Climate Communications: How Can We Reach Goals More Effectively?
The question remains: What is the best way to communicate to the public about climate change? The King County Climate Action Team is an interdepartmental team dedicated to taking action on climate change and one way that the team is striving to meet their goals is through effective communication. Communication bridges the gap between understanding and actions when it comes to climate change. However, climate communications within King County have been inefficient because departments are not collaborating on climate related projects. The purpose of my project was to research climate communication strategies within King County in order to determine which departments are communicating about climate change to their communities. To accomplish this task, I conducted informational interviews with King County staff to identify the type of work being done, the communities each department is working with, and the tools, resources, and information needed to help improve climate communication. Major findings reveal that some barriers or challenges that King County departments face when communicating with their communities include language barriers and lack of internal communications and resources. The majority of King County staff express wanting more tools and information such as climate communication training, climate-change one pagers, and a toolkit of contact information pagers to help them effectively communicate to their communities. To address these issues, the best solution is to develop a toolkit of climate communication resources that is accessible to all King County department communicators. Establishing a unified front would enable King County to a more effectively communicate with their communities and reach their climate goals faster.