Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences

Max Boykoff

Professor and Director of Environmental Studies

Headshot of Max Boykoff
Education
  • Ph.D., University of California, Santa Cruz, 2006
  • MBA, University of Colorado Boulder, 2023
Office Location
EKLC - 141
Phone
303-492-0364

Research Interests

Maxwell (Max) Boykoff is a Professor in the Environmental Studies department at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is also a Fellow in the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. Max has ongoing research interests in science and environmental communications, science-policy interactions, political economy, business and the environment (with negotiations, marketing and advertising concentrations). He has experience working in several country contexts, and is a co-author and editor of seven books and edited volumes, along with many articles, reports and book chapters. Among Max's other activities, he was a Contributing Author to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment ‘Mitigation and Policy’ Report, he has served on the Independent Science Panel for the Deep South Challenge in New Zealand, and he has a Deputy Editor at the Journal of Climatic Change for over a decade. Max also leads the Media and Climate Change Observatory (MeCCO) while he leads the Colorado Local Science Engagement Network and co-Directs Inside the Greenhouse. Max earned a PhD in Environmental Studies at the University of California Santa Cruz, an MBA from the University of Colorado Boulder, and a BS in Psychology from The Ohio State University.

Max’s research and creative work has developed primarily in two arenas:

  1. cultural politics of science, climate change and environmental issues = this refers to ways that attitudes, intentions, beliefs and behaviors of individuals and groups shape (and are shaped by) the perceived spectrum of possible action in the context of science-policy, climate change and environmental issues.
  2. transformations of carbon-based economies and societies (with emphasis on the interface of science and practical action) = this refers to decarbonization politics, policies and decision-making, with particular interest in how these activities find meaning in people’s everyday lives, as well as how they, in turn, feed back into science-policy decision-making.

Max integrates these research and creative works with ongoing commitments to mentorship, teaching and service.

Current Courses

Additional Readings

REFEREED JOURNAL ARTICLES

McAllister, L., Vedula, S., Pu, W. and Boykoff, M. (2024) ‘Vulnerable Voices: Using Topic Modeling to Analyze Newspaper Coverage of Climate Change in 26 Non-Annex I Countries (2010-2020)’ Environmental Research Letters

Burgess, M.G., Van Boven, L., Wagner, G., Wong-Parodi, G., Baker, K., Boykoff, M.T., Dilling, L., Converse, B.A., Inbar, Y., Markowitz, E., Moyer, J.D., Newton, P., Raimi, K., Shrum, T., and Vandenbergh, M. (2024) ‘Time to deliver on U.S. climate policies’ Nature Climate Change DOI: 10.1038/s41558-023-01906-y

Boykoff, M.T. (2023) ‘Climate Change Countermovements & Adaptive Strategies: Insights from the Heartland Institute Annual Conferences a Decade Apart’ Climatic Change 177(5): DOI: 10.1007/s10584-023-03655-5

IPCC, 2022: Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2022) [P.R. Shukla, J. Skea, R. Slade, A. Al Khourdajie, R. van Diemen, D. McCollum, M. Pathak, S. Some, P. Vyas, R. Fradera, M. Belkacemi, A. Hasija, G. Lisboa, S. Luz, J. Malley, (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA. doi: 10.1017/9781009157926 (Boykoff, M. ‘Contributing Author’)

Basseches, J., Bromley-Trujillo, R., Boykoff, M., Culhane, T., Hall, G., Healy, N., Hess, D., Hsu, D., Krause, R., Prechel, H., Roberts, T., and Stevens, J. (2022) ‘Climate Policy Conflict in the U.S. States: A Critical Review and Way Forward’ Climatic Change 170(32) https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-022-03319-w

McAllister, L., Daly, M., Chandler, P. McNatt, M., Benham, A. and Boykoff, M. (2021) ‘Balance as Bias, Resolute on the Retreat? Updates & Analyses of Newspaper Coverage in the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia and Canada over the Past 15 Years’ Environmental Research Letters 16(9), 1-14.

Leon, B., Bourk, M., Boykoff, M., Davis, L., and Finkler, W. (2021) ‘Strategies for climate change communication through social media. Objectives, approach and interaction’ Media International Australia. DOI: 10.1177/1329878X211038004

Boykoff, M., Chandler, P., Church, P. and Osnes, B. (2021) ‘Examining Climate Change and Sustainable/Fast Fashion in the 21st century: ‘Trash the Runway’’ Oxford Open Climate Change. (1)1, 1-13 https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfclm/kgab003

León, B., Boykoff, M. and Rodrigo, C. (2021) ‘Climate change perception among Spanish undergraduate students. A reception study on the combination of the local, global, gain and loss frames’ Journal of Communication 34(1), 57-75.

Almiron, N., Boykoff, M., Narberhaus, M. and Heras, F. (2020) ‘Dominant counter-frames in influential climate contrarian European Think Tanks’ Climatic Change 10.1007/s10584-020-02820-4

Watts, N. Amann, M., Arnell, N., Ayeb-Karlsson, S., Belesova, K., Boykoff, M., et al (2020) ‘The 2020 Report of The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change’ The Lancet Medical Journal https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)32290-X

Timm, K., Maibach, E., Boykoff, M., Broekelman-Post, M., Myers, T. and Perkins, D.R. (2020) ‘The prevalence and rationale for presenting an opposing viewpoint in climate change reporting: Findings from a United States national survey of TV weathercasters’ Weather, Climate and Society 10.1175/WCAS-D-19-0063.1

Sklair, L. and Boykoff, M. (2020) ‘How media cover climate change and the Anthropocene’ Encyclopedia of Biomes/Anthromes (Quinn and Quinn [eds]) Elsevier Reference Modules.

Boykoff, M. (2020) ‘Digital cultures and climate change: here are now’ Journal of Environmental Media 1(1), 21-25 https://doi.org/10.1386/jem_00003_1

Watts, N. Amann, M., Arnell, N., Ayeb-Karlsson, S., Belesova, K., Boykoff, M., Byass, P., Cai, W., Campbell-Lendrum, D., Capstick, S., Chambers, J., Dalin, C., Daly, M., Dasandi, N., Davies, M., Drummond, P., Dubrow, R., Ebi, K.L., Eckleman, M., Ekins, P., Escobar, L., Fernandez Montoya, L., Georgeson, L., Graham, H., Haggar, P., Hamilton, I., Hartinger, S., Hess, J., Kelman, I., Kiesewetter, G., Kjellstrom, T., Kniveton, D., Lemke, B., Liu, Y., Lott, M., Lowe, R., Maquins, O.S., Maslin, M., McAllister, L., McGushin, A., Mikhaylov, S.J., Milner, J., Moradi-Lakeh, M., Morrissey, K., Murray, K., Munzert, S., Nilsson, M., Neville, T., Oreszczyn, T., Owfi, F., Pearman, O., Pencheon, D., Phung, D., Pye, S., Quinn, R., Rabbaniha, M., Robinson, E., Rocklöv, J., Semenza, J.C., Sherman, J., Shumake-Guillemot, J., Tabatabaei, M., Taylor, J., Wilkinson, P., Costello, A., Gong, P. and Montgomery, H. (2019) ‘The 2019 Report of The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change’ The Lancet 94 (10211) 1836-1878, doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(19)32596-6

Osnes, B., Boykoff, M. and Chandler, P. (2019) ‘Good-Natured Comedy to Enrich Climate Communication’ Comedy Studies DOI: 10.1080/2040610X.2019.1623513, 10(2), 224-236.

Wibeck, V., Linner, B.O, Alves, M., Asplund, T., Bohman, A., Boykoff, M., Feetham, P.M., Huang, Y. Nascimiento, J., Rich, J., Rocha, C.Y., Vaccarino, F. and Xian, S. (2019) ‘Stories of transformation: A cross-country focus group study on sustainable development and societal change’ Sustainability 11(8), 2427 DOI:10.3390/su11082427

Ghosh, A. and Boykoff, M. (2019) ‘Framing hegemonies of sustainability and climate change: Deconstructing discourses in the vernacular and English language media on Sundarbans, India’ Geoforum 99(2), 142-153 DOI: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.11.014

Boykoff, M. and Osnes, B. (2019) ‘A Laughing Matter? Confronting Climate Change through Humor’ Political Geography 68(1), 154-163 DOI: 10.1016/j.polgeo.2018.09.006

Watts, N. Amann, M. Arnell, N. Ayeb-Karlsson, S. Belesova, K. Berry, H. Bouley, T. Boykoff, M. Byass, P. Cai, W. Campbell-Lendrum, D. Chambers, J. Daly, M. Dasandi, N. Davies, M. Depoux, A. Dominguez-Salas, P. Drummond, P. Ebi, K.L. Ekins, P. Fernandez Montoya, L. Fischer, H. Georgeson, L. Grace, D. Graham, H. Hamilton, I. Hartinger, S. Hess, J. Kelman, I. Kiesewetter, G. Kjellstrom, T. Kniveton, D. Lemke, B. Liang, L. Lott, M. Lowe, R. Maquins, O.S. Martinez-Urtaza, J. Maslin, M. McAllister, L. Mikhaylov, S.J. Milner, J. Moradi-Lakeh, M. Morrissey, K. Murray, K. Nilsson, M. Neville, T. Oreszczyn, T. Owfi, F. Pearman, O., Pencheon, D. Pye, S. Rabbaniha, M. Robinson, E. Rocklöv, J. Saxer, O. Schütte, S. Semenza, J.C. Shumake-Guillemot, J. Steinbach, R. Tabatabaei, M. Tomei, J. Trinanes, J. Wheeler, N. Wilkinson, P. Gong, P. Montgomery, H. and Costello, A. (2018) ‘The 2018 Report of The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change’ The Lancet, 391(10120), 581-630

Boykoff, M. and Oonk, D. (2018) Evaluating the perils and promises of academic climate advocacy Climatic Change 10.1007/s10584-018-2339-3

Boykoff, M., Osnes, B., and Safran, R. (2018) ‘Contando estorias de la ciencia del cambio de clima ‘Dentro del Invernadero’’ in 'Comunicación Audiovisual de la Ciencia’ [co-editors Gómez, G.O., León, B. and Francés i Domènec, M.] Special Issue, TV Morfosis CNTD.

Watts, N. Ayeb-Karlsson, S., Belesova, K., Bouley, T. Boykoff, M., Byass, P., Campbell-Lendrum, D., Chambers, J., Cox, P., Daly, M., Dasandi, N., Davies, M., Depledge, M., Depoux, A., Dominguez-Salas, P., Drummond, P., Ekins, P., Flahault, A., Frumkin, H., Georgeson, L., Grace, D., Graham, H., Grojsman, R., Haines, A., Hamilton, I., Hartinger, S., Johnson, A., Kelman, I., Kniveton, D., Liang, L., Lott, M., Lowe, B., Mace, G., Maslin, M., Mikhaylov, S., Milner, J., Moradi, M., Morrissey, K., Murray, K., Nilsson, M., Neville, T., Oreszczyn, T., Owfi, F., Pencheon, D., Pye, S., Robinson, L., Rocklov, J., Schutte, S., Shumake-Guillemot, J., Steinbach, R., Tabatabaei, M., Wheeler, N., Wilkinson, P., Gong, P., Montgomery, H. and Costello, A. (2017) ‘The 2017 Report of the Lancet Countdown Report on Health and Climate Change: From 25 years of inaction to a global transformation for public health’ The Lancet 391 (10120), p. 581-630.

Luedecke, G. and Boykoff, M. (2017) “Environment and the Media.” in The International Encyclopedia of Geography (Douglas Richardson, Noel Castree, Michael F. Goodchild, Audrey Kobayashi, Weidong Liu, and Richard A. Marston eds) John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. DOI: 10.1002/9781118786352.wbieg0464

Goodman, M.K., Littler, J., Brockington, D. and Boykoff, M.T. (2016) ‘Spectacular Environmentalisms: media, knowledge and the framing of ecological politics’, Environmental Communication 10(6) 677-688

Boykoff, M. and Luedecke, G. (2016) ‘Elite News Coverage of Climate Change’ Encyclopedia of Climate Change Communication DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190228620.013.357

Fischhendler, I., Boymel, D., and Boykoff, M. (2016) ‘How competing securitized discourses over land appropriation are constructed: The promotion of solar energy in the Israeli desert’ Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture 10(2) 147-168

Boykoff, M. (2015) ‘Consenso y oposición al cambio climático: El caso de los EEUU como ejemplo’ Mètode 85(1) 81-87

Gold, A.U., Oonk, D.J., Smith, L.K., Boykoff, M., Osnes, B.B., and Sullivan, S.B. (2015) ‘Lens on Climate Change: Making Climate Meaningful through Student-Produced Videos’ Journal of Geography DOI: 10.1080/00221341.2015.1013974

O’Neill, S., Williams, H, Kurz, T., Wiersma, B. and Boykoff, M. (2015) ‘Dominant frames evident in legacy and social media coverage of the IPCC 5th Assessment Report’ Nature Climate Change 5(4), 380-385

Fischhendler, I., Cohen Blankstain, G., and Boykoff, M. (2015) ‘Evaluating mega-projects in the face of uncertainties: Israeli mass media treatment of the Dead Sea Water Conduit’ Public Understanding of Science 24(7) 794-810

Anderegg, W.R.L., Callaway, E.S., Boykoff, M., Yohe, G., and Root, T.L. (2014) ‘Error Bias in Climate Science’ Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 95(9), 1445–1451

Bailey, A., Giangola, L., and Boykoff, M. (2014) ‘How grammatical choice shapes media representations of climate (un)certainty’ Environmental Communication (special issue eds. Ulrika Olausson and Peter Berglez) 8(2), 197-215

Boykoff, M., and Olson, S. (2013) ‘‘Wise Contrarians’ in Contemporary Climate Science-Policy-Public Interactions’, Celebrity Studies journal (special issue Editors Michael K. Goodman and Jo Littler) 4(3), 276-291

Boykoff, M., and Yulsman, T. (2013) ‘Political economy, media and climate change – the sinews of modern life’ Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change 4(5), 359-371.

Boykoff, M. (2013) ‘Public Enemy no.1? Understanding media representations of outlier views on climate change’, American Behavioral Scientist 57(6), 796-817

O’Neill, S., Boykoff, M., Day, S.A., and Niemeyer, S. (2013) ‘On the use of imagery for climate change engagement’ Global Environmental Change 23(2), 413-421.

Schroeder, H., Boykoff, M., and Spiers, L. (2012) ‘Who Represents the State: National Delegations in the International Climate Negotiations’ Nature Climate Change, November 18, 1-3 doi:10.1038/nclimate1742

Rick, U., Boykoff, M., and Pielke, Jr, R. (2011) ‘Effective media reporting on sea level rise projections, 1989-2009’ Environmental Research Letters, 6(1), 1-6.

Boykoff, M., Frame, D. and Randalls, S. (2010) ‘Discursive stability meets climate instability: A critical exploration of the concept of ‘climate stabilization’ in contemporary climate policy’, Global Environmental Change, 20(1), 53-64

Bottrill, C., Liverman, D. and Boykoff, M. (2010) ‘Carbon Soundings: GHG emissions in the UK music industry’ Environmental Research Letters 5(1), 1-8

Bird, H., Boykoff, M., Goodman, M., Monbiot, G. and Littler, J. (2009) ‘The Media and Climate Change’ Soundings: A Journal of Politics and Culture 43, 47-64.

Boykoff, M. (2009) ‘‘We speak for the trees’: Media reporting on the environment’, Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 34, 431-458     

Boykoff, M. and Goodman, M. (2009) ‘Conspicuous redemption: promises and perils of celebrity involvement in climate change’, Geoforum, 40, 395-406

Boykoff, M. (2008) ‘The cultural politics of climate change discourse in UK tabloids’, Political Geography, 27(5), 549-569.

Boykoff, M. and Mansfield, M. (2008) ‘‘Ye Olde Hot Aire’: Reporting on human contributions to climate change in the UK tabloid press’, Environmental Research Letters, 3(2) 1-8

Boykoff, M.  (2008) ‘Lost in translation? United States television news coverage of anthropogenic climate change, 1995-2004’, Climatic Change, 86(1), 1-11.

Boykoff, M. (2008) ‘Media and scientific communication: a case of climate change’ Communicating Environmental Geoscience, special issue: Liverman, D.G.E., Marker, B. and Pereira, C.P. (eds), Geological Society of London, 11-18.

Boykoff, M. (2007) ‘From convergence to contention: United States mass media representations of anthropogenic climate science’ Transactions of Institute of British Geographers, (32) 4, 477-489

Boykoff, M. (2007) ‘Flogging a dead norm? Media coverage of anthropogenic climate change in United States and United Kingdom, 2003-2006’ Area 39(4), 470-481.

Boykoff M. and Boykoff, J. (2007) ‘Climate change and journalistic norms: a case-study of U.S. mass-media coverage’ Geoforum, 38(6), 1190-1204

Boykoff, M. and Boykoff, J. (2004) ‘Balance as bias: global warming and the U.S. prestige press’, Global Environmental Change 14(2), 125-136.

 

EDITED VOLUMES

Crow, D. and Boykoff, M. (eds.) (2014) ‘Culture, Politics and Climate Change: How information shapes our common future’ Earthscan from Routledge, 252 pp.

Moser, S. and Boykoff, M. (eds.) (2013) ‘Successful adaptation to climate change: Linking science and policy in a rapidly changing world’ Routledge, London, 360 pp.

Newell, P., Boykoff, M. and Boyd, E. (eds.) (2012) ‘The new carbon economy: constitution, governance and contestation’ Wiley-Blackwell, 208 pp.

Boykoff, M. (ed.) (2010) ‘The Politics of Climate Change’, Routledge/Europa, 303 pp.

Goodman, M., Boykoff, M. and Evered, K. (eds.) (2008) ‘Contentious Geographies: Environmental Knowledge, Meaning, and Scale’, Ashgate Publishing, 242 pp.

 

REFEREED BOOKS

Boykoff, M. (2019) ‘Creative (Climate) Communications: Productive Pathways for Science, Policy and Society’ Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781316646823. 302 pp.

Boykoff, M. (2011) ‘Who Speaks for Climate? Making sense of mass media reporting on climate change’, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0521133050. 240 pp.

 

REFEREED GUEST EDITED SPECIAL ISSUES

Goodman, M.K., Littler, J., Brockington, D. and Boykoff, M.T. (2016) ‘Spectacular Environmentalisms’, Environmental Communication 10(6).

Boyd, E., Boykoff, M. and Newell, P. (2011) ‘What is distinct about the ‘new’ carbon economy?’ Antipode 43(3).

Boykoff, M. and Randalls, S. (2009) ‘Theorising the Carbon Economy’, Environment & Planning A, 41(10).

 

REFEREED BOOK CHAPTERS

Aronczyk, M., Boykoff, M., Coan, T., Lahsen, M., Morris, H., and Russill, C. (under review) Chapter 6: ‘Steering the Discourse: Legacy News, Social Media, Advertising and Public Relations’, First Global Assessment of Climate Obstruction [Roberts, J.T., Milani, C., Jacquet, J., and Downie, C., eds] Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.

Goodman, M., McNatt, M and Boykoff, M. (2022) ‘Communicating Climate Change in the Anthropocene: The dynamic cultural politics of climate change news coverage and social media around the world’ (Hansen, A. ed) Routledge Handbook on Environmental Communication Routledge, London

Chandler, P., Osnes, B. and Boykoff, M. (2020) ‘Creative Climate Communications: Teaching from the Heart Through the Arts’ Teaching Climate Change in the United States (Henderson, J.A., and Drewes, A. [eds]) Routledge, London.

Boykoff, M. and Farrell, J. (2019) ‘Climate Change Countermovement Organizations and Media Attention in the United States’ Climate Change Denial and Public Relations. Strategic Communication and Interest Groups in Climate Inaction (Almiron, N. and Xifra, J. [eds]) Routledge, London, pp. 121-139.

McNatt, M., Goodman, M., and Boykoff, M. (2019) ‘Anthropocene communications: cultural politics and media representations of climate change’ The Routledge Companion to Environmental Planning (Davoudi, S., Cowell, R., White, I. and Blanco, H. [eds]) Routledge, London

León, B., Boykoff, M., Huda, J., and Rodrigo, Carmen (2018) ‘Framing in climate change videos" in B. León and M. Bourk [eds], Communicating Science and Technology through Online Video: Researching a New Media Phenomenon. London: Routledge. 

Osnes, B., Safran, R. and Boykoff, M. (2017) Student Content Production of Climate Communications’. What is Sustainable Journalism?, Ed. P. Berglez, U. Olausson, and M. Ots [eds] 93-111, Peter Lang

Bailey, A., Giangola, L. and Boykoff, M. (2016) ‘How grammatical choice shapes media representations of climate (un)certainty’ (Olausson, U. and Berglez, P. eds) Media Research on Climate Change: Where have we been, where are we going? Routledge, London

Boykoff, M. and Goodman, M.K. (2015) ‘Science (and Policy) Friction: How Media shape North American public discourses’ (Sommer, B. ed) Cultural Dimensions of Climate Change and the Environment in Northern America. Climate and Culture vol. 3, edited by Carmen Meinert and Claus Leggewie. Leiden: Brill, 189-205.

Boykoff, M., McNatt, M. and Goodman, M.K. (2015) ‘Communicating in the anthropocene: the cultural politics of climate change news coverage around the world’ (Hansen, A. and Cox, R. eds) Routledge Handbook on Environmental Communication Routledge, London

Boyd, E., Boykoff, M. and Ghosh, A. (2015) ‘Climate adaptation in Mumbai India’ (Johnson, C.A., Toly, N.J. and Schroeder, H. eds) The Urban Climate Challenge: Rethinking the Role of Cities in the Global Climate Regime Routledge, London, 139-155.

Bailey, A., Giangola, L. and Boykoff, M. (2014) ‘¿Eludir el cambio climático? Comparativa de las preferencias de uso lingüísticas en la cobertura mediática en Estados Unidos y España’ (Leon, B. ed) Periodistas, medios de comunicación y cambio climático Comunicación Social, Barcelona, Spain, 137-153.

Crow, D. and Boykoff, M. (2014) ‘Introduction’ (Crow, D and Boykoff, M. ed) Culture, Politics and Climate Change: How information shapes our common future Earthscan from Routledge, London, 1-20.

Suarez, P., Mendler de Suarez, J., Koelle, B. and Boykoff, M. (2014) Serious fun: scaling up community-based adaptation through experiential learning (Ayers, J., Schipper, L., Reid, H., Huq, S., and Rahman, A. (eds.)) Scaling up Community-based adaptation. London, Earthscan, 136-151.

Boykoff, M., Ghosh, A. and Venkateswaran, K. (2013) ‘Media coverage of discourse on adaptation: competing visions of “success” in the Indian context’ (Moser, S. and Boykoff, M. (eds.)) Successful adaptation to climate change: Linking science and policy in a rapidly changing world Routledge, London, 237-252.

O’Neill, S.J. and Boykoff, M. (2011) The role of new media in engaging the public with climate change. (Whitmarsh, L., O’Neill, S.J. and Lorenzoni, I. (eds.)) Engaging the Public with Climate Change: Communication & Behaviour Change, Earthscan, London, 233-251.

Boykoff, M. and Smith J.H. (2010) ‘Media presentations of climate change’ Routledge Handbook of Climate Change & Society (Lever-Tracy, C. (ed)) Routledge: London, 210-218.

Boykoff, M. (2010) ‘Carbonundrums: the role of the media’ in Climate Change Science and Policy (Schneider, S.H., Rosencranz, A., Mastrandrea, M.D., and Kuntz-Duriseti, K. (eds)), 397-404.

Boykoff, M., Goodman, M. and Curtis, I. (2010) ‘The cultural politics of climate change: interactions in everyday spaces’ The Politics of Climate Change (Boykoff, M. (ed)) Routledge: London, 136-154.

Boykoff, M. (2009) ‘Media representational practices in the Anthropocene Era’ Uncertainties in Environmental Modeling and Consequences for Policy Making (Baveye, P., Mysiak, M. and Laba, M. (eds)), Springer-Verlag Publishing, 339-350.

Boykoff, M. (2008) ‘Fight semantic drift?! U.S. mass media coverage of anthropogenic climate change’ Contentious Geographies: Environmental Knowledge, Meaning, and Scale (Goodman, M., Boykoff, M. and K. Evered (eds.)), Ashgate Publishing, 39-58.

Boykoff, M. (2007) ‘Mass media and environmental politics’ The Politics of the Environment (Okereke, C. (ed)) Routledge: London, 101-116.

Creative (Climate) Communications
by Maxwell T. Boykoff

 

Culture, Politics and Climate Change
Edited by Deserai A. Crow and Maxwell T. Boykoff

March 2014

Successful Adaptation to Climate Change
Edited by Susanne Moser and Maxwell Boykoff

Routledge
May 2013

The New Carbon Economy: Constitution, Governance, and Contestation
Edited by Peter Newell, Maxwell Boykoff, and Emily Boyd

Wiley-Blackwell
January 2012 

Who Speaks for Climate? Making Sense of Media Reporting on Climate Change
by Maxwell Boykoff

Cambridge University Press
September 2011

The Politics of Climate Change: A Survey
Edited by Maxwell Boykoff
November 2009   Contentious Geographies: Environmental Knowledge, Meaning, Scale
Edited by Michael K. Goodman, Maxwell T. Boykoff, and Kyle T. Evered
May 2008

 

Current Research

My research and creative work center on two themes. One is the ‘cultural politics of science, policy, and the environment,’ which refers to how the attitudes, intentions, beliefs, and behaviors of individuals and groups shape (and are shaped by) the perceived spectrum of possible action in the context of environmental challenges such as climate change. A second is the transformations of carbon-based economies and societies, with a particular emphasis on the interface of science, sustainability, and practical action, including policies. Through many connected projects and collaborations, my research commitments involve questions of how climate science and policy find meaning in people’s everyday lives, as well as how this, in turn, feeds back into science- policy decision-making. Together, my work has sought to critically analyze the role of various actors and organizations shaping political and cultural dimensions of environmental science and policy discussions in the public arena.    For example:
  • Through the Media and Climate Change Observatory, colleagues and I monitor media coverage of climate change at various scales, updated monthly. We have established and maintain appraisals of 82 sources across 40 countries around the world and monitor country-level coverage in Australia, Canada, Germany, India, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In addition, through collaborations with Rogelio Fernandez-Reyes in Spain, and Midori Aoyagi-Usui and Shoko Yamaguchi in Japan, we maintain country-level counts there as well. As offshoots from this work, we work with many partners (e.g., Lancet Countdown on climate change and health issues) and we have produced a number of related reports and journal articles.
  • With colleagues Beth Osnes (Theater Department), Phaedra Pezzull (Communication Department) and Rebecca Safran (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department) we run a multi-faceted project called ‘Inside the Greenhouse’. This project works to deepen our understanding of how issues associated with climate change are/can be communicated, by creating artifacts through interactive theatre, film, fine art, performance art, television programming, and appraising as well as extracting effective methods for multimodal climate communication. We also seek to build competence and confidence in the students with whom we work. The project effectively fosters a deliberative space for CU Boulder students to experiment with creative climate communications and build capacity for more systematic, capable and effective environmental communication strategies. As part of this project we teach numerous courses and produce seasonal events and various research outputs.

Projects

  ICECaps: International Collective on Environment, Culture & Politics Founded in 2012 at the University of Colorado Boulder, the International Collective on Environment, Culture and Politics is a research group that examines some of today’s most pressing environmental issues. ICE CaPs members and affiliates cross disciplines to apply a wide range of theories and perspectives to study issues at the human-environment interface. We work across scales from the individual to the global. Read more ...   Inside the Greenhouse Max Boykoff and Beth Osnes of the Theater Department at University of Colorado Boulder are working to deepen our understanding of how issues associated with climate change are/can be communicated, by creating artifacts through interactive theatre, film, fine art, performance art, television programming, and appraising as well as extracting effective methods for multimodal climate communication. Read more ...   Media Coverage of Climate Change/Global Warming Monthly updated figure tracking newspaper coverage of climate change or global warming in 131 sources (TV, newspapers, radio) across 59 countries and 6 continents in 14 languages. They update this work on a monthly basis as a resource for journalists, researchers, and others who may be interested in tracking these trends. Read more ...   Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre Internship Program This program seeks to improve climate change communication and adaptation decision-making in response to climate variability and change within the humanitarian sector. It connects humanitarian practitioners from the Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre [RC/RC CC] an affiliate of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies [IFRC] with science-policy graduate student researchers at the University of Colorado. Read more ...  

A Note for Prospective Graduate Students

Professor Boykoff is not taking new students in the incoming Fall 2024 class.

Research Categories

Climate and Weather, Energy, Science Policy

Research Images

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P.I.(s)

About CECA

CECA connects and creates a supportive environment for graduate students and postdocs who come from various academic units to do research in CIRES.