Communicating With the Public on Ecological Issues: A Survey of EPA Staff. D. Golding, M. Dover, and E. McNamara, Center for Technology, Environment, and Development (CENTED), George Perkins Marsh Institute, Clark University, 950 Main Street, Worcester, MA 01610
This paper summarizes the results of a survey of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) staff about communicating with the public on ecological issues (that is, the non-human effects of pollution, physical disturbances, and other human activities). The survey instrument was developed by researchers at the Clark University, in close collaboration with senior members of the Science Policy Staff in the Office of Policy, Planning and Evaluation (OPPE). The survey gathered information on 41 cases of successful communication about ecological issues and found that no single approach guarantees success. There was a consensus among respondents that the public has a poor understanding of ecological issues and there is, therefore, a great need for educational and outreach efforts. Communicating about ecological issues, however, may be more difficult than health risk communication largely because the issues, terms, and concepts are more complex and members of the public fail to personalize the issues to the same extent.
Work supported by the Office of Sustainable Communities and Ecosystems (OSEC), Office of Policy, Planning, and Evaluation (OPPE), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, under Cooperative Agreement No. CX 823519-01-0.