Moving (The Focus) from Denial to Dialogue: The Recommended Directions for Communicating Climate Change to Non-Expert Audiences Based on the Analysis of Climate Scientists’ Communicative Experiences

Abstract

The article’s topic reflects climate scientists’ presence and communication in the public sphere, while the main focus is on the two ways a society may respond to the climate scientists’ communicative efforts: by denying the scientific messaging (climate change denial) and by engaging in relation-building communication (climate change dialogue). Those aspects were explored from the point of view of American and Polish climate scientists through the method of in-depth interviewing. According to the scientists, as the study results show, the most effective way to enhance science-society dialogue on climate change is to detangle from unproductive denial narratives and truly embrace the dialogic model of science communication by opening it to feedback, including honest societal scepticism.

Keywords

• climate change communication
• science communication
• climate change denial
• climate scientists
• scientific consensus on climate change