Uncertainty in Strategic Environmental Communication

Strategic communication can powerfully influence how audiences think about their relationship to the natural world. This chapter presents strategic environmental communication in a way that may better address environmental challenges by drawing inspiration directly from studies of the natural world. It reviews the communication concepts central to environmental strategic communication, and discusses how biologists conceptualize uncertainty in natural environments and construct an application of their theoretical work to the study of communication environments. The chapter also presents a holistic perspective on environmental strategic communication that is inspired by studies of natural ecology. It places environmental uncertainty as a potentially important concept for the planning of communication strategies for environmental organizations. The chapter presents the theory of r/K selection. The theory of r/K selection was positioned to explain phenomena in evolutionary biology that occur over eons with little conscious input from those they act on.