puffin in flight

Climate Change & Conservation eNews

Communications

butterfly
Macro Mama on StockSnap

Air pollution makes it harder for insect pollinators to find flowers

Land conservationists, and those who care about healthy communities, can help people and decision-makers understand that transitioning to electric vehicles, which are fueled by renewable energy, will benefit the health of people and wildlife — as well as slow down climate change.

Insects play an important role in the world’s food production. Roughly 70 percent of all crop species, including apples, strawberries, and cocoa, depend on them for pollination.

Insects rely on a flower’s odor to locate a plant, but atmospheric pollutants alter these smells, making foraging more difficult. A new study in Environmental Pollution tested how much of an impact pollution has on pollinators in the field…

“We weren’t expecting nearly as severe a reduction as we found. It’s kind of crazy,” study author James Ryalls, an agricultural ecologist at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, tells New Scientist’s Adam Vaughan…

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Fly Fishing
iStock

Hotter summer temperatures prompt fly fishing restrictions in Montana

Warmer water contains less oxygen, which stresses fish. Habitat restoration around streams and rivers is important — but it won't be enough. Let's see if we can connect to people around climate action, because of the waters they love.

In some areas, fishing has been temporarily prohibited on hot summer afternoons when the water is too warm.

“That’s a huge impact to fisheries and to the guiding community as a whole,” Hutcheson says. “There are operations…starting their guide trips at 5 a.m. so they can get off the water by 2, or they’re simply not taking people out during the hottest times of the year, which traditionally has been some of the best fishing”…

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wildflowers
Charles Larry/The Nature Conservancy

Person to know: Susan Joy Hassol

“The only thing that’s dumb,” Hassol said, “is speaking to people in language that they don’t understand"...

Susan Joy Hassol is a climate change communicator, analyst, and author known for her ability to translate science into English, making complex issues accessible to policymakers and the public for 30 years.

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Jargon
Grist

Want people to care about climate change? Skip the jargon.

There's a lot of research on words to avoid, and what language in conservation is considered to be jargon.

Forget “dumbing down.” Using more common language is “smartening up,” said Susan Joy Hassol, director of the nonprofit science outreach group Climate Communication in North Carolina, who coaches scientists and journalists to write and speak more conversationally.

“The only thing that’s dumb,” Hassol said, “is speaking to people in language that they don’t understand”…

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audience
Eric Haynes

Communicating about climate change

There's a lot of research on words to avoid, and what language in conservation is considered to be jargon. Check this out.

Climate change is a defining issue of our time and we are at a defining moment. From shifting weather patterns that threaten both biodiversity and food production, to rising sea levels that increase the risk of catastrophic flooding, the impacts of climate change are global in scope but felt most harshly at the local level. With such a tough topic, embarking on discussions of climate change can feel like venturing into a communications minefield…

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Herons
U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Climate and Change: Reflections on “The Sixth Extinction”

We know that climate change is making extreme weather more frequent, while at the same time making "regular" weather more erratic. The impacts on plants, animals, and communities are now widespread, contributing to farming and ranching stress as well as the sixth extinction that is human-driven.

A good book comforts us. A great book challenges us. This year’s first-year reading selection, “The Sixth Extinction” by Elizabeth Kolbert, is a great book.

This book opened our eyes, engaged our minds, expanded our thinking, at times shrunk our significance, contextualized our evolution and our existence, and reminded us of both our fragility and our ephemeral nature. It also made us uncomfortable, uneasy, and uncertain at times. I can’t imagine a university’s first year reading selection, or any book, doing more than that.

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Chickadee
iStock

Why it matters that climate change is shrinking birds

When we think about the impacts of climate change, many of us understand the need for connected habitat. We need to understand the larger impacts, too.

Scientists have long predicted that increasing temperatures would drive reductions in body size across the tree of life, but testing this requires huge amounts of data collected consistently over decades. This type of data is only available for a tiny fraction of the world’s species, including some North American birds.

Recently, a study based on over 70,000 North American bird specimens found that warming temperatures have been shrinking birds for the past 40 years…

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Amanda Gorman

“Earthrise” by Amanda Gorman

Sometimes sharing a poem or image is a powerful way to connect with those around you. For me, music and poetry provide a place to slow down and connect to what I care about. If you haven't listened to Amanda Gorman recite this poem, you may enjoy it.

“On Christmas Eve, 1968, astronaut Bill Anders
Snapped a photo of the earth
As Apollo 8 orbited the moon…”

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Playground
iStock

Schools and solar: Taking action, saving money

Land trusts are increasingly working with schools as part of their community conservation efforts. They could also help schools make the transition and share the good work of schools going solar, and the benefits of lands and waters we all want to conserve.

As school districts struggle to adapt to a nationwide budget crisis brought on by the COVID-19 outbreak, many K-12 schools are shoring up budgets with a switch to solar power. Find out more inside this third edition of Brighter Future: A Study on Solar in U.S. Schools, including new data and trends on solar uptake at schools nationwide, how schools are saving millions in energy bills (with little-to-no upfront investment), and a national ranking of all states for solar on schools…

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Kids On Trail
iStock

Psychologists are learning how to bolster the health of humans and the environment as the planet warms

Land and water conservation, and climate solutions, need to support those who will treasure it for generations to come. With increasing stress on people, as well as natural systems, we need to think holistically and be honest about the solutions.

“We are concerned about the findings,” said Clayton, a psychology professor at the College of Wooster in Ohio. “Negative emotions and pessimistic beliefs can be a source of stress that leads to mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.” Nearly half of the participants reported that their feelings about climate change negatively affected aspects of their daily lives, such as sleeping, socializing, school, and work…

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