In its 2010 Climate Change Response Strategy, the National Park Service unveiled four core messages to be used Service-wide in external and internal communication. They are as follows:

• Climate change is happening and human activities are contributing to and accelerating it.

• Changing climate has consequences for parks, people, and the planet.

• The National Park Service is responding with practices that address climate change.

• The choices we make now may help to avoid catastrophic impacts in the future.

Similar messaging is also being implemented by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other organizations. The components of the key points—that climate change is occurring, that we are certain that it is occurring, that it will have negative consequences for people and the environment, that people’s activities are a primary cause, and that there are actions we can take to ameliorate its effects—are based on research that suggests that people who hold these beliefs and attitudes are more likely to be convinced of the seriousness of the phenomenon and of the importance of taking action (Krosnick et al. 2006). The study adapted a theoretical model of opinion formation to global warming using two surveys conducted in the mid- to late 1990s. The National Park Service may wish to evaluate the messaging strategy experimentally—as indeed recommended by the study’s authors—to assess whether or not providing this factual information increases audience engagement on climate change.

Correspondence author: Karen Akerlof.