Ongoing Outreach Projects:

The Yale Forum on Climate Change & the Media
Online since 2007, the forum fosters dialogue among climate scientists, journalists, policymakers, and the public. The Yale Forum provides ongoing original reporting, analysis, and commentary on how the media currently cover climate change science and policy, and provides working journalists with essential background knowledge and context to better report the issue. It also provides climate scientists and policy makers with practical insights on how to work more effectively with the media to inform the public about climate change. The Forum is edited by veteran environmental journalist Bud Ward, with commissioned articles by leading scientists and journalists. 

The Yale Media Roundtables on Climate Change
Workshops on climate science for executive editors, journalists, and broadcast meteorologists. The media plays a critical role in public understanding of climate change and setting the national agenda. Yet many reporters and editors desire an improved understanding of the causes, consequences, and potential solutions to climate change. This project brings leading journalists, editors, and climate scientists together in high-level roundtables to improve media reporting of climate change science.

We also organize roundtables for broadcast meteorologists and weathercasters. Most Americans get their news and information from local television news and many tune in specifically for the local weather report. Weather broadcasters are also trusted sources of weather and climate information. We organize roundtables where broadcast meteorologists and climate scientists learn from each other, discuss the links between climate change and weather, and build networks to support improved climate change reporting.

Making the Global Local: TV Weathercasters as Climate Change Educators

TV meteorologists are optimally positioned to help Americans better understand the relationship between the changing global climate and regional -- and in some cases, local -- impacts. TV meteorologists are closely followed by local TV audiences, who depend on them for credible information about the weather and extreme events. This project is constructing a national network, tools, and trainings to help broadcast meteorologists inform their viewers about the earth’s changing climate. A partnership with George Mason and Cornell Universities, NOAA, the American Meteorological Society, the National Weather Association, the American Association of State Climatologists, the American Geophysical Union, Climate Central, and the National Environmental Education Foundation.

Communicating Climate Change Through Citizen Science

You may have already observed the impacts of climate change in your region, whether in falling butterfly populations, damaged pine forests, or disrupted bird migrations. We work with science museums to develop local indicators of climate change in 12 locations across the United States. This project supports development of exhibitions, citizen data collection, and public forums. A partnership with the Association of Science & Technology Centers and the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. 

Past Outreach Events:

The National Conversation on Climate Action

The National Conversation is a day of local town hall meetings, convened by mayors across the United States, on climate change science, solutions, and action. The National Conversation is intended to catalyze a broad national discussion on the local challenges and solutions associated with global warming. In October 2007, we co-organized the first National Conversation on Climate Action, in collaboration with ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability) and the Association of Science and Technology Centers. The second National Conversation was held on Earth Day (April 22^nd), 2009, in collaboration again with ICLEI, as well as the Earth Day Network and AmericaSpeaks. More than 70 cities participated in each event.  In 2010 we partnered with the Earth Day Network for a Global Day of Conversation on Climate, Energy, and the Green Economy, held on April 22, in celebration of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.  

The Governor's Conference on Climate Change
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of President Theodore Roosevelt’s groundbreaking 1908 Conference of Governors (that launched the modern conservation movement), we organized a Governors' Conference on Climate Change on April 17 and 18, 2008. This conference recognized those governors demonstrating global leadership on climate change and also provided a forum to chart a forward path on state, national, and international action. Several provincial leaders from other countries also participated, along with many state environmental agency leaders. The meeting concluded with a Governors’ Declaration on Climate Change signed by 18 governors. 

See our 'Visions of a Sustainable World Project'  for other related work.