Yale Program on Climate Change Communication

Located on the coast of Northern California, the Monterey Bay Aquarium seeks to transform what it means to be an aquarium by centering ocean conservation in its organization’s mission. In the climate communication landscape, the Aquarium has played an important part in emphasizing the critical role of the oceans in climate change. In recent years, the Aquarium has led the way towards effectively communicating both the science of oceans and climate as well as its connections to people. Because Monterey County is over 60% Latino, the Aquarium created programs like Dia del Nino to promote diversity and accessibility in its programs and communications. 

Like all effective climate communicators, the Monterey Bay Aquarium has had its own share of successes and challenges, particularly when it comes to finding the balance between engaging everyone in climate conversations about oceans, while also tailoring messages to targeted audiences. Alison Thompson from YPCCC’s Partnerships Program had the opportunity to sit down with Claudia Pineda Tibbs, Senior Sustainability Program Manager at the Monterey Bay Aquarium who is leading sustainability strategy at the aquarium, to learn more about their approach towards climate communication, communicating with diverse audiences, and their partnership with YPCCC. 

Alison: Can you tell me about Monterey Bay Aquarium’s work and what role you all play in the climate communication landscape? 

Claudia: At Monterey Bay Aquarium, our mission is to inspire ocean conservation. We very much want to emphasize “the ocean” because there is one big, global ocean. Within that message, we focus on the fact that the ocean is connected to inland waterways; whether they’re streams, rivers, or lakes, everything flows out to our big, global ocean. The ocean is at the heart of the climate as a system. We must make that connection to people in our communications, whether through social media, educational materials, or public programs like animal [fish] feeding presentations. We want folks to engage in our media, whether at the Aquarium or virtually, and come away from their interactions understanding the ocean’s role in regulating our global climate system.

Alison: What is your role in the Aquarium’s climate communication work?

Claudia: I work on a small team of people working on Spanish conservation communications. We ensure that any conservation communication is culturally relevant for diverse communities and that conservation information is accessible and relevant for everyone. We add cultural relevance to conservation communications to tie conservation back to our visitors’ experiences. This can include memories of somebody’s home country or experiences that somebody has had outside of the United States. We try to ensure that we’re messaging around climate in a way that feels accessible for folks navigating a new community and culture. 

Alison: Finding a way to connect people to climate change is a critical part of the climate communications puzzle. What led you to where you are now? How did you get involved in climate work personally? 

Claudia: I thought I would be a marine scientist working in tide pools. But, I fell in love with education, outreach, and communication.  From the beginning, I have been drawn to education and communication because it allows me to work with and help communities traditionally excluded from climate conversations. Even though my work focuses on sustainability and conservation, it’s still very much tied to that first love of engaging others on subject matters I am passionate about. Scientific literacy is critical. I believe it is important for everybody to be scientifically literate about [climate and sustainability,] so they can advocate for change and gain a sense of agency.

Alison: Zooming out, what are your organization’s broad goals for climate action with your members, clients, partners, constituents, or visitors? 

Claudia: Our main goal is to engage folks in the climate conversation and help them understand that climate change is real and happening. We’re [also] working to ensure the ocean is at the center of the climate conversation.  If we think about how to scaffold that information to the public, the first step is “it’s real, and it’s happening.” The next step is that “communities are experiencing the impacts of climate change.” Third is recognizing that “climate change is happening right now in our lifetime, and it is also going to be something that gets even worse,” and finally, that “there is an opportunity to act on climate now.” 

We hope folks hold their communities accountable, just as we, Monterey Bay Aquarium, hold ourselves responsible for our pollution. We are an aquarium, but we also are a business. We use energy. We emit greenhouse gasses. We are doing everything we can to get to zero emissions and be responsible in our business practices. For Monterey Bay Aquarium, it’s an opportunity to be more transparent about those conversations and let our members, partners, and constituents know that we are acting locally and globally. 

Alison: In thinking about the scale and levels of engagement with the aquarium, who are your people or target audience?

Claudia: Honestly, I want to find the balance between saying everyone and being specific. First, the guests that walk through the doors of the Aquarium are our primary target audience. This includes the thousands of students visiting the Aquarium with their schools, teachers, and chaperones. We also do a lot of work with educators. Our education department does a fantastic job engaging middle school and high school teachers on climate change. We provide them with resources and tools to discuss climate change with students. This is a crucial part of our audience engagement because it moves our work from the theoretical to the actual. As an organization acting on climate, we also feel that it is our responsibility to engage our online constituency, including our millions of followers on social media. Lastly, we also have a legislative audience. Making the connection for our legislative partners regarding the ocean’s role in [moderating] our climate is very important so that they can pass laws to protect the ocean. 

Alison: How has Monterey Bay Aquarium utilized YPCCC resources or insights in its strategic communication, organizing, or advocacy work? 

Claudia: We have used the resources in a few different ways. We are fortunate to have ongoing consulting calls with YPCCC’s Partnerships Program for several projects. Their resources and coaching formed the foundation for professional development sessions with our team. For example, during COVID when we moved virtually, we hosted online ‘lunch and learn’ sessions with our staff. During these consultations, YPCCC helped our staff understand what resources are available and how we can use those materials in our engagement strategies. This informs strategies across programs at the aquarium such as education and legislation. We frequently reference the Yale Climate Opinion Maps (YCOM). We can layer the data we collect from our audience with the opinion maps to produce materials that provide us with a better understanding of how to message around climate. For example, this can be useful in our legislative work, as we message about particular props and bills regarding plastics and other ocean contaminants. 

Alison: What does the Monterey Bay Aquarium do well that other climate communicators could learn from?

Claudia: One of the things that Monterey Bay Aquarium does well is that we activate people who are ready to act. That said, we’re not necessarily trying to get 100% of our audiences to act in a way that feels disingenuous to them, makes them uncomfortable, or is skipping steps throughout that scaffolding process. But we know that there are folks, like the thousands of volunteers that help the aquarium run smoothly, who are ready to act. So for instance, when it comes to our volunteers, we know they care so much about what is happening around climate change. We provide them with additional education and training with resources to help them navigate climate conversations. We are lucky that our stellar volunteers are the ones who are having those conversations with the two million visitors that walk through our doors annually. Additionally, the Aquarium is working very hard to diversify staff and volunteers. We want to ensure that visitors have somebody who looks like them working at the Aquarium because representation allows the conversations to be more personal and relevant. Representation matters. 

Alison: What has been Monterey Bay Aquarium’s most exciting or surprising discovery that you all have made in communicating or organizing around climate? 

Claudia: Our most exciting discoveries have come from collaborating with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), our sister organization. We have been so lucky to work with the Director of Communications, Heidi Cullen, who used to work for Climate Central. Heidi is a fantastic leader in the climate space who has helped us shape how we tell the climate story while centering the ocean. This has allowed us to engage around climate topics with other aquariums as well. We are part of a 26-aquarium cohort called the Aquarium Conservation Partnership and we share resources among those 26 aquariums, which allows us to expand our climate reach. It is incredible that we now have a coalition of aquariums championing to keep the ocean at the center of the climate conversation. This was all made possible because of our researchers and experts, who allow us to better understand the ocean’s role in regulating the climate system. 

Alison: How does the Monterey Bay Aquarium remain hopeful and inspired to build public or political will in the climate movement? 

Claudia: Young people keep us hopeful. Young people are the next generation of ocean leaders. Incredibly, they are using their platforms to have candid conversations about climate action. This makes me hopeful because they are discussing what is happening in their own words in a way that makes information more accessible. Young people are also holding public officials accountable, which makes us very hopeful for the future because they are fighting for the climate and aren’t going to give up. 

Thank you to Claudia Pineda Tibbs and the Monterey Bay Aquarium for their time and energy in engaging and educating the public and policymakers to protect the ocean and the climate.