October 2022

A CBC article was selected to analyze its use of climate change communication evidence-based techniques. Communicating about climate change has been a complex enterprise for climate scientists as simply providing increasingly alarming information has not generated sufficient action to mitigate the damage done. What climate change communication research has found is there are evidence-based techniques that work well to engage an audience and others that do not. Analyzing the selected article for the evidence-based techniques will demonstrate what worked well, what did not and why. The article chosen for analysis is “What Canadians need to know about how climate change is affecting their health” (Bernstien, 2021). It is part of an initiative by CBC News called “Our Changing Planet.” This initiative intends to increase climate change coverage across the many segments of the corporation’s news and media resources, recognizing that climate change is more than an environmental story. The CBC pledges a “sustained journalistic focus and attention (climate change) deserve(s) at a time most experts describe as an inflection point for the planet” (Fenlon, 2021). This paper will determine if the focus CBC is giving climate change is also effective in engaging their audience.

To do the analysis, it is helpful to understand the target audience for the article. As a public broadcaster, the CBC is mandated by the 1991 Broadcast Act to provide programming at a national and regional level and be accessible to all Canadians (Branch, 2020). Based on the CBC’s annual report for 2020-2021, during a typical month, 78% of Canadians accessed one of CBC’s services (CBC/Radio Canada, 2021). Additionally, according to a 2018 Canadian Viewing Profiles report on CBC audiences, the demographics for all viewing types range from an average age of 37 for those that are predominately online to 61 years old for those who predominantly view television (Media Technology Monitor, 2018). Therefore, climate change articles from the national CBC News department need to have a broad appeal and engage the public across all audience viewpoints as defined by the “Global Warming’s Six America’s” (see Table 1.0 below), where views range from alarmed to dismissive about climate change (Maibach et al., 2011). Further, because of the commitment to the “Our Changing Planet” initiative, the article should demonstrate evidence-based climate change communication techniques to ensure the message engages the public and encourages dialogue. Considering the intended audience and the need for broad appeal, climate change communication research points to a few techniques demonstrated in this article and some that could have been used for better effect.

Table 1.0

“Global Warming’s Six America’s” Audience Type

Global Warming’s Six America’s	Alarmed	Concerned	Cautious	Disengaged	Doubtful	Dismissive
Description of belief in Global Warming	Highest belief, concern, and motivation	Highest belief, concern, and motivation		Many are members of vulnerable communities.	Lowest belief, motivation, or concern	Lowest belief, motivation, or concern
What audience is interested in knowing	What can be done to reduce global warming?	What can be done to reduce global warming?	What harm will global warming cause?	What harm will global warming cause?	Want proof that global warming is occurring.	Want proof that global warming is occurring.

(Maibach et al., 2011, p.16-17)

 

This article demonstrates several evidence-based climate change communication techniques, including highlighting the scientific consensus. It claims to be based on the 2021 Lancet Countdown, an annual report on health and climate change and is the work “of 93 authors, including climate scientists, economists, public health experts and political scientists” (Bernstien, 2021, p. 2). Highlighting the scientific consensus in developing the Lancet report demonstrates to readers that there is a high level of agreement regarding the data. Surveys have shown that people are unaware of how many scientists agree with the data on climate change and that “highlighting consensus can be an effective means to counter misinformation and raise public awareness” (Lewandowsky, 2021, p. 1).

Another evidence-based climate change communication technique in the article is making it local. Most people are unaware of how climate change impacts them locally and think it is a serious problem but believe it is affecting other people in other places or people in the future (Maibach et al., 2011 & Bennett et al., 2021). As the Lancet Countdown is a technical report for the entire world, the article focuses on information specific to Canada to help Canadians understand local impacts and how they will be affected. The author used the example of the 2021 heat dome in British Columbia to discuss the effects of extreme heat, the 2021 impact of forest fire on Lytton, B.C. and the Lytton First Nations and the 2021 drought impact on farmers in Alberta and Saskatchewan. This lets readers understand that the impacts are already occurring in many places simultaneously within Canada.

The article’s title implies it will tell Canadians how climate change affects their health and therefore is an opportunity to frame climate change as a health issue. Given that health impacts everyone, the article should have a broad appeal and catch the attention of more Canadians than those specifically interested in environmental issues (Maibach et al., 2011). Discussing the health harms that occur from not acting on climate change and the health benefits realized from acting helps to answer the question of how climate change affects the individual (Maibach et al., 2011). Climate change is a complex issue, and it is difficult for people to understand what effects it will have on them. Helping people understand the health impacts the changing environment will have on them connects them to the more complex issue of climate change and that solutions to climate change can benefit their health (Maibach et al., 2011). Although some of the health impacts of extreme heat were described in the article, it did not provide any actions for the reader to take to reduce their risk and likely left them feeling overwhelmed and fearful.

Evidence shows that providing a fearful message and describing the challenge does not lead people to support climate action. They need the connections made to the solutions and the benefits from implementing solutions to remain engaged (Bennett et al., 2021). To keep audiences engaged and help them assimilate the fearful messaging about climate change impacts, Bennett et al. (2021) recommend using a message triangle “to deliver a story that sticks” (p. 2). A message triangle includes three elements; defining the challenge in clear, simple language, presenting the pathway or actions that can be taken to mitigate and adapt to the challenge, and describing the benefits derived from acting. Interestingly the article did not provide any information on pathways to alleviate the problem or the benefits that could be derived from implementing the pathways.

The fearful messages within the article include worsening health impacts, Canada’s failure to develop sufficient mitigation strategies, details of the 2021 deadly heat wave in B.C., impacts from wildfires on First Nations and frequent drought hurting farmers. These messages are likely to elicit fearful emotion in the audience, who consequently may react by rejecting or disengaging from the subject (Hine et al., 2016). Howarth et al. (2020) argue “frightening messages need be to be made personal and manageable and need to present clear solutions to remove the threat” (p. 322). Unfortunately, as noted above, solutions were not provided, not even links to stories about pathways and benefits, which could have provided the reader with some hope. To be fair, the Lancet report does not offer much in the way of pathways or benefits either. However, the Lancet Countdown Policy Brief for Canada does quote the IPCC report that “underscores every fraction of a degree of warming avoided provides critical protection”(Hackett et al., 2021, p. 2). It also promotes the co-benefits of increasing and preserving green space (Hackett et al., 2021). These points were not used in the article.

As noted previously, the Lancet Countdown report is a technical document and is not easily understood. Therefore, to make the story more relatable to the audience, the author of the CBC article used narrative and visual images. The narrative used in the article tells how the impacts of drought and diminishing crop yields affect Prairie farmers. The story is relayed by the director of climate crisis policy and action at the National Farmers Union. Using a local expert’s narrative brings credibility to the claims made by the science (Howarth et al., 2020). Also, “narratives help increase (the) connection between people and give meaning to certain issues, and they enable audiences to make sense of complex issues” (Howarth et al., 2020, p. 323). This was the most relatable part of the article due to the story being told from a local stakeholder’s perspective and the image of the farmer in his fields over two years.

Interestingly, although using images is an evidence-based climate change communication technique, research finds they must be used with care. For example, the farmer in his field, one year lush and green and the following year dry and sparse, does not demonstrate a long-term climate trend, as the Prairies have a history of these types of weather patterns, so it could be misleading (Lewandowsky, 2021). However, researchers also note the “depiction of credible, authentic human subjects have been found to evoke greater concern and motivation to act” (Wang et al., 2018, p. 6). Adding information in the caption about the long-term drought trend expected in the region could help to avoid confusion for those that only look at images and do not read the article. Another compelling image depicts extreme heat impacts by showing a man in shorts packing large water bottles as he walks through a cooling sprinkler. This picture evokes the seriousness of the climate impact on a real person straining to cope with the extreme situation. Such images connect with the reader emotionally and can result in readers feeling “greater concern and motivation to act” (Wang et al., 2018, p. 6).

There are also images in the article that climate communication researchers find are less effective such as a photo of the devastation after the Lytton fire and a picture of climate activist Greta Thunberg. Researchers have found that images of protesters or celebrities do not effectively engage audiences. They can be seen as distant or removed from the audience’s experience and may only resonate with other activists (Wang et al., 2018). The image of Greta may have been included to appeal to younger followers who also need to be engaged. Images of devastation, such as the Lytton, B.C. fire picture, have similar effects as fearful messages and must be accompanied by mitigating actions or solutions (Wang et al., 2018). Researchers have found that “images of distant climate impacts produced flatter emotional responses among those on the political right than the left, whereas solutions images produced positive emotions for both sides” (Wang et al., 2018, p. 8). The CBC article did not provide any solutions images or stories; therefore, the images would be considered ineffective based on climate change communication research. In contrast, the two images of people and the narrative about the drought are examples of effectively using evidence-based climate change communication techniques to deliver the message.

The CBC article was supposed to tell readers how climate change affects Canadian health but only talked about the health impacts of extreme heat and ended up straying from a health focus to talking about the growth of emissions, the impact of wildfire on Indigenous people, and the frequency of drought in the Prairies. The result is a fearful message without any solutions provided or mention of benefits from adopting solutions. Researchers have found that using fear to communicate about climate change is ineffective. As discussed above, “presenting frightening content about threats like climate change elicits fear control processing which leads audiences to disengage or reject threatening messages in an attempt to manage fears” (Hine et al., 2016). Researchers have found that providing applicable and relatable advice about managing the threat “leads people to seek out additional information and develop strategies to reduce or eliminate the threat”(Hine et al., 2016). Hopefully, all climate change communication aims to motivate people to take action to reduce the threat.

Had the article stayed with the intended premise stated in the title and focused on what Canadians need to know about health, there might have been an opportunity to write about some of the climate mitigation solutions and associated health benefits. What the article did do, was focus on many fearful impacts and issues related to climate change. This misses the opportunity to let the readers know what they need to do to prevent their demise or reduce the mental health impacts, such as increasing green space to reduce the heat island effect. This is a solution mentioned in the Canadian policy document supporting the Lancet Countdown report (Hackett et al., 2021). Increasing green space can positively impact people’s mental health, and when a solution is offered that also has benefits, it can lead to more engagement on the topic (Maibach et al., 2011). What the article did well from a climate change communication perspective was highlighting the scientific consensus (Lewandowsky, 2021), localizing the issues (Maibach et al., 2011), and using narrative, albeit the narrative did not talk about health (Howarth et al., 2020). Following a framework such as a message triangle (i.e., challenges, solutions, benefits) has research to support its effectiveness so that climate change communication can motivate the audience (Bennett et al., 2021). In the future, the CBC “Our Changing Planet” initiative, the Lancet Countdown Report and the Canadian Policy report derived from it must consider evidence-based climate change communication to create impactful messages that Canadians will heed.

 

References

 

Bennett, A., Hatch, C.,& Pike, C. (2021). Climate Messaging that Works, Climate Narrative Initiative, Climate Access. https://climateaccess.org/sites/default/files/Climate%20Messaging%20that%20Works%20-%20Talking%20Energy%20Transition%20and%20Climate%20Change%20in%20Canada.pdf

Bernstien, J. (2021, October 20). What Canadians need to know about how climate change is affecting their health. Science, CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/climate-change-health-impacts-lancet-report-2021-1.6217768

Branch, L. S. (2020, July 1). Canada Broadcasting Act. Justice Department, Government of Canada. https://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/B-9.01/

CBC/Radio Canada. (2021). Annual Report.  CBC/Radio Canada https://cbc.radio-canada.ca/en/impact-and-accountability/finances/annual-reports/ar-2020-2021/measuring-our-performance/our-performance-mandate-vision

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Fenlon, B. (2021, October 18). The planet is changing. So will our journalism. Editor’s Blog. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/climate-change-health-impacts-lancet-report-2021-1.6217768

Hackett, F., Petrin-Desrosiers, C., McGregor, D., Buse, C., Howard, C., Chisholm, A., & Carter, A. (2021). Canada 2021—Lancet Countdown Policy Brief.pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved July 4, 2022, from https://www.dropbox.com/s/kz2yinmxsagzcc2/Canada%202021%20-%20Lancet%20Countdown%20Policy%20Brief.pdf?dl=0

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Lewandowsky, S. (2021). Climate Change Disinformation and How to Combat It. Annual Review of Public Health, 42(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-090419-102409

Maibach, E., Matthew, N.,& Weather, M., (2011) Conveying the Human Implications of Climate Change – A Climate Change Communication Primer for Public Health Professionals. Fairfax, VA: George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication.

Media Technology Monitor. (2018). Canadian Viewing Profiles, MTM Media Technology Monitor. appendix-c-mtm-canadian-viewing-profiles.pdf (radio-canada.ca)

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