Last updated: January 19, 2025
Article
How Parks’ Popular Webpages Can Benefit the Climate Conversation
Many Americans are reluctant to talk with one another about climate change. This may have a chilling effect on addressing its impacts in and outside national parks. Online information and storytelling could encourage meaningful dialogue.
By Claire Baker
There’s evidence that the U.S. National Park System is experiencing greater warming from climate change than the U.S. as a whole. This is affecting park resources as varied as brook trout and shell middens. When we consider how national parks are responding to climate change, we might think of actions like installing solar panels on park buildings or using electric buses to shuttle visitors. Or like protecting iconic landscapes from increased drought and wildfire. But there’s another, essential action parks can take to address climate change: help people discuss it.
For a variety of reasons, that may not be as easy as it sounds. The 2023 Yale Climate Opinion Map estimates that around 64 percent of U.S. adults worry about global warming, but only 36 percent talk about it with others. An earlier assessment by the National Park Service highlights the potential for more parks to share climate information with the public online. Such content may be a way to help further the conversation.
Helping to Fill an Unmet Need
The tendency to avoid discussing climate change can make it hard for people to see they’re not alone in caring about it. In fact, a 2022 study indicated that up to 90 percent of Americans underestimate public support for climate policy. Sixty-six to 80 percent of the people in the study showed support. But most of them thought that number would be no more than 43 percent.
The bottom line is that many—if not most—people care about climate change. Yet they may feel that discourse on the subject would be unwelcome.
The bottom line is that many—if not most—people care about climate change. Yet they may feel that discourse on the subject would be unwelcome. It takes a lot more courage to discuss something when it seems unpopular. Parks can share insights and facilitate discussion about climate change in an unthreatening way. This can help break the silence and show people they aren’t alone in caring about it.
Encouraging Meaningful Conversations
The internet has vastly expanded the number of people that parks reach each year. An internal analysis of nps.gov websites showed that Yellowstone National Park, for example, had three times as many webpage users than in-person visits in 2023. And more than 15 percent of all 2023 nps.gov webpage visitors who responded to an online satisfaction survey said they came to “learn more about science, research, natural resources, history, or cultural heritage.” National Park Service online content thus has enormous potential to reach a large audience.
A 2012 survey of 16 national parks and national wildlife refuges indicated visitors want to hear from parks about climate change. And 46 percent of respondents said they preferred to hear about it through park websites. In 2023, nps.gov webpages related to climate change had more than 217,000 users, according to internal analytics. That was a 70 percent increase over the more than 125,000 users in 2019. The popularity of this form of climate information may be because it helps people avoid conflict or other perceived barriers to communication. But more study is needed to test this hypothesis.
Websites are an efficient and effective way for parks to impart meaningful information on climate impacts, causes, and actions. Staff can publish and update webpages more easily than permanent exhibits. Park-specific websites can tell stories of localized climate impacts and actions, which are more likely to resonate with visitors and staff. They can also be sources of pre-packaged content for interpretive staff to use in ranger programs.
These results suggest that visitors trust parks to provide reliable information and are receptive when parks propose actions for them to take.
In a study by Yale University, many Americans said they’d act on climate change if someone they liked and respected encouraged them to. A 2024 Pew Research Center survey found that most Americans have a high opinion of the National Park Service. In a recent assessment of attitudes towards actions to protect bats, up to 69 percent of park visitors said their decisions were strongly influenced by staff.
These results suggest that visitors trust parks to provide reliable information and are receptive when parks propose actions for them to take. What visitors learn on park webpages can thus help encourage meaningful discourse on climate change between them and their relatives, friends, and communities.
Sharing Parks’ Climate Stories
A 2019 assessment found that more than 11 percent of U.S. national parks had climate change webpages for public education. Internal data showed that number had grown to more than 21 percent in 2024. That’s about an 85 percent increase in five years, an enormous investment in digital climate communications across the agency. But many parks still aren’t sharing their climate change information online.
Affected communities and park visitors are likely to look for information online to better understand their experiences.
Climate change impacts are increasingly obvious to people as they experience them in their own neighborhoods or in national parks they visit. Affected communities and park visitors are likely to look for information online to better understand their experiences. Park websites can help them do that.
Tips for Top-Notch Climate Websites
The Climate Change Response Program has assisted parks in developing their own climate change webpages. The program has some tips for parks interested in developing effective climate websites.
Tip No. 1: Focus on Solutions
A recent study from the Yale Center on Climate Communications found that Americans’ top question for climate scientists is how to solve global warming. The most viewed nps.gov climate change page in 2023 focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions at home. When talking about climate impacts, it’s important to emphasize solutions.
- Show how climate actions can shape the future for U.S. national parks and beyond. For example, compare projected climate impacts on a park from different greenhouse gas emission scenarios.
- Suggest specific, meaningful actions that readers can take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
See it in action!
- Capitol Reef National Park has an extensive “How can we respond?” section
- Theodore Roosevelt National Park has a “How are we responding to climate change?” section right up front, before talking about impacts.
Tip No. 2: Let Readers Choose What Interests Them
Long, unlabeled streams of information can put readers off. To keep them engaged, it’s important to make the content navigable and allow for choice.
- Organize the narrative into sections with short, catchy, section headings. There’s an overwhelming amount of information on the internet, and studies show that website visitors are apt to skim the page before reading it in depth. Labeling sections clearly can help them find what they’re looking for quickly. This will help keep them engaged.
- Place the information that’s most important for readers or park visitors at or near the top.
- Use “opt-in” content. This could mean splitting it up into multiple pages or placing it under dropdown menus. This makes the website more interactive and makes it easier for readers to quickly choose the topics they’re interested in.
See it in action!
- Golden Gate National Recreation Area breaks down all its content into attractive links to other pages, enabling readers to follow their specific interests.
- Glacier National Park makes use of dropdown elements to keep information on one page while still letting people follow their interests.
Tip No. 3: Make a Strong Visual Impact
It’s trite, but it may be true according to a 2018 study: a picture is worth a thousand words. More precisely, one picture can affect people strongly, where the equivalent word might not. Use images to show rather than tell messages about climate impacts. Visual design elements can guide readers through content and emphasize key messages. Eye-catching images will resonate emotionally with readers and encourage them to dig deeper.
- Follow evidence-based principles when picking pictures. Show photos of real people. Emphasize local impacts. Use original and authentic material. Photos of affected wildlife, staff, or park visitors could be good options. Follow agency best practices when using images of people.
- Make use of dynamic visual design like interactive sliders, where readers can manually compare two images. These can be especially effective in helping key themes stick in readers’ minds.
See it in action!
- Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail uses an interactive slider to compare temperature impacts in different greenhouse gas emission scenarios.
- Yosemite National Park uses vivid images and an animated graph to illustrate temperature increases since 1875.
Tip No. 4: Tell Stories—Not Just Facts
People love stories, and U.S. national park interpretive rangers know well the power of a good story. That’s why ranger talks in national parks are such popular events. Visitors attend them because they know they’ll hear a good—even extraordinary—story. But oral storytelling isn’t the only way to harness that power. There’s evidence that online climate stories are also more effective than facts in engaging readers.
Effective climate stories aren’t always specifically about climate change. They can be about how people respond to hard times. The struggle to cope with a changing climate isn’t the first time people have worked together to face an enormous challenge. Parks can incorporate the lessons of history on their climate websites.
- Weave stories into websites. They can be longer sections or short snippets. Any storytelling will make web content more engaging and meaningful.
- Effective stories can take many forms: How are climate impacts affecting people’s everyday lives? How have people taken care of places they love in the past? What choices did people make in the past that led to the present situation?
- The National Park Service’s History & Hope for Climate Action toolkit helps park interpreters and other communicators connect stories from the past to climate change and climate action. The toolkit consists of an online publication, a worksheet, and an interactive website for DOI employees.
See it in action!
- Boston African American National Historic Site makes connections between the actions of abolitionists and climate change.
- Rock Creek Park tells a story about extreme heat.
Positive Ripple Effects
Sometimes great things come from humble beginnings. Adding a climate change webpage to a park website may seem like a small action. But multiplied by the number of people who visit that website each year, its impact could have ripple effects. One individual’s website experience could positively influence family and friends. They, in turn, could influence parks and communities and so on until their collective actions affect the nation or even the world.
If the only thing a park climate webpage does is provide the tools for people to have a conversation they were formerly reluctant to have, that could be transformational.
Not talking about climate change doesn’t make it go away. If the only thing a park climate webpage does is provide the tools for people to have a conversation they were formerly reluctant to have, that could be transformational.
Claire Baker is a science communication assistant with the National Park Service’s Climate Change Response Program. Image courtesy of Claire Baker.
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