SEMINAR: Science Communication Seminar Series

I present an overview of some results from Australian national surveys of public beliefs about climate change, and other studies of some of the social processes underlying the public's understanding of climate change. I argue for the general views that beliefs about climate change are socially and psychologically motivated, that people systematically distort what they think other people think about climate change, and that 'environmental' behaviours are motivated as much by non-environmental factors as by environmental ones. These conclusions describe a difficult situation in which to communicate climate change science.