COMMUNICATING A SLOW-MOTION HEALTH CATASTROPHE

Journal of Health Communication special issue highlights climate change communication challenges

NEW YORK, Sept. 11, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Climate change, accelerating for several decades, is producing major threats to human health around the world. Despite urgent warnings from the scientific community about the dire consequences of climate change – and what people can do to mitigate it – there has been a lack of urgent response from government and business leaders, as well as much of the public. Better communication is critical if communities are to engage in mitigation efforts, as well as to prepare for and adapt to climate change-related risks.

This is no easy task. The complex nature of climate events, health outcomes, and their interaction with society and politics makes it challenging to raise awareness and promote preparedness. Misinformation and disinformation, like climate change denial, further hinder effective communication about its health effects.

In a special edition of the Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives (JHC), members of the scientific and health communications community, led by researchers from the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH) and the New York City Pandemic Response Institute (PRI), assess these challenges and offers a road map to more effective communications. The special issue, "Climate Communication Challenges: Hazards, Health, Preparedness," was co-edited by CUNY SPH Associate Professor Brian Pavilonis, former CUNY SPH professor Ilias Kavouras, and CUNY SPH Professor Bruce Y. Lee.

"Climate change is not a localized event: it will touch the lives of everyone," says Pavilonis, who also co-leads the PRI Workforce Capacity & Preparedness Team. "This special issue highlights the challenging and resource-intensive nature of climate communication and provides strategies tailored to various stakeholders. The global climate is intricately interconnected and events in one part of the globe can have cascading effects elsewhere from food shortages to climate refugees."

"Climate change has been a catastrophe in slow-motion that has not spurred urgent enough responses," says Lee, PRI chief technical officer and executive director of the Center for Advanced Technology and Communication in Health (CATCH) at CUNY SPH. "Therefore, there is a need for new systems approaches to better communicate the complexities connecting human activity, climate change, and the resulting health and economic impacts."

"Mis/dis-information campaigns to diffuse the responsibility of polluters, limit support for necessary public policies and delay practices to mitigate climate change have gained momentum in the past decade," says Kavouras, former PRI Workforce Capacity & Preparedness team co-lead who is now assistant dean of academic affairs at the University of Memphis School of Public Health. "This comes with considerable economic, societal, and health costs." 

This special issue offers a comprehensive overview of the present communications challenges and strategies to overcome them through a collection of analyses from leading institutions. Topics explored include a study of the politicization of climate science by researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo, University of Pennsylvania, and Georgia State University. The issue also examines how knowledge, trust, and concern influence attitudes toward climate change, drawing on research from the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. A study from The Ohio State University investigates how beliefs about climate change may affect health.

Together, these scholarly articles and editorial present interdisciplinary research on communication strategies, media, message understanding and policy, and community engagement bring together climate science, public health, and communications.

Journal of Health Communication Climate Communication Challenges: Hazards, Health, Preparedness (Vol.29, Iss.sup1, 2024 pages i-88)

Press contact:
Ariana Costakes
[email protected]

About CUNY SPH
The CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH) is committed to promoting and sustaining healthier populations in New York City and around the world through excellence in education, research, and service in public health and by advocating for sound policy and practice to advance social justice and improve health outcomes for all. sph.cuny.edu

About NYC Pandemic Response Institute
NYC PRI is a landmark initiative operated by Columbia University, with key partner CUNY SPH, designed to help prepare NYC for future public health threats – from infectious disease to climate-related health emergencies – by advancing racial equity and elevating NYC as a model of public health preparedness across the globe. pri.nyc

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SOURCE CUNY SPH