Workshop: Managing Climate Risk Misinformation

VIEW WORKSHOP RECORDING

Climate Central held an online workshop on February 19, 2021, to discuss ways to recognize, avoid and deal with climate misinformation. Academic experts and journalists covered a number of topics, including the behavioral science behind climate change denialism, corporate greenwashing, flawed perceptions of the costs of climate action, and ways to identify bots and other attempts to manipulate public opinion through social media.

Panelists: 

• John Cook is a research assistant professor at the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University, researching cognitive science. @johnfocook

• Kim Klockow-McClain, Ph.D., Research Scientist, Team Lead, CIMMS/NSSL Behavioral Insights Unit @kimklockow 

• Gernot Wagner, Climate Economist at NYU and Author of Bloomberg’s Risky Climate column; But Will the Planet Notice; and Stadt, Land, Klima (“City, Country, Climate”); co-author of Climate Shock. @GernotWagner 

• Samuel C. Woolley, Assistant Professor in the School of Journalism, University of Texas at Austin and author of the book, "The Reality Game: How the Next Wave of Technology Will Break the Truth." @samuelwoolley

• Elisa Raffa, Meteorologist, WJZY (Fox) Charlotte, NC @Elisa_Raffa 

• Kat Snow, Senior Editor at KQED, an NPR station in the San Francisco Bay Area. @CosmologicalKat

• Akshat Rathi, Bloomberg Green reporter based in London writing globally on energy and climate change. @akshatrathi

Climate Central Resources

Our Changing Climate is an informative and customizable climate change presentation that meteorologists, journalists, and others can use for educational outreach and/or a personal Climate 101 tool.

Other Resources

• One-stop-resource on climate debunkings (concise fact-myth-fallacy summaries) 

• Some video resources from John Cook:

  • Video series on critical thinking about climate change

  • Critical thinking cafe

  • Critical thinking cafe #2

• The Consensus Handbook

• Skeptical Science, a website that explains climate change science and rebuts misinformation about global warming. 

• The Cranky Uncle game, a mobile app that uses cartoons and critical thinking to fight misinformation. You can use the group login “CLIMATECENTRAL” to play.

• The Tragedy of the Risk-Perception Commons: Culture Conflict, Rationality Conflict, and Climate Change

• Weather, Climate, and Worldviews: The Sources and Consequences of Public Perceptions of Changes in Local Weather Patterns

• Climate-Science Communication and the Measurement Problem

• Gernot Wagner’s Bloomberg Risky Climate column

• Eight priorities for calculating the social cost of carbon

• The True Price of Carbon

• Why Oil Giants Figured Out Carbon Costs First 

• Akshat Rath’s Net Zero Bloomberg Column

• Elisa Raffa’s Ozarks Snow Decline Report and We the People: Climate Change, Your Beer and Politics

• The Reality Game: How the Next Wave of Technology Will Break the Truth

• Homepage - Center for Media Engagement at The University of Texas, Austin

• First Draft News Journalist Guides

• RAND Fighting Disinformation Online: A Database of Web Tools

• Poynter.org