Here are a few highlights from our work last year and where we’re taking these projects in 2016:
1. Yale Climate Opinion Maps
A major achievement in 2015 was the release of a statistical model that “downscales” our national survey results and estimates key indicators of public climate change understanding and policy support for all 50 states, all 435 Congressional districts, 3,000+ counties, and individual cities across the nation. We published a paper on the results in the leading scientific journal Nature Climate Change and went live with an interactive website where visitors can examine public opinion about climate change in any state, congressional district or county in the U.S.
This breakthrough is providing valuable insights about public opinion and policy to decision-makers and advocates at all levels of American society. We’ve been overwhelmed by the positive response from elected officials, journalists, scientists, educators, and activists. In 2016, we will update and expand the tool with some great new data and cool functions.
2. Climate Connections national radio broadcast
We’ve entered the second year of our daily, 90-second national radio program called “Climate Connections”. The series helps listeners connect climate change to their daily lives and the people and organizations working to solve it. More than 360 episodes have aired and the program is now broadcast daily on more than 220 radio stations in the US and Canada. All episodes are also available at the Climate Connections website and as podcasts on iTunes.
3. Climate Change in the American Mind
Since 2008, in partnership with our wonderful colleagues at the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication, we’ve conducted a series of nationally representative surveys on Americans’ responses to climate change and released dozens of very well-received reports. Our 2 surveys last year took a special look at the impact of the Pope’s encyclical on climate change and visit to the United States, as well as the politics of global warming in the run-up to the 2016 election. Our reports included:
- Not All Republicans Think Alike about Global Warming
- Climate Change in the American Christian Mind
- The Francis Effect: How Pope Francis Changed the Conversation about Global Warming
- Protecting the Environment Improves the Economy, Provides Jobs, Majorities Say
- Americans Support an International Climate Agreement in Paris
- Voters Prefer Candidates Who Support Climate-Friendly Policies
Among the other articles we and our colleagues published last year, were:
- Five Psychology Insights to Engage the Public in Perspectives on Psychological Science;
- Predictors of Public Climate Change Awareness and Risk Perception Around the World in Nature Climate Change;
- Simple Messages Increase Understanding of the Climate Change Consensus in PLoS ONE;
- Scientific Consensus on Climate Change as a Gateway Belief in PLoS ONE; and
- Mapping the Shadow of Extreme Weather Experience in Climatic Change.
5. The Yale-AP-NORC National Environment Poll
Last year we released a new national study on Americans’ environmental attitudes and behavior that identifies nine distinct environmental audiences within the United States, ranging from the “Liberal Greens” to the “Conservative Browns”. The study was conducted in partnership with The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and The Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and was based on our 2014 Environment Poll with AP/NORC.
6. #ClimateThanks
During Thanksgiving week, we organized the third annual #ClimateThanks campaign on Twitter. The campaign generated 12 million timeline deliveries & 1,500 tweets. Major environmental organizations participated as did celebrities, thanking each other for the great work so many people and organizations are doing to reduce carbon pollution and deal with climate impacts. Coinciding with the opening of the Paris climate summit, the campaign focused this year more on global action and the promise of what eventually emerged as a new global climate agreement.
As always, thank you for your continued support – we look forward to continuing our work together in this vitally important new year.