With increased frequency of extreme weather events due to climate change, there is growing need for urban, small-scale adaptation and preventative measures such as stormwater management to reduce the risk of flooding. Homeowners are often reluctant to adopt preventative stormwater measures without tangible benefits or direct experience with the flooding risks or other negative externalities. Using community-based social marketing (CBSM) as a framework, we investigated how to more effectively encourage stormwater management at the household level. In collaboration with the Canadian non-profit organization, Reep Green Solutions (Region of Waterloo, Ontario), we focused on an existing program, the RAIN Home Visit (RHV), which was designed to increase engagement in pro-environmental stormwater management behaviors. Reports from the RHV were assessed, and past program participants were interviewed using a semi-structured question set to identify barriers encountered in enacting these behaviors and to assess the program for inclusion of CBSM principles and tools. Surveys were used to collect demographic data from participants. We found that while preferred behaviors were explained and incentives were provided, more thorough, clear explanation was needed for homeowners as well as incentives of suitable size and value to effectively motivate homeowners to change. Key features that should be included in future RHV programs are public commitments, follow-up, and reminders. Further research should consider risk perception impacts with CBSM, to determine how these can work together and, perhaps, which precedes the other. Some people may be more influenced by social norms to act and others by risk perception.

Global climate change awareness is increasing, but efforts to convey information can trigger undesirable behaviors, including denial, skepticism, and increased resource consumption. It is therefore essential to more fully investigate social-psychological responses to climate information and messaging if we are to prompt, support, and sustain pro-environmental behaviors. Yet consideration of these responses is typically absent from interdisciplinary environmental study designs. Of specific relevance is research using social psychology's Terror Management Theory (TMT) showing that people's efforts to repress mortality salience (MS) or awareness significantly influence their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Research on MS's influence on climate change beliefs is progressing but, to date, a systematic scoping review of the literature has been unavailable. Here, we provide such a review. We propose that TMT insights and methods should be better integrated into research designs to guide climate communications and to generate the comprehensive cultural and behavioral changes needed to address societies' climate problems. We introduce a methodological framework for interdisciplinary researchers to incorporate TMT into their research designs and to help practitioners anticipate how their mortality-laden messaging could trigger unintentional social-psychological responses that degrade climate communication strategies.

All nature relies on water, yet climate change threatens water availability to the highest degree—from too much (e.g. extreme weather; flooding) to too little (e.g. droughts; wildfires). These water shifts threaten all life on earth. Societies' safe and reliable water accessibility faces growing uncertainty from climate change; however, water crisis communication may inadvertently remind audiences of their mortality. According to terror management theory, these mortality reminders can hinder pro‐environmental efforts in humans and even increase intergroup biases—a significant challenge for developing environmental solutions. While climate change has been examined as a mortality reminder, water remains untested. We presented participants with either a mortality‐laden message, an aversive but not‐life‐threatening message, or one of three threatening water‐related messages—experiencing drowning, dehydration or contaminated water consumption—to determine if the water‐related messages function similarly to the mortality message. Some (e.g. drowning; contaminated water), but not all (e.g. dehydration), water messages increased death‐thought accessibility, which could lead to paradoxical environmental behaviours, depending on the audience. Our research findings should inform policymakers, non‐profit organizations and other water correspondents' communication strategies. As some threatening water messages elicit similar responses to known mortality reminders, the way water crises are framed is important for water‐related decision‐making and ensuring equitable, successful pro‐environmental outcomes. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.