Metzler 1

Carrie Metzler

Bekah Ballard

RC 2001

12 February 2020

Annotated Bibliography

Fløttum, Kjersti, and Øyvind Gjerstad. “Narratives in Climate Change Discourse.” WIREs:

  Climate Change, vol. 8, no. 1, Jan. 2017, p. n/a-N.PAG. EBSCOhost,

 doi:10.1002/wcc.429.

Both authors of this article are Norwegian linguist at a university in Norway. The purpose of this

article is to explore the importance of using narratives and story like discourse to communicate

the importance of climate change knowledge and actions. These stories appeal to people’s

emotions and help to identify certain actors in the story of climate change in a way that is

familiar to common people. The article also points out that there are downfall and limits to this

approach, but a variety of approaches are needed to fully communicate with the public. This

discourse of sustainability through narratives helps to reach the nonscientific general public but

may seem less creditable to scientists who need data and statistics to draw conclusions. This

article seems to be primarily written for experts studying communication, linguistics, and writing

to inform them on effective communication with the public. This article provides a new method

of communication in the climate change discourse and I believe this will be beneficial in fulling

understanding climate discourse outside the community. This article does not specifically show

discourse within the sustainable development community but rather discourse outside the

community.

Hancock, Elaina. “Report Emphasizes Importance of Communication in Climate Change

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 Resilience.” UConn Today, University of Connecticut , 21 Jan. 2020.

This news article comes from the University of Connecticut newspaper the "UConn Today" and

is written by Elaina Hancock who works as a university relations associate. The article looks at

some studies conducted by professionals at the University. These studies show that

communication within communities affected by climate change allows for communities to be

better prepared and take proper action after disasters. Additionally, the article talks about the

importance of how such information is relayed to the public and how this affects the reception of

such information.  This media source was written primarily for students in order to inform them

of the study's findings to use in further education. The source gives a very surface level

explanation for communication in climate science but even though it is a popular source I believe

it gives good scientific evidence. Again, this article does not show discourse within the discourse

community but rather discourse among those outside the community. I am beginning to see a

pattern that shows that discourse outside of the SD community is just as important as within the

community.

 Labosier, Christopher F., and Isabel Fay. “Integrating Science and Rhetoric on Climate Change 

in the Classroom.” Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, vol. 100, no. 10, 13

 Mar. 2019, pp. 1903–1907., doi:10.1175/bams-d-18-0060.1.

This scholarly article was written by Christopher Labosier, a professor for biology and

environmental sciences, and Isabel Fay, a professor in communication, and was published by the

American Meteorological Society. This article gives an overview of a college level climate

science rhetoric class and the reasons for the class. The article claims there is a large gap in

conveying scientific information on climate change to the public which has created doubt and

confusion. In order to ensure that the public is informed properly on climate change science and
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issues, scientific studies should be converted to rhetoric that is understandable to the general

public and the information should appeal to people emotionally. Lastly, there is also a need for

proper rhetoric and emotional appeal needed when conveying scientific information to

politicians. This article shows that because sustainability is such a broad field, many types of

audiences are needed to be reached in order to successfully communicate within the community.

For example, both scientists and politicians can be considered part of the SD community, yet

their discourse is quite different. This article was mostly likely intended for students and other

professors looking to take or teach classes on climate rhetoric, but I found it extremely helpful

because it pointed out key problems and solutions in climate communication from professionals.

Vulturius, Gregor, et al. “Does Climate Change Communication Matter for Individual

 Engagement with Adaptation? Insights from Forest Owners in Sweden.” Environmental 

Management, 2019, doi:10.1007/s00267-019-01247-7.

This scholarly article has multiple authors however the main author is Gregor Vulturius who is a

researcher for SEI. This article is a report of a scientific experiment that looked to see if

communication in climate change and sustainability influenced adaptation and risk preparation

for forest owners. The article discusses how information about climate change tailored to their

needs and interests makes the topic more relevant to the audience and therefore engages them

more and enhances trust in climate science. The results of this study show that communication

on climate change to foresters did have a slight significant increase in their adaptations to climate

change. The purpose of this report is to inform other scientists of the findings and methods of

their specific study. This source will be helpful because it offers a critical perspective on my

topic since the evidence does not fully support my possible thesis and therefore forces me to

search more thoroughly for supporting evidence.