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Think of an environmental risk that occurs in nature. You can look ahead to Chapter 4, “Living with Nature,” if needed. Briefly describe the risk.
Assess the likelihood of public outrage related to this natural risk based on its characteristics and the outrage-related features listed on page 47.
Why is it important to recognize the likelihood of outrage when communicating with the public about a risk?
The environmental risk I'll assess is Wildfire 🔥, particularly in suburban areas bordering dry forests (the wildland-urban interface).
A wildfire is an unplanned, uncontrolled fire that burns in natural areas such as forests, grasslands, or prairies. In nature, this is a normal ecological process; however, when it threatens communities, it becomes a severe environmental risk.
Risk Description: Prolonged drought, high winds, and excessive fuel load (dead vegetation) combine to create conditions where a small spark (from lightning or human activity) can rapidly escalate into a large, fast-moving fire. The risk is the destruction of homes, infrastructure, loss of life, and severe air quality degradation due to smoke and particulates.
Assessment Summary: Wildfires are perceived as highly involuntary, unfair, uncontrollable, and calamitous events with strong moraldimensions when human negligence is involved. This combination strongly suggests a high likelihood of significant public outrage.
It is critically important to recognize the likelihood of outrage when communicating about wildfire risk because it dictates the entire strategy and tone of the communication.
Shifts Focus from Hazard to Outrage: When outrage is high, people's primary concern is not just the technical size of the fire (Hazard), but their fear, loss of control, and who is to blame (Outrage). Ignoring the outrage features makes communication sound cold, dismissive, and technical, which exacerbates public anger.
Determines Communication Goals: In a high-outrage situation, the goal of communication shifts from simply informing the public to $\mathbfacknowledging \mathbf concern}$, $\mathbfsharing \mathbf control}$, and $\mathbfbuilding \mathbf trust}$.
Informs Medium and Messenger: High outrage requires messages delivered by $\mathbfcredible \mathbf, \mathbf empathetic \mathbf messengers}$ (like the Fire Chief or local Mayor) and through $\mathbfinteractive \mathbf channels}$ (town halls, social media Q&A) rather than just technical reports or press releases.