Public Understanding of Climate Change: Certainty and willingness to act

During a 10-week period prior to the 1997 Kyoto conference on climate change, two parallel studies were conducted: Study 1 examined media portrayals of global warming and the certainty with which information was reported (percentage of 'hedging'); Study 2 was a telephone survey to assess public knowledge about key topics in global climate change, people's certainty about their information, trust in the media, and willingness to take action on global warming. Media reports were found to be scarce, and about half of the references to global warming were found to be hedged. More hedging was evident in the New York Times than in other print media and national television reports, and economic impacts of climate change were reported with the greatest certainty. The audience (N = 139 adults, average age 36-45, with at least a high school education) reported trusting their media sources more than 50% of the time. They were collectively fairly knowledgeable and certain about global warming information (9.1 on a scale of - 20 to + 20), and they appeared to be willing to adopt a range of responsible behaviors seen to be useful in countering global warming (average response 3.0 out of 4). The knowledge/certainty factor was described as 'attitude under uncertainty', and was significantly related to media trust (r = 0.325, p < 0.01) and willingness to act responsibly (r = 0.400, p < 0.01). Comparing Study 1 with Study 2, the research does not support a hypothesis that media hedging is related to uncertainty. Implications for environmental communicators are discussed.