12/24/2023 0 Comments Negative nancy debbie downer memeThe problem dogging climate science communication for - the dearth of clear, defined villains - might be solved by Trump. And it seemed the environment had an unlikely friend to thank: Donald Trump. But now, something has shifted.įor the first time, interest in climate change communication had increased, significantly. Despite being discovered in the late 1970s, climate change hasn't spurred the public and political spheres into action the way one might expect. Peach's job, as a climatic Cassandra, is one that's been occupied by various people - scientists, communicators, lobbyists - for decades. Beyond the column, Peach helps produce Yale Climate Communications' 90-second radio segments that run during NPR's Morning Edition. The advice column is pretty new, but Peach focuses on how readers can cope physically with upcoming changes and how they can prepare themselves, and their loved ones, for what's in store. When you talk about it in that way, Americans don't tend to prioritze it."īut by shifting the focus to the local, and even the hyper-local, "They actually do sit up and pay attention." "When you talk about an issue as something that is distant - maybe distant in time, like this is going to happen to our grandchildren, maybe it's distant in space like it's going to happen to other people around the world. Scholars were able to show that when you said the words 'global warming,' the very first images that people would think of were things like melting ice," says Peach. "I remember reading this study when I was a graduate student. And in 2018, Climate Central published findings about the number of mosquito " disease danger days," temperatures that allow for the spread of mosquito-transmitted diseases. That’s according to the climate change research group Climate Central. In Raleigh, North Carolina, for example, the 2015 mosquito season was 41 days longer than in 1970. "And, like, I'm not that old."Ĭlimate change means longer warm seasons - longer warm seasons mean more mosquitoes. "I was able to pull up the data on the number of days that mosquito season has increased in my lifetime - and I don't want to get the stat wrong - I think it was something horrible like mosquito season is now 40 days longer than when I was born," says Peach. "An advice column about climate change could help teach people how to, basically, operate in the world as the world is shifting around them."Īnd rather than going big picture about climate change when talking to her digital audience or during public speaking events in North Carolina, Peach goes small. "The best ones teach you how to be a person in our culture," says Peach. Peach has thought a lot about how impactful the advice column format can be. The queries span the dire, "Will there be famine?", the funny, "How do I talk about climate change at social gatherings? (without being a Debbie Downer)", and modern dilemmas, "I feel guilty about flying, but I have a sick relative and a wedding coming up. She writes an advice column for Yale Climate Communications: a Dear Abby advising people about how to talk to their friends, families and peers about climate change. Temperatures Risingīut Peach isn't writing science fiction, or an article to collect virtual dust in the annals of some research publication. Fires snap up parched foliage on the West Coast. Swarms of mosquitoes swirl across the Mid-Atlantic states. She turns on her computer and starts writing about the end of the world.Īs she does, seas swell with water from rapidly melting ice caps. She gets out of bed, walks to the kitchen to make breakfast before sitting down in her living room. Every morning, Sara Peach wakes up in her house in North Carolina.
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