Evidence-based communication on climate change and health: Testing videos, text, and maps on climate change and Lyme disease in Manitoba, Canada

RESEARCH ARTICLE Evidence-based communication on climate change and health: Testing videos, text, and maps on climate change and Lyme disease in Manitoba, Canada Laura CameronID*, Rhe´ a Rocque, Kailey Penner, Ian Mauro Prairie Climate Centre, University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada * lp.cameron@uwinnipeg.ca Abstract Given the climate crisis and its cumulative impacts on public health, effective communica- tion strategies that engage the public in adaptation and mitigation are critical. Many have argued that a health frame increases engagement, as do visual methodologies including online and interactive platforms, yet to date there has been limited research on audience responses to health messaging using visual interventions. This study explores public atti- tudes regarding communication tools focused on climate change and climate-affected Lyme disease through six focus groups (n = 61) in rural and urban southern Manitoba, Canada. The results add to the growing evidence of the efficacy of visual and storytelling methods in climate communications and argues for a continuum of mediums: moving from video, text, to maps. Findings underscore the importance of tailoring both communication messages and mediums to increase uptake of adaptive health and environmental behaviours, for some audiences bridging health and climate change while for others strategically decoupling them. Introduction The study of climate communications has become increasingly active over the past two decades [1], which is important given that research on mitigation and adaptation are more

robust than strategies for how best to engage people with this information [2]. Climate com- munications research unpacks the challenges for reaching audiences, including: the complex- ity of climate messages and lack of public scientific literacy (e.g. [3]); the public perception that climate impacts are felt elsewhere, known as psychological distancing (e.g. [4–6]); and the importance of uncertainty in climate science versus how it is perceived by the public (e.g. [2,3]). There is a growing need to emotionally connect climate change with the values of spe- cific audiences. One climate communications approach is to frame the issue in relation to other concerns of the audience, such as health. A public health framing of climate change has been found to shift the issue from being overly complex and distant to becoming more personal and relatable PLOS ONE PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0252952 June 10, 2021 1 / 17 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 OPEN ACCESS Citation: Cameron L, Rocque R, Penner K, Mauro I (2021) Evidence-based communication on climate change and health: Testing videos, text, and maps on climate change and Lyme disease in Manitoba, Canada. PLoS ONE 16(6): e0252952. https://doi. org/10.1371/journal.pone.0252952 Editor: Brian Stevenson, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, UNITED STATES Received: November 24, 2020 Accepted: May 25, 2021 Published: June 10, 2021 Copyright: © 2021 Cameron et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which

permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability Statement: Data cannot be shared publicly because of the ethics protocol under the University of Winnipeg Human Research Ethics Board. Inquiries about data can be directed to the University of Winnipeg Human Research Ethics Committee (contact via ethics@uwinnipeg. ca). Funding: This research was funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada, grant number 1819-HQ- 000156. The funders were involved in supporting the research question development, but were not