Science, Technology and Society Priority Group

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Case study Communicating uncertainty

Building networks and language to communicate climate change risks

Professor Sarah Metcalfe  

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What are the challenges of representing the risks of climate change, between disciplines and to the public?

As part of its Science in Culture theme, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) has funded an exploratory project at the University of Nottingham called ‘Representing and communicating uncertainty: climate change and risk’.  This interdisciplinary project brings together academics from across the University in the Schools of Geography, Sociology and Social Policy, Mathematical Sciences and Biosciences. The project has three main goals:

  • To build understanding of the vocabulary and communication of climate change risks by bringing people from different groups together
  • To focus on extreme climatic events (e.g. floods, droughts), initially in a UK context
  • To build networks that will enable us to develop a vocabulary that is intelligible to different groups to improve communication and understanding.

 

           

          "The debate around global climate change involves notions of uncertainty. However, different groups use the term in different ways, profoundly affecting views of the credibility of climate change science. This project seeks to explore how different groups (including scientists and businesses) use the language of uncertainty and whether we can bridge gaps in understanding caused by the distinctive vocabularies of different communities", says Professor Sarah Metcalfe

           

          Highlights

          • A project workshop was held  in April 2012, which brought together academics from a range of disciplines to explore ways in which they communicate uncertainty about climate change and its impacts. A key issue was to identify any barriers to communication between researchers (e.g. subject specific use of vocabulary; use of graphical or verbal material).

          Session 1 (Climate change and risk: headline issues) included three presentations on issues identified by the project team as possible foci: flood risk (Colin Thorne); human health, uncertainty and climate change (Simon Gosling) and drought (Georgina Endfield).

          Session 2 (Methodological perspectives: establishing ‘internal’ lines of communication) included four presentations trying to reflect different disciplinary approaches to the issues of interest. These were: modelling (Sarah Metcalfe); probability theory (Andrew Cliffe); language (Brigitte Nerlich) and arts and humanities perspectives (Georgina Endfield).

          Session 3 (Communicating with policy makers and wider publics) explored issues of communication in relation to the headline issues of flood risk, drought and human health. 

          • A second workshop, held in June 2012, moved away from the academic perspective and brought together people from a range of groups who use or are interested in climate change information (companies, government agencies, NGOs, and the media). Future research aims to add an international dimension to our research and interaction with stakeholders.

          Expertise

          PI: Professor Sarah Metcalfe (Geography) has expertise in earth and environmental dynamics.

          Co-I: Professor Brigitte Nerlich (Sociology and Social Policy) has expertise in metaphor and discourse analysis

          Co-I: Professor Georgina Endfield (Geography) has expertise in environmental history

          Co-I: Professor Andrew Cliffe (Mathematical Sciences) has expertise in computational and applied maths

          Co-I: Professor Colin Thorne (Geography) has expertise in flood, river and environmental management

          Co-I: Dr Simon Gosling (Geography) has expertise in physical geography

          Co-I: Professor Neil Crout (Biosciences) has expertise in environmental modelling

          Impact

          Strong links have been established with Debbie Hill, Climate Change Manager at Nottingham City Council, as well as with the Met Office, the Environment Agency and other organisations.

          Scale of research

          This project focused on organising two workshops. Based on the outcomes of these workshop, we are in the process of designing a distinctive research agenda.

          Funding

          The project received an AHRC exploratory award of approximately £30,000.

           

          Contact

          Professor Sarah Metcalfe
           
           
           
           

          Science, Technology and Society Priority Group

          Law and Social Sciences Building
          University Park
          Nottingham, NG7 2RD

          email: andrew.gibson@nottingham.ac.uk