Third Assessment Report Slides: Presentation Tips

Effectively communicating with the public about climate change science is both challenging and rewarding. Challenging because the issue is complicated and nuanced, rewarding because you can play an important role in helping the public understand the gravity of this problem and that we need to act now to implement greenhouse gas mitigation strategies. Here are a few tips for giving an effective presentation.

TAILOR YOUR MESSAGE

It is important to think about your audience when you are creating your presentation. Be sure to ask yourself the following questions.

  • What is my audience's level of knowledge on the issue?

    Knowing your audience's level of understanding about global climate change will help you tailor your presentation to best fit their needs and ensure that their and your time is used wisely.

    If your audience is unfamiliar with the issue of climate change, start with the basics. Explain the greenhouse effect and the role that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions have played in magnifying this effect. Describe the current and likely future impacts of climate change and inform the audience of the actions that society can take to mitigate climate change impacts.

    For more advanced audiences, you may want to skip an introduction to the greenhouse effect and dive right into the findings of the IPCC's three Working Groups.
  • What aspects of the issue are of most interest to my audience?

    You should know what aspects of climate change your audience is concerned about or interested in, and you should tailor your presentation to discuss these aspects. If you are presenting to a worship group, you could emphasize our obligation to be good stewards of God's creation. In a presentation to a naturalist society, you could discuss the likely impacts of climate change and how these impacts will affect local flora and fauna. To your local chamber of commerce, you may choose to focus on the substantial business opportunities in mitigating climate change.

    One common thread for all the diverse types of audiences should be an emphasis on the likely local impacts of climate change. When people understand that climate change can, will, or has had a direct impact on something they care about, they become much more engaged in the issue. So be sure to include several slides on the potential impacts of climate change in your region.

    Most of the slides provided by UCS focus on the findings of the IPCC's TAR. Specific information on the impacts of climate change in your region of the US can be found in the regional reports from the U.S. National Assessment: The Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change, the Global Warming: Early Warning Signs website, and various other local sources. (see     Resources for an Effective Presentation for links to local impacts sites.)


FOCUS YOUR MESSAGE

Successful communication on climate change and the TAR must have one overriding element: your main message(s). A clear understanding of what you want your presentation to accomplish will help you focus on one or a few main messages that you want to convey to your audience. Ask yourself: what do I want my audience to remember when they get home? And what are the main messages I want to leave with my audience? Plan your main messages in advance and reiterate them several times during your talk. The more you repeat them, the more they will stick in peoples' minds -- and the more likely they will be motivated to demand appropriate policy actions from their policymakers.

Several messages about the IPCC and the TAR are listed on the Main Messages Page. Conveying some of these messages will help increase the public's understanding of and concern about global warming, its potential impacts, and feasible mitigation actions. You can, of course, develop additional supporting messages.

The main messages you deliver in a talk should emphasize what you believe are the most important conclusions in the TAR that are relevant to your audience. If possible, apply the key points to your local context to show your audience how climate change will affect them directly.

BE PREPARED TO RESPOND TO THE STANDARD CONTRARIAN ARGUMENTS

The job of conveying the findings of the IPCC to the public is not made any easier by climate contrarians -- sometimes scientists in relevant disciplines, sometimes writers from conservative think tanks or industry front groups. Arguments used by contrarians usually conform to one of four templates: discredit the message, discredit the messenger, discredit the process, and/or bolster the counter-message. Typical contrarian spin includes climate change is "based on flawed science," "contrived by eco-doomsayers," "to expensive to fix," or "good for us." When discussing the findings of the IPCC, contrarians' main tactic is to paint the IPCC as politically motivated and its scientific conclusions thus tainted.

Below are a few tips on how to deal with contrarian arguments. In addition to these tips, please see the "Prominent Skeptics Organizations" pages on the UCS site.

Take the Initiative. Whether presenting information or responding to the claims and attacks by climate skeptics, it is best to take the initiative and be proactive. Rather than finding yourself trapped in the details of complex and sometimes deceiving arguments with contrarians, for example, it is more powerful to emphasize a few key points backed by solid scientific findings.

Practice the "Bridge Back to Message" Technique. If you find yourself in a face-to-face debate, contrarians may try to engage you in a point-by-point debate about climate issues. A contrarian may also attempt to focus on particular conclusions still being disputed in scientific circles—the relative role of the sun, for example—as a cause of global warming. But engaging in debates of this type often leads to an unwarranted focus on the scientific uncertainties or creates general confusion among the audience, both desirable outcomes for the contrarians.

As a general approach, "bridging" back to your main message is best for responding to contrarian claims. In essence, you recognize the contrarian argument in passing, but you do not engage in an involved debate over it. You avoid getting sidetracked by simply getting "back on message." For example, in response to a misleading or irrelevant argument or outright false claim, you might respond: "That point was examined by the IPCC but it is inconsistent with the careful review of the scientific literature/it was rejected because [followed by a one-sentence explanation]. What's important here is … [followed by one or two key TAR findings or IPCC/TAR credibility statements, above]."

Emphasize and Explain the IPCC Consensus. There has been a discernible shift in the tone of news coverage of climate issues over time to more accurately reflect where the actual consensus of climate science lies. Confusion can still occur, however, when the media, in an attempt to provide balanced coverage, presents contrarian viewpoints side-by-side with the findings of the IPCC. It is important to correct misportrayals suggesting the scientific community is evenly split on the matter. There is no longer a scientific debate over whether or not global temperatures have increased, and very little debate over the evidence for a significant human role in contributing to recent warming.

Contrarians will also attempt to paint the TAR as politically motivated or in the hands of political operatives. It is important to explain the scientific consensus and the absolutely critical role scientists have played -- and will continue to play -- in the IPCC assessment process.

Remember that the Skeptics Are Losing Influence. One line of response to contrarian arguments or to questions about their claims is historical in nature -- the contrarians are losing their influence. During the early stages of the global warming debate, climate contrarians had the full attention of the public, media, and policymakers. The skeptics took advantage of the significant uncertainties in the science of climate change and were strengthened by enormous financial support from the coal and oil industries. Their claims -- often based on selective use of data and published without peer review -- were given the same stature and media prominence as results from peer-reviewed scientific research. Thus, skeptics and industry heavily influenced the policy landscape, helping to delay political action internationally and in the United States.

Since then, a progression -- typical of contrarian responses to major environmental concerns -- can be observed. The contrarians have moved from an initial all-encompassing dismissal of the problem to a gradual or partial acceptance of its reality to a depiction of the changes as beneficial. Or, alternatively, as some skeptics accept some negative consequences, they portray the problem as unsolvable by the technological and financial means or political vehicles available. Today, some contrarians even admit that humans play a role in global warming. With the growing accumulation of scientific evidence for climate change and the crumbling of anti-climate industry coalitions, skeptics have essentially lost their spot in the limelight on scientific matters. They now focus primarily on attacking institutions, individuals, and policy measures while continuing to highlight selected benefits of global warming.

BE PREPARED TO DISCUSS POLITICAL SOLUTIONS

Most audiences will be interested in the politics of climate change. You should focus your message on the science, impacts, and solutions of climate change, specifically highlighting the findings of the IPCC's TAR. Still, you should be prepared to answer basic questions about the politics of climate change. In preparing for your presentation you should seek out information on the current status of climate change policy on the international, national, and local levels.

You need not delve into the minutiae of the politics, but stand prepared to generally answer questions about the current status of international negotiations on climate change, various pieces of federal legislation with implications for climate change (e.g., CAFÉ standards, energy efficiency measures), or a pending bill in your state's legislative body. Information on the various aspects of climate change policy is readily available on the internet, but be sure your sources are reliable. [See the Resources for an Effective Presentation page for suggestions on where to find such information.]

CONCLUDE WITH AN ACTION STEP THE AUDIENCE CAN TAKE

Listening to a presentation on climate change can be an overwhelming experience for the members of your audience. Climate change is an incredibly complex issue and is truly global in scope. The impacts of climate change are potentially catastrophic, and any one person's actions may seem insignificant when compared to the actions of the world's governments, corporations, or even the other six billion plus people on Earth. For this reason it is extremely important to highlight that there is hope, and that there are actions each person can take to help mitigate climate change.

Possible Action Approaches:

  • Ask your audience to be conscious of and to reduce their contributions to the greenhouse gas emissions that lead to climate change. You should accompany this request with some concrete suggestions (e.g., switching to fluorescent light bulbs, driving a more fuel-efficient car) and provide some resources from which your audience can get further information on ways of reducing their carbon emissions. (For CO2 calculator, please see the links in the Resources for an Effective Presentation)
  • Ask your audience to notify their elected officials to describe their personal concern about climate change and ask these officials to take appropriate policy action.
  • Ask your audience to contact their elected officials about legislative or administration opportunities related to climate change mitigation—such as policies to strengthen fuel economy standards or to promote energy efficiency and non-carbon fuel sources.
  • Ask your audience to financially support organizations working to mitigate climate change. There are many non-profit organizations that are hard at work on the issue of climate change. Pick a few that you know well and support, and ask your audience to consider financially supporting these organizations.


CREATE A "LEAVE BEHIND" PIECE

One of the simplest and most effective ways to ensure that your audience gets engaged on the issue of climate change is to hand out a sheet a paper with a brief overview of your presentation, a recap of your main messages, one or two suggested actions, and a list of resources for further information on the subject (include internet addresses where available).

For more information on the PowerPoint slides and how to effectively use them, click on any or all of the following links:

Last Revised: 05/23/05