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A science-based understanding of climate change and potential mitigation and adaptation options can provide decision makers with important guidance in making decisions about how best to respond to the many challenges inherent in climate change. In this review we provide an evidence-based heuristic for guiding efforts to share science-based information about climate change with decision makers and the public at large. Well-informed decision makers are likely to make better decisions, but for a range of reasons, their inclinations to act on their decisions are not always realized into effective actions. We therefore also provide a second evidence-based heuristic for helping people and organizations change their climate change–relevant behaviors, should they decide to. These two guiding heuristics can help scientists and others harness the power of communication and behavior science in service of enhancing society's response to climate change. ▪ Many Earth scientists seeking to contribute to the climate science translation process feel frustrated by the inadequacy of the societal response. ▪ Here we summarize the social science literature by offering two guiding principles to guide communication and behavior change efforts. ▪ To improve public understanding, we recommend simple, clear messages, repeated often, by a variety of trusted and caring messengers. ▪ To encourage uptake of useful behaviors, we recommend making the behaviors easy, fun, and popular. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Volume 51 is May 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Understanding how people’s worldviews and individual personality differences affect their thinking about anthropogenic climate change is critical to communication efforts regarding this issue. This study surveyed University of Georgia students to investigate the role that need for cognitive closure plays in level of climate change worry. The relationship between these two was found to involve suppression—a subset of mediation—by the social dimension of political conservatism. Political conservatism was also found to play a mediating role in the relationship between need for cognitive closure and support for governmental and personal climate solutions. However, social conservatism played this mediator role in women, and functioned as a suppressor for men. These findings help inform audience segmentation and creation of climate-related messages based on audience worldview and personality.

phy and Spatial Sciences launched a new meteorology and climatology major in the fall of 2015, creating a curriculum for students who are interested in meteorology that follows the guidelines suggested by AMS and NWS. In conjunction with the adoption of this new major, the student AMS chapter at the University of Delaware (UD) was reactivated by six sophomore and junior meteorology and climatology majors in the spring of 2016. These two events allowed the student members to reevaluate the mission and vision of the student chapter. The AMS student chapter at UD now has a focus on outreach and education, which includes student presentations on disaster preparedness and fundraising for disaster relief after Hurricane Maria. One of the initial activities developed by the chapter is an ongoing outreach and education program in a nearby high school that allows AMS chapter members to share their passion about weather and climate with the next generation of students while improving teaching and presentation skills. They do this by teaching students a climate change game. The student chapter members learned about this game through interaction with a UD faculty member who participated in the Maryland and Delaware Climate Change Education Assessment and Research project (MADE-CLEAR; madeclear.org), which provided K-16 teachers in Maryland and Delaware with climate science and educational support.

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