The problem with ignoring people's emotions about climate change

About 20 years ago, while presenting the science of climate change to a large public group, I stopped in the middle of my talk. Up until this time, my presentations had been filled with 50 minutes of scientific information. However, during my graduate work in psychology, I had become more attuned to the importance of affect in how we engage with our environment.

Edvard Munch’s iconic ‘The Scream’ captures how
some might feel upon hearing about climate change risks. 

By psychological “affect,” I’m talking here about how we as humans respond – how our feelings and emotions respond – to various stimuli, in this case learning about the risks we face in a warming climate.

So I decided to change how I was presenting the material. I asked the audience how they were feeling after listening to what I had just said. What followed dramatically changed the way I’ve since worked with communicating climate change. There was complete silence in the very large auditorium, and then a woman way in the back of the room slowly raised her hand and said, “I feel completely helpless!”

Read the story from Yale Climate Connections by Jeffery T. Kiehl - “The problem with ignoring people's emotions about climate change.”