Scientists urge stronger climate communication as communities face worsening disasters and shrinking political attention worldwide.

As extreme heat scorches Europe, wildfire smoke spreads across North America and meteorologists warn that a powerful El Niño could reshape weather patterns across the globe, climate experts say one troubling trend has received far less attention: public conversation about climate change is fading just as its consequences become impossible to ignore. During a briefing hosted by American Community Media, scientists, environmental advocates and resilience leaders warned that political polarization and declining climate messaging are widening the gap between scientific evidence and public understanding.

Rather than focusing solely on reducing carbon emissions, the speakers emphasized the need to rethink how climate change is communicated. They argued that communities are already living through its consequences, making local resilience, environmental justice and accessible public messaging just as critical as long-term mitigation policies.

Climate impacts are becoming harder to ignore

Karen McKinnon, associate professor of statistics and the environment at UCLA, said the scientific evidence connecting climate change to many extreme weather events has become much stronger over the past decade. While discussions once centered on abstract global temperature targets, researchers can now identify with increasing confidence how climate change influences heat waves, wildfire conditions and heavy rainfall.

“We are having perhaps a reduced discourse about climate change,” McKinnon said. “But around the world, people are feeling very acutely the impacts of climate and weather extremes.”

She pointed to a series of recent events that illustrate this reality. Europe experienced record-breaking heat waves that contributed to thousands of excess deaths, while the eastern United States endured dangerous combinations of heat and humidity that forced Fourth of July celebrations to be canceled in some communities. At the same time, smoke from Canadian wildfires spread across large portions of the United States, creating hazardous air quality hundreds of miles away from the fires themselves.

Scientists are also closely monitoring the development of what could become one of the strongest El Niño events in decades. Although El Niño is a naturally occurring climate cycle, McKinnon explained that it now unfolds in a world that has already warmed significantly because of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.

“We don’t know whether climate change is changing El Niño itself,” she said. “But we do know that El Niño is now happening on top of a much warmer climate.”

That distinction matters because higher background temperatures amplify El Niño’s effects. Regions already prone to extreme heat may experience even hotter conditions, while warmer air can hold more moisture, increasing the intensity of heavy rainfall and flooding.

For McKinnon, one of the clearest examples of climate change is the increasing frequency of record-breaking heat. “Every heat wave is hotter because of climate change,” she said, explaining that natural weather patterns now develop over a warmer atmospheric baseline than they did decades ago.

She added that climate science has evolved considerably. Researchers no longer discuss only long-term global averages but can increasingly measure how climate change alters the probability and severity of individual extreme weather events. That scientific progress, she argued, should reshape how climate change is discussed with the public.

Instead of focusing primarily on targets such as limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, she believes communication should emphasize the everyday experiences people already recognize, including dangerous air quality, canceled outdoor activities, prolonged heat and wildfire smoke that keeps families indoors.

Communities are building resilience from the ground up

While scientists continue refining climate projections, many communities have already shifted their attention toward adaptation.

Shina Robinson, resilience projects director at the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), described how immigrant and refugee communities across California often face multiple environmental threats simultaneously. Many neighborhoods are located near refineries, industrial facilities or heavily trafficked transportation corridors, leaving residents exposed to chronic air pollution before climate-related disasters are even considered.

“Our communities face the daily environmental injustices you might expect from being on the front lines,” Robinson said. “Then climate impacts layer additional threats on top of those existing burdens.”

During wildfire season, smoke combines with existing pollution. During heat waves, many families live in older buildings that trap heat while lacking adequate cooling systems. Power outages can trigger additional industrial accidents or leave vulnerable residents without safe places to shelter.

To address those overlapping risks, APEN has promoted the development of resilience hubs, trusted community facilities designed to provide services before, during and after emergencies.

One of the organization’s most ambitious projects is the transformation of Oakland Chinatown’s Lincoln Recreation Center into one of the first municipal resilience hubs in the United States. The facility welcomes roughly 1,000 people each day through senior programs, youth activities, language-accessible public services and community events.

After years of advocacy, construction is scheduled to begin this month. The redesigned center will include rooftop solar panels, battery storage systems, upgraded ventilation, air filtration, emergency shelter capacity and a community kitchen capable of operating even during power outages.

For Robinson, however, resilience extends well beyond infrastructure. “Resilient communities are organized communities,” she said. “Resilient communities are connected communities.”

The recreation center illustrated that principle during the COVID-19 pandemic, when volunteers coordinated neighborhood safety patrols, distributed multilingual health information and supported isolated seniors facing both the pandemic and anti-Asian violence.

Robinson also argued that climate communication becomes far more effective when technical language is replaced with concepts people immediately understand.

Instead of discussing “equitable decarbonization,” APEN speaks with residents about healthier homes, cleaner indoor air, lower asthma rates, affordable energy and safer neighborhoods. Those conversations, she said, help connect climate policy to everyday life rather than abstract environmental goals.

She encouraged journalists to amplify local voices and allow communities to describe climate impacts in their own languages and through their own lived experiences.

Changing the climate narrative

Mark Valentine, senior advisor to the Omega Resilience Awards and founder of ReFrame It, said climate change can no longer be viewed in isolation. Instead, it intersects with economic instability, political conflict and social inequality in what many researchers describe as a “polycrisis.”

Through fellowships supporting grassroots leaders across Africa, Latin America and India, his organization has documented how communities are responding to overlapping environmental and economic pressures while developing local solutions that often receive little international attention.

Valentine cautioned that even projects intended to combat climate change can create new forms of injustice if local communities are excluded from decision-making. Mining for critical minerals, large renewable energy developments and hydroelectric projects may reduce global emissions while disrupting Indigenous lands or displacing vulnerable populations.

“Communities don’t want to be congratulated for being resilient,” he said. “They would rather not have had to survive the crisis in the first place.”

The panelists also agreed that climate coverage itself requires a new approach. Wildfires, floods and extreme heat dominate headlines, but those events are often reported individually without consistently explaining how climate change increases their frequency or intensity.

“The coverage of climate change may be disappearing,” Valentine said. “The coverage of wildfire, heat and drought certainly isn’t. What’s missing is connecting those dots.”

McKinnon acknowledged that scientists also face communication challenges. Although evidence linking climate change to heat extremes is overwhelming, other questions remain scientifically complex. She argued that acknowledging uncertainty where it exists strengthens, rather than weakens, public trust.

Meanwhile, Robinson emphasized that climate solutions should begin with the people most affected by environmental hazards. Communities living on the front lines possess practical knowledge that should shape public policy, she said, adding that resilience depends as much on participation as it does on technology.

Despite growing political polarization and climate fatigue, the speakers rejected narratives of hopelessness. McKinnon said the technologies needed to reduce emissions already exist, while Robinson argued that stronger community leadership can produce more equitable climate policies. Valentine called for shifting away from an economy driven primarily by extraction toward one centered on collective well-being.

Together, the panelists delivered a shared message: the scientific evidence is becoming clearer, communities are already adapting to escalating climate risks and practical solutions are available. The greatest remaining challenge is ensuring that public conversation, political leadership and media coverage keep pace with the accelerating realities of a changing climate.