A temperature check on climate communication: where are we?

Research in climate science and its communication has splintered into myriad siloed branches in recent decades, presenting challenges and opportunities to explore and consolidate knowledge on climate science, its ethical communication, and the public’s reception of it. A “temperature check” is imperative to compile research highlighting successful, ethical communication strategies to continue pursuing, as well as deleterious ones to avoid (and remedy lingering effects of), and chart future directions for the field. This conceptual paper aims to trace the contours of comprehension, and especially remaining uncertainties, among three key stakeholders: climate scientists, climate change journalists, and the U.S. public. Mapping where each stands can uncover gaps between them, and highlight remaining uncertainties around communicating ethically, effectively, and comprehensively, given the nature of climate science, audience psychosocial characteristics, traditional journalistic ethics, and politicization of the issue. These are salient targets for communication and research alike.