Emmy-Award-winning meteorologists Bernadette Woods Placky and Anthony Yanez will share advice for discussing climate change at a free online workshop, 7 p.m. Thursday, March 4 via Zoom. To attend, register here.

Moderated by Lisa Leombruni, UCSB Bren School environmental communication program director, the workshop is jointly hosted by Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Community Environmental Council (CEC), and Climate Central, with support from the museum’s Christel Bejenke Fund.

Climate change can be a complicated and intimidating subject. Misinformation, political opinions, varying levels of science literacy, and the inherent complexity of interactions between parts of the planet’s climate system all pose challenges to clear communication.

Meteorologists frequently discuss climate change with general audiences and are uniquely qualified to explain relevant and accurate information in an accessible way. Placky, Yanez and Leombruni will share how they tackle this difficult issue, and how others can, too.

The organizers and panelists have designed the event to be interactive workshop, in the hopes of maximizing benefits to participants by suiting the content to their needs and questions. Participants will be able to use Zoom’s polling feature to influence the course of the workshop. Panelists will give the audience the opportunity to vote to determine which topics they’ll discuss in depth.

“Surveys show that most Americans know that the climate is changing, but they have questions about what that means for them, their families, and their communities. At the same time, they rarely discuss the subject,” Placky said. “One of the most important actions that anyone can take to address climate change is just to talk about it.”
 
Yanez is a meteorologist for NBC4 Los Angeles, with 20 years of broadcast experience. Placky is chief meteorologist and Climate Matters program director for Climate Central, an independent nonprofit group of scientists and communicators who research and communicate climate science.

Their Climate Matters program provides data and graphics to a network of over 970 TV meteorologists, nearly half of all meteorologists in the U.S. For more information, visit climatecentral.org.
 
Leombruni is a lecturer for the Strategic Environmental Communication and Media Program at UCSB’s Bren School of Environmental Science and Management. Previously, she worked for NOVA/WGBH Boston, where she co-developed proposals for new TV programs, oversaw media evaluation and impact studies, and conducted editorial research. She recently joined the CEC Board.
 
The event is the third in a series of community conversations hosted by the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History in collaboration with community partners. CEC has partnered with the museum for all three events. The museum and partners began the series in response to rising community interest in climate change following the Thomas Fire and subsequent debris flow.

The first event was Drought, Fire, and Flood: Climate Change and Our New Normal, held April 25, 2018; the museum hosted Two Years After Fire and Flood: A Community Conversation About the Impacts of the Thomas Fire and Jan. 9 Debris Flow on Jan. 26, 2020.