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Climate change is not only a scientific phenomenon, but also a cultural one. Individuals’ opinions on climate change are often based on emotion rather than on scientific evidence. Therefore, research into the emotional characteristics of the imagery that the non-expert public find relevant to climate change is important in order to build a database of effective climate change imagery, which can then be used by scientists, policymakers, and practitioners in mobilizing climate adaptation and resilience efforts. To this end, we collected ratings of relevance to climate change as well as emotional arousal and valence on 320 images to assess the relationship between relevance to climate change and the emotional qualities of the image. In addition, participants’ environmental beliefs were measured, to investigate the relationship between beliefs and image ratings. The results suggest that images rated highly relevant to climate change are higher in negative emotional valence and emotional arousal. Overall, images were rated as being more relevant to climate change by participants with higher pro-environmental disposition. Critically, we have compiled the mean relevance, valence, and arousal ratings of each of these 320 images into a database that is posted online and freely available ( https://affectiveclimateimages.weebly.com ; https://www.nmu.edu/affectiveclimateimages ) for use in future research on climate change visuals.

Natural resource agencies in the United States have a huge responsibility to protect and manage public lands as well as effectively communicate with diverse publics about land management issues. One of these issues is how best to deal with the impacts of climate change on our nation’s treasured landscapes. Fortunately, a recent surge of research and theorizing in the social sciences on communication about climate change can inform natural resource communication efforts. What insights can scholars share with communication practitioners and public land managers? What communication principles will help them create effective strategies for communicating about climate change? How can scholars best communicate the complexity of climate change impacts and nuances of changes at landscape scales? To begin to address these questions, Colorado State University researchers, in partnership with the Office of the Governor of the State of Colorado, hosted a 3-day workshop on the challenges and opportunities associated with communicating about climate change on public lands in the western United States. This commentary summarizes ideas generated from workshop discussions, including 9 key messages and 10 key principles for effective climate change communication in a land management context.

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