Environmental Communication and Perceptions Among Different Age Groups and Expertise Level

This dissertation contains three distinct chapters covering wide-ranging topics related to environmental communication and perceptions. In the first chapter, I examine the role of communication for predicting climate change behavior among adolescents. Engaging adolescents is critical to encouraging climate change adaptation and mitigation. Adolescents are typically more receptive to climate change messages than adults, but further research is needed to understand what factors are most influential in changing behaviors. To better understand how communication with teachers, friends, and family, climate change knowledge, and climate change concern predict climate change behavior, a survey was administered to a random sample of middle school students in North Carolina. Among respondents, climate change concern and discussing climate change with family and friends predicted climate change behavior. Further, students from urban, high socioeconomic status schools were more likely to engage in climate change behavior than students in urban low socioeconomic status schools or rural schools. These results suggest that education efforts should leverage communication with family and friends in programing designed to encourage climate change behavior. Efforts to promote climate change behavior among low socioeconomic status urban and rural adolescents will require an understanding of potential barriers to engagement.;In the second chapter, I examine the potential impacts, ethical dilemmas, and governance needs for de-extinction with a survey of synthetic biology experts. Advances in biotechnology may allow for de-extinction of species, but potential impacts remain uncertain. De-extinct species may improve ecosystem function or hinder conservation efforts and damage socioecological systems. To better anticipate impacts, synthetic biology experts from multiple disciplinary backgrounds were surveyed. A mixed-method approach to analysis integrated quantitative responses regarding perceived likelihood of risks and benefits with qualitative responses, to clarify and provide context. Overall, survey participants indicated de-extinction was more likely to induce hazards, not benefits. Reasons for this viewpoint included a "moral hazard" argument, suggesting conservation policies could be undermined if society comes to believe that species can simply be revived in the future. Pessimistic views of de-extinction were linked to concerns about unclear development paths for de-extinction. Participants suggested several entities to potentially govern de-extinction, including biotechnology regulators and environmental management agencies. Experts believed the public would likely be skeptical about de-extinction, due to concerns rooted in science fiction. Our results suggest future de-extinction efforts may benefit from collaborative efforts between stakeholder groups to explore which concerns are most prevalent among the engaged public.;In the third chapter, I examine the news media framing of invasive rodent eradications on islands. Invasive rodents are a major threat to global island biodiversity and have been eradicated from hundreds of islands. Eradication efforts can be contentious due to animal welfare concerns and risk to non-target species. The news media plays a critical role by providing information and context for eradications. To better understand how the news media frames eradications, I conducted a thematic content analysis of 462 newspaper articles published between 1993 and 2014. Articles were analyzed to determine if eradications were framed as conquests or conflicts. Articles often emphasized key elements of a conquest frame, including recast rules and norms, being on frontiers, positioned heroes against nature, creating drama by questioning the success of heroes, orienting towards the future, and positioning the audience as an awestruck witness. Articles rarely framed rodent eradications as conflicts. Results suggest that unique aspects of rodent eradications may encourage conquest framing and that cultural contexts of place shape framing between countries. In conclusion, rodent eradication framing by the media has largely supported rodent eradication efforts on islands, but that may change when using different eradication methods or when eradications are planned for inhabited islands.