The foreword to a collection of essays, it discusses the choice people have in either mitigating and adapting to or ignoring climate change, why communicating and engaging with the public is important in the climate change debate and how that may be achieved.

Key Takeaways:

• Fostering change among the public will require more than raising awareness.
• Public understanding of climate change needs to be strengthened in order to protect it from those attempting to undermine climate change science.
• Effective outreach acknowledges the strong social influences on people’s behavior and choices.
• Addressing consumption behavior at the same time as civic and political engagement will encourage change more than looking at these issues separately.
• Changing habits and behaviors should include a combination of bottom-up grassroots initiatives with top-down mandates.