Climate change is already taking a toll in the United States and globally and thereby threatens public safety and challenges national security. This reality requires educating the American public about climate change in tandem with security. However, climate change is not usually associated with national security to the public, although the climate security framework may accelerate to buffer the combative posture from the climate-dismissive and reduce polarization amongst political parties. In this study, we seek to provide an in-depth understanding of barriers to climate communication by bringing together climate politics and communication literature. We identify information silo effect and ideological factors that cause both conservative and liberal individuals to believe a certain way about certain issues and use motivated reasoning to justify those beliefs. We also suggest a potentially viable way to educate people about climate change and expand the notion of national security in public discourses. We argue that to help individuals see climate change as a security issue, climate communication should focus on fostering community resilience with local climate issues. In this way, policymakers can avoid getting trapped in an infinite loop of debate about climate science and overcome polarization while helping communities understand climate change as a national security issue and adapt to climate-induced impacts on ecosystem and community viability.
| Published in | International and Public Affairs (Volume 8, Issue 1) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ipa.20240801.12 |
| Page(s) | 11-20 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group |
National Security, Climate Adaptation, Motivated Avoidance, Climate Communication Barriers, Information Silo, Ideology
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APA Style
Beauregard, J., Kim, Y. (2024). Redefining Climate Change as a National Security Issue: Local Climate Adaptation as a Communicative Point. International and Public Affairs, 8(1), 11-20. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ipa.20240801.12
ACS Style
Beauregard, J.; Kim, Y. Redefining Climate Change as a National Security Issue: Local Climate Adaptation as a Communicative Point. Int. Public Aff. 2024, 8(1), 11-20. doi: 10.11648/j.ipa.20240801.12
AMA Style
Beauregard J, Kim Y. Redefining Climate Change as a National Security Issue: Local Climate Adaptation as a Communicative Point. Int Public Aff. 2024;8(1):11-20. doi: 10.11648/j.ipa.20240801.12
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Download@article{10.11648/j.ipa.20240801.12,
author = {Jordan Beauregard and Younsung Kim},
title = {Redefining Climate Change as a National Security Issue: Local Climate Adaptation as a Communicative Point
},
journal = {International and Public Affairs},
volume = {8},
number = {1},
pages = {11-20},
doi = {10.11648/j.ipa.20240801.12},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ipa.20240801.12},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ipa.20240801.12},
abstract = {Climate change is already taking a toll in the United States and globally and thereby threatens public safety and challenges national security. This reality requires educating the American public about climate change in tandem with security. However, climate change is not usually associated with national security to the public, although the climate security framework may accelerate to buffer the combative posture from the climate-dismissive and reduce polarization amongst political parties. In this study, we seek to provide an in-depth understanding of barriers to climate communication by bringing together climate politics and communication literature. We identify information silo effect and ideological factors that cause both conservative and liberal individuals to believe a certain way about certain issues and use motivated reasoning to justify those beliefs. We also suggest a potentially viable way to educate people about climate change and expand the notion of national security in public discourses. We argue that to help individuals see climate change as a security issue, climate communication should focus on fostering community resilience with local climate issues. In this way, policymakers can avoid getting trapped in an infinite loop of debate about climate science and overcome polarization while helping communities understand climate change as a national security issue and adapt to climate-induced impacts on ecosystem and community viability.
},
year = {2024}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Redefining Climate Change as a National Security Issue: Local Climate Adaptation as a Communicative Point AU - Jordan Beauregard AU - Younsung Kim Y1 - 2024/08/27 PY - 2024 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ipa.20240801.12 DO - 10.11648/j.ipa.20240801.12 T2 - International and Public Affairs JF - International and Public Affairs JO - International and Public Affairs SP - 11 EP - 20 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2640-4192 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ipa.20240801.12 AB - Climate change is already taking a toll in the United States and globally and thereby threatens public safety and challenges national security. This reality requires educating the American public about climate change in tandem with security. However, climate change is not usually associated with national security to the public, although the climate security framework may accelerate to buffer the combative posture from the climate-dismissive and reduce polarization amongst political parties. In this study, we seek to provide an in-depth understanding of barriers to climate communication by bringing together climate politics and communication literature. We identify information silo effect and ideological factors that cause both conservative and liberal individuals to believe a certain way about certain issues and use motivated reasoning to justify those beliefs. We also suggest a potentially viable way to educate people about climate change and expand the notion of national security in public discourses. We argue that to help individuals see climate change as a security issue, climate communication should focus on fostering community resilience with local climate issues. In this way, policymakers can avoid getting trapped in an infinite loop of debate about climate science and overcome polarization while helping communities understand climate change as a national security issue and adapt to climate-induced impacts on ecosystem and community viability. VL - 8 IS - 1 ER -
Global Affairs Program, George Mason University, Fairfax, United States
Department of Environmental Science and Policy, George Mason University, Fairfax, United States
