Communicating about Environmental Issues: A Great Lakes Case Study

Communicating about environmental issues can be a complex but vital component of conservation. The Great Lakes have long been influenced by human activity—logging, fishing, agriculture, urbanization—that have resulted in degradation of the ecosystem, e.g., through overexploitation, pollution and invasive species. The policy responses to these problems reflect the challenge of the issue that needs to involve numerous communities and states in the U.S. and Canada. Examples of several recent Great Lakes communications campaigns illustrate different approaches for making the connection between issues and audiences.