Communicating Conservation: Weekly Resources and News

The Ocean Project will be posting weekly roundups of the key strategic conservation communication and climate communication resources we’ve been tweeting. Each link will be posted with a short description of what you’ll find—please feel free to ask us any questions!

News & Discussion

• Quick bite: 35% of All Cable Social-TV Activity During Shark Week Was About Shark Week!
  
  
• Scientist Katharine Hayhoe insists that her faith in data doesn’t conflict with her faith in God
  This piece explores bringing scientists and religious congregations together on shared values and communities.
  
  
• Two interesting articles on framing and language from The Yale Forum on Climate Change & the Media:
  
  
  • Climate Framing: Public Health Rather than Environment, National Security?
  • ‘Denier,’ ‘Alarmist,’ ‘Warmist,’ ‘Contrarian,’ ‘Confusionist,’ ‘Believer,’

Resources

Some new studies, market research, toolkits, and strategies that may be helpful when communicating about conservation and climate change.

• Climate solutions for a stronger America: A guide for engaging and winning on climate change & clean energy
  A playbook for U.S. candidates, business and civic leaders who are leading on climate and clean energy solutions. The guide offers a three-point narrative structure along with sample speeches and op-eds based on national polling conducted in May 2012 with 1,204 likely voters.
  
  
• Recent Poll shows Teens have a Thirst for Environmental Knowledge
  This new survey investigated where teenagers ages 14 – 18 stand on environmental issues. The research asked how they felt about their/other youths’ environmental activism, how much they’re willing to do, where they get their information, and found 75% believe climate change is human-made.

Communicating Conservation: Weekly Resources and News

The Ocean Project will be posting weekly roundups of the key strategic conservation communication and climate communication resources we’ve been tweeting. Each link will be posted with a short description of what you’ll find—please feel free to ask us any questions!

News & Discussion

• Americans' Confidence in Television News Drops to New Low
  A new Gallup poll finds that Americans are increasingly distrustful of television news. Those who identify as liberals and independents have had a massive drop in trust levels, and now report confidence levels more like conservatives.
  
  
• “How Can We Change the Fossil Fuel Industry?”
  Tom Bowman interviews Bill McKibben about his recent Rolling Stone article, and how we can change the fossil fuel industry. Audio file.
  
  
• New poll reveals only 2% of Canadians think climate change is not occurring
  A further nine percent believed climate change is occurring naturally, and 54% felt both humans and nature are playing a role.
  
  
• Why we are poles apart on climate change
  Dan Kahan posits that the problem isn’t the public’s reasoning capacity; it’s the polluted science-communication environment that drives people apart.

Resources

Some new studies, market research, toolkits, and strategies that may be helpful when communicating about conservation and climate change.

• Research Offers Insight into Future Debate over Climate Change
  This article summarizes a new study offering insight for framing climate change issues; 3 simple frames that work.

Two ClimateAccess articles on the current weather in the US west and communicating climate change:

• Farmers in Drought – a teachable moment on climate?
• Lessons from the Field: Talking About Drought and Climate

Small Grants Applications are due September 1st!

Have a project that you’ve always wanted to try but were put on the back burner for other funding priorities? Then you should check out The Ocean Project’s Small Grants RFP!

We’re looking for projects that implement the findings of our market research, evaluate its success, and share the experience with other partners. If you are a partner zoo, aquarium, or museum and with a great idea, let us help you! The Ocean Project Small Grants Program will grant up to $50,000 to ZAMs in 2012, with no minimum and a maximum of $15,000 per ZAM a year. See what our previous grant winners have accomplished with their awards.

If you’ve got a smart/innovative/interesting project looking to shift the paradigm on communicating to inspire conservation action, we want to hear from you! Check out the RFP to see if you qualify for funding.

Act now! The deadline is Sept 1, 2012.

Communicating Conservation: Weekly Resources and News

The Ocean Project will be posting weekly roundups of the key strategic conservation communication and climate communication resources we’ve been tweeting. Each link will be posted with a short description of what you’ll find—please feel free to ask us any questions!

News & Discussion

• A faceless enemy is named
  Sara Phillips discusses Bill McKibben’s recent climate change article at Rolling Stone. She points to one of the ways the popular article is unusually successful, and why climate change often struggles with the problem of "the blamelessness of unintentional action."
  
  
•   It’s Time To Re-Brand Climate Change
  Tom Bowman talks about how we’ve framed climate change in the past and what we should think about for the future. Big brands are powerful—but polarizing. Right now climate change’s brand is linked with the very polarizing brand of ‘government intervention.’ What could it be in the future?
  
  
• Making Green More Macho
  ‘Going green’ is often associated with “crunchy granola hippy” or “rich elitist snob” sensibilities and being feminine. This article discusses winning hearts over minds, and gives some tips for ‘macho’ storytelling and framing.

Resources

Some new studies, market research, toolkits, and strategies that may be helpful when communicating about conservation and climate change.

• Climate Change Study: Warming episodes hurt poor countries and limit long-term growth
  
  
• 2012 National Latinos and the Environment Survey
  The Sierra Club and the National Council of La Raza release findings from a national survey on the environmental attitudes and opinions of Latino voters.
  
  The research is part of a multi-year project that involved focus groups and a national poll conducted by Project New America and Myers Research.
  Via ClimateAccess
  
  
• Storytelling Best Practices: Websites
  A toolkit for how to best tell stories on your website, from The Goodman Center.
  Via ClimateAccess

Survey Raffle Winners

Thank you to everyone who responded to our calls for comments and feedback! We appreciate our partners taking the time to help us better support ocean conservation efforts. We will be sharing our findings in the coming weeks. In the meantime, congratulations to our $50 amazon.com gift card winners:

• Deb Faulkner from Indian Valley Public Library
• Nancy Hotchkiss from National Aquarium
• Mariska Ras from MBC-OSS English Academy
• Peggy Sloan from North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher
• Craig Strang from Lawrence Hall of Science
• Cyndy Tschanz from St Joseph's Private Language School 

California: 25 days to rise above plastics!

California has until August 31^st to pass two groundbreaking pieces of legislation: a plastic bag ban, and a phase-out of all foam take-out containers.

How can I help?

If you’re a resident of California, the most important way you can help is to contact your assembly members and senators directly and tell them to vote YES on SB 568 and AB 298. It takes only a few minutes to make your voice heard with a phone call or email. Your representatives are how you can make your voice heard, so speak up! These links from Surfrider walk you through it, and even give you tips about what to say in a phone call:

• To take action on the bag ban, click here
• To take action on the foam ban, click here

Not a California resident? You can still help. Click here to sign the petition!

Did you know? 

The average single-use bag is used 12 minutes before being released as pollution in the environment or waste into the landfill. Less than 5% of plastic bags are actually recycled. Californians use an estimated 12 billion plastic bags a year; before the L.A. County bag ban took effect in 2011, each resident consumed approximately 433 single-use plastic bags per year! 

Ninety percent (!) of the polystyrene foam used in the US is thrown into landfills or ends up in the ocean-its light weight and buoyancy allows it to spread widely. As a plastic product, the foam doesn’t degrade and it wreaks havoc on the wildlife it comes into contact with.

Why the bans? They work! It’s a simple, common sense solution to a growing problem. The best part? There’s no downside. Click here for success stories.

The bills

Assembly Bill 298 - Plastic Bag Ban and SB 568 - Statewide Phase Out of Polystyrene Foam Food Take-Out Containers.

Deadline: August 31^st, 2012.

Communicating Conservation: Weekly Resources

The Ocean Project will be posting weekly roundups of the key strategic conservation communication and climate communication resources we’ve been tweeting. Each link will be posted with a short description of what you’ll find—please feel free to ask us any questions!

• Why climate change doesn't spark moral outrage, and how it could
  Grist’s David Roberts summarizes a new paper in Nature Climate Change called “Climate change and moral judgment,” by Ezra Markowitz and Azim Shariff from the University of Oregon. The article discusses why climate change isn’t viewed as a moral issue, and how we can frame the issue in a way that inspires action. via Grist
  
  Related resource: How to Communicate about Climate Action as a Moral Imperative Tip Sheet - This short and sweet Tip Sheet from ClimateAccess gives some strategies for framing Climate Change morally. via ClimateAccess
  
  
• Reddit as a Science Outreach Tool
  Reddit is a social news site with a massive audience. Tony Barnston--a climate scientist at Columbia University’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society--discusses why engagement with this this website can be useful for science communicators, and gives some tips for how to connect. via The Yale Forum on Climate Change & the Media
  
  
• Climate Change: Generation X Attitudes, Interest, and Understanding
  ClimateAccess summarizes a report from a University of Michigan longitudinal study finding that while Gen Xers are highly educated and scientifically literate, there is a general lack of concern and understanding about, and attention to, climate change. Important things to keep in mind and may be helpful for developing strategies to reach this important audience. via ClimateAccess
  
  
• Trying to tell a climate story? Check out these 'storylines' from ClimateBites for ideas.