Global Warming

For some time, the issue of global warming has been part of public discourse. And yet, even though the issue is widely discussed, public opinion data from just a few years ago show that global warming is little understood by most Americans. The Climate Message Project, a coalition of major environmental organizations, asked FrameWorks to conduct research on how Americans reason about this issue and how to identify ways to reframe the issue for the next generation of communications.

The FrameWorks research on global warming includes in-depth conversations with environmental organizations, in-depth cognitive interviews with the public, a review and analysis of existing survey research, a conceptual metaphor analysis, a new national public opinion poll, content analysis of news, media effects tests, and talkback testing. This research was conducted by Meg Bostrom, Joseph Grady, Axel Aubrun, Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr., the Center for Media and Public Affairs, George Lakoff, and Pamela Morgan. The result of the research is a toolkit, a fully narrated presentation on CD-Rom, additional application materials, workshops, and complete research reports. These reports are proprietary to the Climate Message Project. For more information about this project, please contact Jennifer Emerson at the Natural Resources Defense Council, 202-289-2401.