More than just information: what does the public want to know about climate change?

• Published in: Ecology and society Vol. 27; no. 2; p. 14
• Main Authors: Murunga, Michael, Pecl, Gretta T., Ogier, Emily M., Leith, Peat, Macleod, Catriona, Kelly, Rachel, Corney, Stuart, van Putten, Ingrid E., Mossop, David, Cullen-Knox, Coco, Bettiol, Silvana, Fox-Hughes, Paul, Sharples, Chris, Nettlefold, Jocelyn
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ottawa Resilience Alliance 01-06-2022
• Subjects: Case studies; Climate change; climate change communication; Climate science; Communication; Content analysis; Journalists; Listening; public engagement; Public participation; Public sphere; Questions; Researchers; science communication; Scientists; Threat evaluation; transdisciplinary research; Australia; Tasmania Australia
• ISSN: 1708-3087; 1708-3087
• DOI: 10.5751/ES-13147-270214

Public engagement on climate change is a vital concern for both science and society. Despite more people engaging with climate change science today, there remains a high-level contestation in the public sphere regarding scientific credibility and identifying information needs, interests, and concerns of the non-technical public. In this paper, we present our response to these challenges by describing the use of a novel “public-powered” approach to engaging the public through submitting questions of interest about climate change to climate researchers before a planned engagement activity. Employing thematic content analysis on the submitted questions, we describe how those people we engaged with are curious about understanding climate change science, including mitigating related risks and threats by adopting specific actions. We assert that by inviting the public to submit their questions of interest to researchers before an engagement activity, this step can inform why and transform how actors engage in reflexive dialogue.