Helping trusted messengers find their voice on climate change

This chapter details one man’s journey over the past decade to find a way of making his skills - as a public health professional and as a communication scientist - helpful in the world’s efforts to limit global warming. The journey began in the Italian Alps with a chance encounter with two of the world’s leading climate change experts. It proceeded to unfold in the form of a public opinion polling project called Climate Change in the American Mind, which in turn led to the creation of a highly successful nationwide climate change reporting resources program for local TV weathercasters, and a collaboration with dozens of medical societies to inform the public and policy makers about the human health relevance of climate change. In the words of Jane Goodall, when it comes to helping the world rise to the challenge of climate change, “no one can do everything, but everyone can do something.†The journey detailed here is inspired by that idea.