Yale Project on Climate Change Communication

The Yale Project on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC) is a research center at Yale University. The center is based at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and grew out of a conference held in Aspen, Colorado in 2005. YPCCC's mission is to bridge the gap between society and climate.^[1] The organization does the following:

• Conducts research on public climate knowledge, risk perceptions, decision-making and behavior;
• Designs and tests new strategies to engage the public in climate science and solutions;
• Empowers educators and communicators with the knowledge and tools to more effectively engage their audiences.^[2] Its affiliates include the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy and the Earth Day Network.^[3]

The research conducted by the YPCCC and its staff is often covered in the news and popular media, including NBC,^[4] Real Time with Bill Maher,^[5] Huffington Post,^[6] Discovery Channel,^[7] The Guardian,^[8] Bill Moyers,^[9] Time,^[10] Science,^[11] the New York Times ^[12] and the U.S. News & World Report.^[13]

One of the YPCCC's projects is the Yale Forum on Climate Change and the Media, which hosts a number of YouTube videos on its official channel. Peter Sinclair is responsible for some of these videos. The Forum also hosts a blog focused on global warming and other environmental issues.

Surveys

In 2010, the Project conducted a survey of 517 American teenagers and 1,513 American adults with regard to their understanding of climate change. The survey concluded that "relatively few teens have an in-depth understanding of climate change. Fifty-four percent of teens received a failing grade (F), compared to 46 percent of adults."^[14]

In April 2014, the Project released results from another survey showing that two-thirds of Americans support increased regulation on power plants, two months before the Obama administration unveiled a proposal for such regulation.^[15] The following month, the Project produced another survey reporting that people were more concerned about the danger of global warming when it was called "global warming" than when it was referred to as "climate change". They also argued that this was because the former suggests an increase in extreme weather, while the latter makes many people think of natural weather fluctuations.^[16]

References