The scientific consensus is that human activity is cooking the planet. Does President-elect Trump calling it a hoax embolden others in denial?

Many people are concerned about the climate and deeply anxious that the new administration will double down on fossil fuels and erase recent climate progress. Ten years ago Republicans John McCain and Lindsay Graham supported fighting climate change. But the party has changed it’s tune in recent years.

Climate scientist Michael Mann and Pulitzer-Prize winning cartoonist Tom Toles take a satirical look at how the issue became so divisive. Cristine Russell is a veteran science journalist with deep knowledge about the politicization of science. Renee Lertzman gets to the psychology of it all. Are we all in denial to some extent? Can better communication help us expand common ground and move on to solutions? Join us for a fun and informative look at manufactured doubt and genuine skepticism.

At the Garrison Institute's 2011 Climate, Mind and Behavior Symposium, Renee Lertzman discusses the importance of attending to emotional, affective and unconscious dimensions of climate change communications and outreach strategy. To learn more about the Garrison Institute's Climate, Mind & Behavior Initiative: Uploaded on Mar 30, 2011

Public information campaigns and apathetic non-responders or?  Dr. Lertzman challenges existing assumptions around the public response to climate change. She suggests how we re-frame issues to be more successful at protecting the environment and our people.

Renee Lertzman is an applied researcher and strategic communications specialist. Her work targets how to generate actual, lasting behavior change. It is a systems-based psychosocial approach – scalable, potent, and goes deep.

Renee Lertzman, Ph.D. is a researcher, writer and communications consultant, focusing specifically on the psychological dimensions of sustainability. She gave a lecture to the Social Sustainability Colloquium at Portland State University (PSU), Portland, Oregon on February 4, 2010 on the topic, The Myth of Apathy or Why People Don't Seem to Care About Sustainability.

Renee has been involved in the sustainability sector for two decades. She has consulted and worked with numerous organizations, and her research has received recognition for its innovation and insight. She holds a master's degree in Communication Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a doctoral degree from the Cardiff School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University, UK, where she trained and developed psychosocial research methodologies applied to sustainability. Her work has been featured in the New York Times "Dot Earth," KBOO Radio, and The Ecologist. More about Renee on her Website.