Let's Change The Way We Talk About Climate Change

Jessica Thompson is an associate professor in the Communication and Performance Studies department at NMU. She teaches courses in public relations, new media and environmental communication. Her research is focused on collaboration, climate change and public lands. Over the past decade she has participated in dozens of projects across the Western US, Mexico, India, Singapore and Mongolia. The impacts of a rapidly changing climate are everywhere, yet we haven’t figured out how to talk about climate change with our friends and neighbors. Since the 1980s public conversations about climate change have been dominated by the language of science and politics. Our own fears of scientific inaccuracy and uncertainty – or political disagreement – have censored us from talking about how to live on a changing planet. This talk presents a new frame for conversations about climate change – place – places that matter. We can change the conversation about climate change by connecting the issues to the places and people we love.