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From Climate Science to Societal Impact

The evidence for a warming world and the risks it poses has never been more comprehensive or urgent. Yet despite decades of increasingly robust science, public and political responses remain fragmented, polarized, and misaligned with the scale of the risks identified by science. Drawing on climate science and behavioural and social science, Katharine Hayhoe shows how outreach and communication are not peripheral to climate research, but integral to its societal impact. She examines why information alone rarely motivates engagement, and how identity, trust, and social norms shape the interpretation of climate evidence. Using examples ranging from extreme event attribution to values-oriented framing, she highlights evidence-based approaches to communicating climate risks that preserve scientific integrity while increasing clarity, relevance, and salience. Such approaches are essential, she argues, as without them even the strongest science cannot ensure the response its conclusions demand.
  
Katharine Hayhoe is a climate scientist and CLIMAS alumna. She is a distinguished professor and endowed chair at Texas Tech University and chief scientist for The Nature Conservancy, and has received a number of awards and recognitions including four honourary doctorates and being named a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the American Scientific Affiliation, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society.