Climate Crossroads: A Research-Based Framing Guide

This report from the Social Capital Project and the Topos Partnership aims to explore and outline the ways that individuals can be motivated to take action on climate change issues.

From the introduction to the report:

For close to four decades, climate advocates have worked to build broad public and policymaker awareness of the issue of global warming and the steps needed to address it. While advocates have made enormous strides over the years, they have also continued to struggle to mobilize Americans on behalf of the issue. Even people who are members of environmental organizations, or who pay attention to environmental issues, do not necessarily prioritize global warming or feel engaged on this topic.

The main objective for this Framing Guide is to provide the communications insights to engage and activate environmental supporters and allies. Advocates cannot realistically build further on this issue until solidifying the foundation — those supporters closest to environmental and climate organizations and issues. The challenges in connecting global warming issues even to this dedicated base reveals a number of communications hurdles global warming advocates need to overcome before the issue will have much salience with the majority of Americans. While the Framing Guide was designed with sympathetic audiences in mind, it will also provide relevant and helpful direction for communications with all audiences.