Sustainability Messaging Requires Variety of Tactics 
By Patti Truant Last year, Dr. Margaret Chan, the director-general of the World Health Organization, told fellow health leaders the following: “Up to now, the polar bear has been the poster child for climate change. We need to use every politically correct and scientifically sound trick in the book to convince the world that humanity really is the most important species endangered by climate change.” Such blunt speaking from public health officials is rare, and should command attention, said Dr. Edward Maibach,professor and director of the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University. He spoke at JHSPH on the importance of engaging the public in climate change, and how best to communicate education and policy initiatives. Awareness of climate change is increasing (Both presidential candidates believe it is real and caused by humans.) But public opinion is frequently divided by party lines, Maibach said. According to a survey he conducted in October 2008, 76 percent of Obama supporters and 43 percent of McCain supporters say that climate change is one of several important issues in the presidential campaign. Moving toward a sustainable society requires further engaging the public and stakeholders, including our elected officials, businesses, schools and community organizations. Three countries (Sweden, Canada and the U.K.) have implemented and evaluated national climate change media campaigns, and they found that about nine percent of the audience changed their behavior based on the persuasive campaign, despite the fact that all the campaigns were terminated early due to budgetary or political factors. Particularly important is reaching community opinion leaders who have the power to influence their social networks, Maibach said. Three goals of engagement are changing consumption behaviors, adopting specific policies and sustaining policy advocacy by businesses, non-governmental organizations and governments.This requires developing campaigns, incentives and regulations to make the way we eat, travel, live, buy and work sustainable. “We need to find ways to create immediate benefits for people because future benefits are discounted in our economy, and every day rational people do things that we know are not in our best interests,” Maibach said. Community-based social marketing, in which a specific behavior is targeted for modification, is another promising tool for climate change advocates. “We need to find ways to speak to people about what they care about,” Maibach said. “For some people that might be saving money, for others that might be engaging people about God and a moral responsibility to honor God’s creation. That’s the holy grail in this area: explore the basis of why people would or could care about climate change and work from there.” Maibach’s lecture was part of the Connecting Health and Sustainability Seminar Series, jointly sponsored by the Department of Health, Behavior and Society, the Program on Global Sustainability and Health, and CLF. For more information on the series, which ends October 30, please visit CLF website. More information on Maibach’s Center. | 
