People and organizations talk a lot about climate change online, but only 3.1 percent of content mentions connections to health, a new analysis reveals PROVIDENCE, R.I. | September 24, 2024 ― New data analysis from the Information Futures Lab (IFL) at Brown University’s School of Public Health, in partnership with Climate Week NYC and supported by The Rockefeller Foundation, reveals that only 3.1 percent of online content which mentions climate change makes any connection to health-related impacts. Research shows that communicating the health impacts of climate change can strengthen public engagement with climate issues and generate support for climate policies and action. Yet, analysis of more than 2.4 million English-language social media posts and news data demonstrates a significant gap of when this connection is being made in online public discourse and news headlines. The findings and recommendations are now available in a new report titled, “ The Untapped Potential of Climate Communication: Harnessing Health to Drive Action . ” “The scale of this finding is striking: 96.9 percent of news headlines and social media posts that mention climate change currently do not touch on health. We are missing a major opportunity to engage people in climate conversations and solutions”, said Stefanie Friedhoff, Professor of the Practice and co-founder of the Information Futures Lab at the Brown University School of Public Health. “Evidence shows that health-framed messaging can strengthen support for climate action, even across the political spectrum and including those who tend to be less concerned about climate change.” A critical blind spot “This is a critical blind spot in our current approach,” said Adam Lake, Head of Communications, North America at Climate Group . “At a time of need to galvanize public and political actions that can minimize the harm of climate change on people and the […]
Click here to view original web page at www.rockefellerfoundation.org