[Commlist] CFP Biodiversity and Climate Change Conference: ECREA's Science and Environment Communication Section

CFP: Biodiversity and climate change
Call for abstracts  ECREA Science & Environmental Communication Section 
Dates: 16-17. October 2023 Hosted by: Segovia Campus of the University 
of Valladolid, Spain  Location: Segovia (Spain) and online (hybrid) 
Organised by: Mette Marie Roslyng, Aalborg University, Denmark Miguel 
Vicente Mariño, University of Valladolid, Spain Mikkel Fugl Eskjær, 
Aalborg University, Denmark  Biodiversity and climate change – 
communicating interlocking dimensions of the ecological crisis
The current ecological crisis is a crisis of biodiversity and climate 
change. Both topics have surpassed the safe limits of our planetary 
boundaries. However, biodiversity and climate change are also 
inextricably connected. Climate change accelerates the loss of 
biodiversity and natural habitats while biodiversity and healthy 
ecosystems improve resilience to climate change. Despite the obvious 
links between biodiversity and climate change, biodiversity often seems 
to slip under the radar compared to global climate change. Some studies 
suggest that climate change gets up to eight times more media attention 
compared to the biodiversity crisis.

In recent years, there have been a few noteworthy exceptions to this 
general pattern.  The 2019 rapport by the Intergovernmental 
Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) 
concluded that we are facing an alarming increase in the human caused 
extinction rate of species and natural habitats. The publication 
triggered considerable media attention and renewed public concern for 
biodiversity and habitat loss. The 2022 UN Biodiversity Conference in 
Montreal (COP15) which led to the 30-by-30 agreement (protection of 30% 
of Earth’s land and ocean by 2030) had a similar effect. Both events 
momentarily changed the discourse on the ecological crisis by turning 
the attention to the deterioration of ecosystems and its consequences 
for climate change. However, with the publication of IPCC’s 6th 
Assessment Report on climate change (2022-23) global media has once 
again turned their attention away from biodiversity and ecosystem 
services. This suggests that the risks of climate change may be easier 
to grasp and communicate than the decline in biodiversity. As a recent 
report concluded: “the scale of the threats to the biosphere and all its 
lifeforms—including humanity—is in fact so great that it is difficult to 
grasp for even well-informed experts”.  This raises questions about the 
dynamics behind media attention to climate change and biodiversity. What 
are the mechanisms governing the two agendas?  When and where do they 
differ? And why do media report less on biodiversity compared to climate 
change? It also raises wider communicative questions about global and 
national environmental policies from key actors that relate to 
biodiversity and climate change as well as possible scientific 
controversies underlining the issue.
The ECREA Science and Environment Communication Section’s interim 
conference intends to investigate the full range of biodiversity 
communication. Both as a topic on its own, but also in relation to 
climate change and the wider ecological crisis. We wish to explore how 
we communicate on biodiversity in the press and digital media. How can 
communication on biodiversity help raise awareness and encourage public 
engagement? How do the media communicate the complexities of ecosystem 
services. And how are habitat loss and the need to rebuild ecosystems 
visualized. We invite papers that address issues relating broadly to 
biodiversity communication. We welcome contributions from Environmental 
and Science Communication, Political Communication, Strategic 
Communications, Environmental Humanities, or other related fields, as 
well as papers adopting diverse methodological approaches.
Topics for submission include, but are not limited to:
 •	Biodiversity as media agenda •	Biodiversity as risk in the 
Anthropocene •	Crises of biodiversity and climate change: connections 
and disconnections? •	The politicisation and de-politicisation of 
biodiversity on global, local, and national agendas •	Scientific 
conflicts and controversies pertaining to biodiversity  •	Biodiversity 
and issues of inequality and environmental justice •	Biodiversity and 
more-than-human communication •	Educational communication and biodiversity

Abstracts, including title, name, affiliation, and email of 
presenter(s), should be no longer than 400 words (excl. references) 
outlining research questions, methodology and the expected contributions 
of the presentation.  Please indicate if you plan to participate on site 
or on-line. Submission should be sent to Mette Marie Roslyng on the 
following email (mmroslyng /at/ ikp.aau.dk) before June 30th, 2023.



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