There’s a great post on DeSmogBlog about how we communicate about climate change. There was a study done (pdf) by a UK research institute recently, in which they examined different ways of doing so. Basically (paired down from DeSmogBlog’s summary) the gist is that a lot of how we talk is alarmist, and that doesn’t do any good in terms of getting people to want to change. Then there’s the “20 things you can do” style, and while that’s a lot better, it’s a little out of sync with the scope of the problem. What we need to do, they concluded, is to empower the individual to make the necessary small changes.
I think this is a great clarification of a confusing issue.