news climate conference facilitates healthy conversations may 1 2020 climate conference facilitates healthy conversations in february the texas a&m team rhetoric conference started important conversations around the increasingly urgent global climate crisis climate change is expected to be a dominant source of disruption in the next decade and the goal is to start conversations while there is still time to create change by mkenna norman zoe clemmons a researcher at colorado state university in the journalism & media department presented research about the way climate activist greta thunberg communicates on social media this spring the texas a&m team rhetoric conference explored the different ways climate change is communicated and how that affects the worlds ability to respond effectively dr nathan crick professor in the department of communication coordinated the february climate conference to highlight the ways climate change is a communication scientific economic and political problem that must be clearly communicated while there is still time to effect change over two days in february communicating the new climate regime: confronting the coming barbarism brought together interdisciplinary scholars to address this increasingly pressing issue held at the memorial student center the conference was made possible by a grant from the melbern g glasscock center for humanities research said crick the conference brought together largely communication scholars to talk about this from a variety of angles said crick the idea was getting a small group of people about 20 that we could have on campus and create more of a social experience for people where we could talk about our intellectual work because climate change affects everyone on the globe it is expected to be one of the dominant sources of disruption in the next decade explained crick (l-r) researchers who presented during the two-day conference included giselle warren texas a&m on parallels of the catholic churchs use of dantes inferno and climate change; iman ahmed texas a&m on how presidential rhetoric can influence climate change views; and mark ward sr university of houston-victoria on anti-intellectualism as evangelical culture and social identity climate change has economic impacts political impacts and even war said crick it disrupts agriculture desertification and flooding creates a battle over resources bringing different research aspects together allows climate change to be studied from a communication perspective which can be the best way to study different facets of climate change said crick it is also important to start these conversations now while there is time to create change he added from a personal perspective i have four kids and when i start to think about their futures i imagine a variety of scenarios said crick you start wondering if the things you take for granted are going to be true in the sense of ‘hey id like to take my kids to venice in five years but venice might be underwater in five years the conference served as a stimulus to begin new studies to investigate climate change said crick professor nathan crick texas a&m department of communication coordinated the climate conference as a mid-career scholar you want to do something that is going to speak to an issue that people care about said crick you want to make a difference the immediate impact of this type of conference is on the participants said crick its always rewarding to be able to meet people and discuss ideas everyone cares about i would hope this might be a book of my own at some point and it stimulates me to think about the large question on how to deal with the question of climate change said crick the classroom is where a lot of these ideas are incorporated said crick not necessarily to tell people what to think but to say this is something to think about conferences like this are also a way to inspire young scholars said crick which can lead to future research or even books that in turn spark more ideas and positive changes i think that is where we have most of our impact – in the classroom said crick events faculty research black lives matter texas a&m university climate change climate conference communicating the new climate regime communicating the new climate regime: confronting the coming barbarism communication skills confronting the coming barbarism department of communication dr nathan crick faculty melbern g glasscock melbern g glasscock center for humanities research memorial student center msc nathan crick tamu tamu research tamu students texas a&m research texas a&m team rhetoric conference young scholars