New Episode of Resources Radio on the Credibility of Climate Communicators, with Shahzeen Attari
WASHINGTON, DC—Resources for the Future (RFF) today released a new installment of Resources Radio: “Are Climate Communicators Credible?, with Shahzeen Attari.”
In this week’s podcast, host Daniel Raimi interviews Shahzeen Attari, a professor in the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Bloomington. Attari gives her perspective on the question of whether or not individual effort in reducing personal carbon footprints is as essential as large-scale decarbonization policy. Attari also discusses how climate communicators’ carbon footprint can impact their credibility, and whether or not they can reestablish it after a past of heavy engagement in high carbon-emitting activities such as frequent flying.
Notable quotes from the podcast:
- “There's a problematic discourse that has been growing within the climate change community. There are some people, some advocates, who basically say, ‘Individual behavior does not matter at all. All we need is policy support.’ I actually disagree with that pretty strongly because I think individual behavior in aggregate can make a huge difference.” —Shahzeen Attari (6:07)
- “In the climate change debate, the personal behavior of the advocate can have an enormous effect on the audience's intention to conserve energy and a substantial effect on the audience's support for climate related public policies.” —Shahzeen Attari (9:15)
- “More and more people are starting to engage their audience members with what they themselves are doing to address the problem [of climate change] and what their audience members can do. I think that this is a pivotal change that's happening, given how challenging the problem is and how quickly we need to act.”—Shahzeen Attari (12:49)
Resources Radio is a weekly podcast series exploring timely environmental, energy, and natural resources topics, and can be found on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, and SoundCloud.
Resources for the Future (RFF) is an independent, nonprofit research institution in Washington, DC. Its mission is to improve environmental, energy, and natural resource decisions through impartial economic research and policy engagement. RFF is committed to being the most widely trusted source of research insights and policy solutions leading to a healthy environment and a thriving economy.
Unless otherwise stated, the views expressed here are those of the individual authors and may differ from those of other RFF experts, its officers, or its directors. RFF does not take positions on specific legislative proposals.
For more information, please see our media resources page or contact Media Relations and Communications Specialist Annie McDarris.
