Education and Outreach Colloquium, Anthony Leiserowitz

Affiliation: Yale University
Event Date: Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Location: Bldg 33, Room H114
Time: 12:00 PM

Files: Click here for files associated with this entry

Climate Change in the American Mind
Large majorities of Americans believe that global warming is real and increasingly consider it a serious problem, yet it remains a low priority relative to other national and environmental issues. This presentation reports results from a series of national studies on public climate change risk perceptions, policy preferences, and behavior and will discuss several psychological, cultural, political, and geographic factors that strongly influence how Americans perceive the risks of global warming. This research has also identified several distinct ³interpretive communities²: different segments or audiences within the public that conceptualize and respond to climate change and other hazards in different ways. This presentation concludes with several strategies to communicate about global warming inways that either resonate with the values and predispositions of particular audiences or that directly address fundamental misconceptions.

About Our Speaker
Anthony Leiserowitz, Ph.D. is Director of the Yale Project on Climate Change at the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University. He is also a principal investigator at the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions at Columbia University. He is an expert on American and international public opinion on global warming, including public perception of climate change risks, support and opposition for climate policies, and willingness to make individual behavioral change. His research investigates the psychological, cultural, political, and geographic factors that drive public environmental perception and behavior. He has conducted survey, experimental, and field research at scales ranging from the global to the local, including international studies, the United States, individual states (Alaska and Florida), municipalities (New York City), and among the Inupiaq Eskimo of Northwest Alaska. He also recently conducted the first empirical assessment of worldwide public values, attitudes, and behaviors regarding global sustainability, including environmental protection, economic growth, and human development. He has served as a consultant to the John F. Kennedy School of Government (Harvard University), the United Nations Development Program, the Gallup World Poll, the Global Roundtable on Climate Change at the Earth Institute (Columbia University), and the World Economic Forum.

The Yale Project on Climate Change advances public understanding and engagement with climate change science and solutions and catalyzes action by the general public and leaders of government, business, academia, and the media. Projects include:

• The Yale Forum on Climate Change & the Media
• The Climate Change Communication Project (audience research)
• The Governor¹s Conference on Climate Change (May, 2008)
• The US-India Summit on Climate Change and Energy (May, 2009)
• The National Conversation on Climate Action (April 22, 2009)

File(s) associated with this entry:

Climate Change in the American Mind
(ppt file, 4.9 MB)

PowerPoint Presentation

Posted or updated: Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Editor: Paul Przyborski

Back to the Calendar

Print-friendly page (new window)