, what’s created is scientifically sound, non-persuasive communication that lets the science speak for itself,
While non-persuasive communication is imperative in the process of having scientists maintain their status as the most credible source amongst the public in relation to climate change, the agenda-setting theory tells us that the more attention an issue receives in the media, the more likely it is to seem important to audiences.
Currently however, journalists are among the least trusted sources of information surrounding climate change and are currently not using the power they possess to shape how laypeople resonate and respond to climate change.
Media influence does present an optimistic opportunity for the effects of climate change to be effectively communicated through messages delivered in articles, video packages and the kinds of questions asked at press conferences.
But the pervasiveness of false balance in the media contributes to a pseudo climate debate which only distracts and pushes people further and further away from the key information, stunting the implementation of any productive changes.
While some outlets like The Guardian and The Conversation commit to not publishing anything that contradicts the weight of evidence, when commercial and public media outlets platform representatives of the climate denialist industry in the name of ‘balanced reporting,’ it becomes politicised.
Such politicisation presents climate change as a topic up for debate like any other political issue, despite 97% of scientists agreeing that the accelerated warming of the earth is due to human activity.
Even more dangerous is the increased likelihood that lay people will potentially side with climate sceptics due to this continued attempt at media centrism and impartiality.
In order to reform the psychological distance between lay people and climate change, mainstream media outlets need to set better standards for scientific reporting as an integral part of their journalistic practice.
Training journalists in accurate climate change reporting and partnering with trusted sources to deliver the information is desperately needed to combat the binary stances associated with climate change and to mend the gaping psychological distance that this pseudo debate in the media reinforces.
The Australian Academy of Science has noted that the nature of the climate system means long term climate change is irreversible, meaning the only way to bring human induced climate change to halt is by reducing our greenhouse emissions as quickly as possible.
So let’s utilise the voices who can shape our understanding to advance climate action rather than dampening our progress by fore fronting climate deniers in the highly impressionable public eye.
Another factor contributing to the psychological distance from climate change that must be addressed is the perception gap; the notion that many more people are willing to talk and learn and about climate change than we think.
The taboos surrounding climate change inhibit us from taking essential climate action and leads to a pluralistic ignorance, underpinned by the statistic that 78% of Victorians are concerned about climate change but believe that just 48% feel the same way.
Removing the stigmatised nature of climate change within conversations amongst peers is yet another crucial step to eliminating psychological distance.
Again, there is room for the media to step in here.
A study has shown 87.8% of TV audiences were interested in learning about the impacts of climate change as featured in a weather bulletin. A localised weather bulletin is an effective means of encouraging laypeople to resonate personally with the impacts of climate change, casually reinforcing the notion that their livelihoods are not immune to various feedback.
We have seen how individuals and communities have united to do the right thing in regards to COVID-19 when the pandemic is as much a part of our daily chit chat as the weather.
The Victorian healthcare system would have been overwhelmed beyond capacity if not for taking immediate precautionary action.
Similarly, our planet does not possess enough biocapacity to neutralize the concentration of carbon dioxide we emit whilst catering to the many demands of human activity.
With psychological distance from the irrefutable impacts of climate change, comes complacency which is only pushing our earth beyond its means.
It’s time to mobilise key industries to practice better climate change communication so we can start acting accordingly, together.