Podcast for Communicating Climate Change in Michigan
For my culminating action project for my Climate Change Communication class, I decided to make a casual podcast about climate change information and how it affects people locally in Michigan.With all of the media that is easily accessible and blasted at people everyday, it is hard to know whether you are receiving the correct information or not. One of my goals with this project was to raise awareness on how to spot non-trustworthy sources and legitimate sources when receiving information about climate change but also just in general.This is an especially large problem for climate change and how it is communicated.There is a big disconnect with the way scientists are taught how to relay information and the way that the public perceives it and this disconnect can lead to the information being misinterpreted. Everyone’s personal and social experience affects how they process information. One of the main problems in creating communication pieces to discuss climate change is that the subject is so politically polarizing. By creating this podcast, I had the goal to make it as neutral as possible in order to reach people locally without using politically polarizing language. I posted this through YouTube but attached the link on my Facebook as most of my family and local friends are on that social network and my target audience is the local community.
I used a combination of scientific papers and local websites that are combating environmental issues and climate change in Michigan. Katharine Hayhoe and the way that she communicates climate change is brought up and that it affects all of our normal daily worries. The scientific consensus on climate change is at almost 100% yet the public thinks that it is way more debated in America than that. The ways that these changes are seen can be in many different examples such as changing growing seasons and unusual weather patterns as well as changing distributions of animals and plants.I could have gone more in-depth with the websites but I referenced them in the podcast to point out generally how people can get involved and learn more about what is currently happening. Michigan is the state with the most freshwater in the country and climate change is going to affect our relationship to the water with more unusual extreme weather events. As a state that has always had a connection to responsible environmental stewardship its important to recognize these changes.The West Michigan Environmental Action council and the Michigan Climate Action Network websites have tons of information on the different plans for different areas and the ways that these areas will be affected by the changing climate conditions. Hopefully this will get some more people engaged with the issue of climate change and taking action.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC1TCYYdUJE&feature=youtu.be
References:
I used a combination of scientific papers and local websites that are combating environmental issues and climate change in Michigan. Katharine Hayhoe and the way that she communicates climate change is brought up and that it affects all of our normal daily worries. The scientific consensus on climate change is at almost 100% yet the public thinks that it is way more debated in America than that. The ways that these changes are seen can be in many different examples such as changing growing seasons and unusual weather patterns as well as changing distributions of animals and plants.I could have gone more in-depth with the websites but I referenced them in the podcast to point out generally how people can get involved and learn more about what is currently happening. Michigan is the state with the most freshwater in the country and climate change is going to affect our relationship to the water with more unusual extreme weather events. As a state that has always had a connection to responsible environmental stewardship its important to recognize these changes.The West Michigan Environmental Action council and the Michigan Climate Action Network websites have tons of information on the different plans for different areas and the ways that these areas will be affected by the changing climate conditions. Hopefully this will get some more people engaged with the issue of climate change and taking action.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC1TCYYdUJE&feature=youtu.be
References:
Cook, J., Oreskes, N., Doran, P. T., Anderegg, W. R., Verheggen, B., Maibach, E. W., ...
& Nuccitelli, D. (2016). Consensus on consensus: a synthesis of consensus estimates
on human-caused global warming. Environmental Research Letters, 11(4), 048002.
Fox, A. (2020). Conservative states along the coast prepare for sea level rise without
mentioning climate change. The Hill.
Hayhoe, K. (2017). Yeah, the Weather Has Been Weird: People already care about
climate change-the trick is getting them to realize it. Foreign Policy. https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/05/31/everyone-believes-in-global-warming-they-just-dont-realize-it/
Howe, P. D., & Leiserowitz, A. (2013). Who remembers a hot summer or a cold winter?
The asymmetric effect of beliefs about global warming on perceptions of local climate
conditions in the US. Global environmental change, 23(6), 1488-1500.
Michigan Climate Action Network. https://www.miclimateaction.org/about_mican
Stoknes, P. E. (2015). What We Think About When We Try Not To Think About Global
Warming. Chelsea Green Publishing.
Stuart, D. (2018). Climate change and ideological transformation in United States
agriculture. Sociologia ruralis, 58(1), 63-82.
Van der Linden, S. (2015). The social-psychological determinants of climate change risk
perceptions: Towards a comprehensive model. Journal of Environmental Psychology,
41, 112-124.
West Michigan Environmental Action Council. https://wmeac.org/climate-resiliency-report/
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