Dear Friends,
We are pleased to announce the publication of a new article, “Professional Engagement with Climate Change Among Five Communities of Practice in Virginia, USA: An Exploratory Study,” in the journal Climate Resilience and Sustainability.
Communities across the United States – and around the world – face profound challenges in adapting to and mitigating climate change. Public-sector professionals are often on the front lines of these efforts, yet relatively little is known about how different professional communities of practice perceive climate-related risks, engage with them in their daily work, and view their role in communicating with the public. To help address this gap, we conducted 56 in-depth interviews with members of five communities of practice in Virginia: elected officials, environmental advocates, emergency management planners, firefighters, and regional planning officials.
Across all five groups, participants described grappling with how climate change affects their work. Many reported struggling to fully understand the implications of a changing climate for their communities and felt under-resourced to meet the growing challenges they face. Although this study focused on Virginia, these themes are likely applicable for professionals in similar roles elsewhere.
Our findings point to specific opportunities for each community of practice, but one conclusion stands out: the first responder community, particularly firefighters and emergency management planners, appears especially well-positioned to serve as trusted local voices on climate change. These professionals often see climate-related impacts firsthand and expressed interest in doing more to address these risks. As such, they are promising partners for public universities and state and federal agencies seeking to strengthen community climate resilience.
We identify several forms of support that could help activate these professionals as effective climate communicators: providing localized and contextualized data; facilitating networking within and across their communities of practice; amplifying the work of existing climate opinion leaders in these contexts; and convening opportunities for peer-sharing and training on how to communicate climate risks and solutions to community members, colleagues, and local elected officials.
The full article is available in Climate Resilience and Sustainability (see link below).
As always, thanks for your interest and support of our work!
On behalf of the research team: Teresa Myers, Em Kohl, M.A., Doran Tucker, John Kotcher, and yours truly.