Wanted: A National Communications Campaign to Address Climate Change

 

Change in Water Levels at Lake Mead, 2000 vs. 2021
(Photo Credit: Lauren Dauphin,
NASA Earth Observatory, U.S. Geological Survey)

Regardless of the ultimate price tag on President Biden’s final “Build Back Better Act,” a substantial portion of those resources are intended to address the existential risks associated with severe weather induced by climate change. The news media regularly discusses the need to live more sustainably. Increasingly, Americans fear the effects of climate change given the recent rise in the number of billion dollar weather disasters: from drought and devastating fires in the West to ever more frequent and destructive hurricanes and flooding in the South and East. While scientists and a number of policy makers understand the relationship between the frequency and severity of extreme weather events and the continued increase in global greenhouse gas emissions, it may be less obvious to the general public. Consequently, it’s more difficult for some to understand the critical need to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle which can diminish the negative changes in climate such emissions bring.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently announced some important new findings.  A key conclusion of a new NOAA-led task force was that the ongoing drought across much of the southwestern United States “…would not have reached its current punishing intensity without the extremely high temperatures brought by human-caused global warming.”  NOAA also determined that August 2021 was the sixth warmest August on record globally.  Moreover, nine of the 10 warmest Augusts have occurred since 2009.  While no single event can be attributed to climate change, the combination of more long-lasting and intense droughts and wildfire seasons, as well as more active hurricane seasons, provides ample evidence of the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

President Biden’s “Build Back Better Act,” also known as the Reconciliation bill, addresses many of these issues.  For example, the bill proposes a significant investment in the creation of a clean energy program that would fund rebates to entice people to weatherize and electrify their homes.  More widespread implementation of clean energy sources such as wind and solar power would go a long way toward reducing our collective carbon footprint.  That’s because a large portion of the greenhouse gas emissions produced in the United States come from energy production that’s still heavily reliant on the burning of fossil fuels.  The Biden initiative would also finance domestic manufacturing of clean auto supply chain technologies.

The bill also contains significant funding for agricultural conservation, as well as drought and forestry programs to help make wildfires less destructive.  As recent western wildfires have demonstrated, a significant amount of burning occurred on Federal forest land, in part because of past neglect. The Biden legislation would also invest in the development of clean energy technology for rural areas and fund other initiatives, such as agricultural climate and infrastructure research. These investments would yield many new sustainable energy industry jobs.

President Biden’s “Build Back Better Plan” is not only critical in the view of the scientific community, such action is also broadly supported by the public. A recent survey by the Pew Research Center shows that approximately two-thirds of Americans born since the 1960s support action on climate change. A majority of baby boomers (57%) also support such action. But, a clear and compelling multi-channel public communications campaign will be critical to energize the public with the ultimate goal of moving the legislative wheels effectively. The public understands the crisis we are in and needs to know that effective action is not only required, but possible.