Uncommunicating Climate Change in the Trump Era: Influencing Public Policy by Attempting to Control the Message

This article explores the effect of the Trump administration's withdrawal from the Paris Agreement from the perspective of climate change communication. How government communicates climate change has a strong likelihood of influencing public perception about climate change. In this way, climate change is not simply an objective phenomenon observed in nature, but it also carries a conceptual construct in the human mind. Government institutions have the ability to influence climate change as both a physical phenomenon and a social construct formed in the public's eye. By withdrawing from international consensus on the real threat posed by climate change, the Trump administration not only influences the reality of climate change but also how climate change is understood as a social construct by the public and, as a consequence, how public institutions internalize the concept of climate change into their governance structures. The implications are potentially far reaching, with immediate negative consequences disproportionately accruing to marginalized communities. There is also potential for public disconnect to influence future, proclimate change administrations.