TY - JOUR
T1 - Extreme Weather Events as Teachable Moments
T2 - Catalyzing Climate Change Learning and Action Through Conversation
AU - Ettinger, Joshua
AU - Walton, Peter
AU - Painter, James
AU - Flocke, Susan A.
AU - Otto, Friederike E.L.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Extreme weather events are often described as teachable moments for climate change. In this article, we explore insights about the concept of teachable moments from healthcare literature and apply them to the climate change communication context. Specifically, we adapt Flocke et al.’s (2012. A teachable moment communication process for smoking cessation talk: description of a group randomized clinician-focused intervention. BMC Health Services Research, 12(1), 109. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-12-109) Teachable Moment Communication Process to offer a new dialogue-based communication framework that leverages extreme weather events as opportunities for environmental learning and action among the public. Our framework helps facilitate discussions about extreme weather events, with the goal of channeling dialogue into actions to address extreme weather-related risks at both individual and policy levels. An important nuance is delineating how climate change can exacerbate hazards, while vulnerability and exposure ultimately determine the impacts of hazards. We account for this distinction by centering our framework around the broader goal of reducing weather-related risks in diverse contexts including, but not limited to, climate change considerations. This article describes our proposed communication approach; we conclude by outlining a research agenda to empirically test the framework and examine other dynamics of extreme weather-related dialogue.
AB - Extreme weather events are often described as teachable moments for climate change. In this article, we explore insights about the concept of teachable moments from healthcare literature and apply them to the climate change communication context. Specifically, we adapt Flocke et al.’s (2012. A teachable moment communication process for smoking cessation talk: description of a group randomized clinician-focused intervention. BMC Health Services Research, 12(1), 109. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-12-109) Teachable Moment Communication Process to offer a new dialogue-based communication framework that leverages extreme weather events as opportunities for environmental learning and action among the public. Our framework helps facilitate discussions about extreme weather events, with the goal of channeling dialogue into actions to address extreme weather-related risks at both individual and policy levels. An important nuance is delineating how climate change can exacerbate hazards, while vulnerability and exposure ultimately determine the impacts of hazards. We account for this distinction by centering our framework around the broader goal of reducing weather-related risks in diverse contexts including, but not limited to, climate change considerations. This article describes our proposed communication approach; we conclude by outlining a research agenda to empirically test the framework and examine other dynamics of extreme weather-related dialogue.
KW - Climate change communication
KW - dialogue
KW - extreme weather
KW - health
KW - vulnerability
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85161596436&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85161596436&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/17524032.2023.2259623
DO - 10.1080/17524032.2023.2259623
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85161596436
SN - 1752-4032
VL - 17
SP - 828
EP - 843
JO - Environmental Communication
JF - Environmental Communication
IS - 7
ER -