4 Bring climate impacts “close to home”

Highlight personal
Focus on local impacts Pair impacts with solutions
experience

Focus on the “what,” not Be sensitive to recent

the “when” losses and “near misses”

o People have a hard time thinking about or acting on events that are psychologically distant-events that are
perceived as far in the future, physically distant, or happening to other people.
o The concept of the finite pool of worry explains that people are able to worry about only a certain number of
things at a given point.
o People are much more likely to think of climate change as a relevant and urgent issue when they understand
how climate change is personally affecting the lives of those immediately around them.
o Emotional numbing occurs when audiences stop responding emotionally to a message. This can happen with
climate change if people are repeatedly exposed to emotionally draining messages and images.

✓ Tip: Use messages that help people identify the locally relevant, personally experienced consequences
and impacts that climate change is already causing.
✓ Tip: To avoid emotional numbing when communicating about the personally relevant impacts of
climate change, take care to also mention solutions and actions that people can take and to focus on
what impacts will occur, rather than on the exact timeline of when they will occur.
✓ Tip: Be aware of losses that may have come about as a result of recent climate impacts and focus on
preparedness for the next event, rather than on the timing of the next event.
✓
Bring climate impacts “close to home”

For most people, climate change is perceived as a distant threat. Even when events made
more severe by climate change - such as storm surges or extreme droughts - occur, many
people may not readily connect them to human-induced climate change. Communicators
should strive to highlight local-scale impacts that are already occurring - and that will occur
in the future - as a result of climate change. However, it is important that communicators also
explain the need for and build people’s confidence in the possibility of preparedness and
prevention responses by individuals and communities.
Consider the following questions as you are putting together your communication strategy
about climate impacts:
> Are you helping people identify the locally relevant consequences and impacts that climate
change is already causing?
> Are you pairing climate impacts with solutions to avoid emotional numbing and to bolster
CliCK on T is funded by Erasmus+ / Key Action 2 - Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practice -
Strategic Partnerships for adult education KA204 - 2019-1-IT02-KA204-062278
 engagement?
> Are you being sensitive to people’s recent losses when discussing local impacts and hazards
from climate change?
> Are you focusing on the “what” rather than the “when” for disasters and avoiding terms
like “hundred-year-flood”?
> Have members of your target audience recently experienced one or more near misses or
false alarms involving major hazardous events? If so, how will you confront the challenges
this can pose to future decision making?
> Does your strategy help people identify ways to prepare for future events and impacts?
> Are you employing strategies that focus on resilience and preparedness to help make
climate change more concrete and to help guide people toward action?

CliCK on T is funded by Erasmus+ / Key Action 2 - Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practice -
Strategic Partnerships for adult education KA204 - 2019-1-IT02-KA204-062278