01 | Summary
02 | Interests
03 | Methods
04 | Areas of Focus
05 | Program

Neil Ever Osborne is an Assistant Professor in the School of the Environment at Trent University.

As a social scientist and public scholar, he is interested in examining the converging social and environmental issues that narrate our times in a changing — and warming — world, along with the effective means to communicate these issues to the public and critical stakeholders to invite meaningful action.

More specifically, Osborne’s research aims to understand how climate communication affects audiences’ morals, values, and behaviours — this includes how narratives of all kinds can more effectively foster sustained engagement with solutions to the interconnected crises exacerbated by climate change.

In this pursuit, he uses an evidence-based approach to inform the research subsumed in the three focus areas noted below.

Note: Osborne was recently appointed an Adjunct professor on the faculty of the Sustainability Studies Masters of Arts (M.A) at Trent University. He is accepting statements of interest from students seeking graduate work in environmental and climate communications.

• Environmental and climate communications
• Reframing environmental discourse
• Visual storytelling and photography
• Biological and cultural diversity (i.e., the biosphere and ethnosphere) and societal pressures that endanger both
• Protected area designation and conservation (i.e., primarily in the polar, tropical regions, and near my home in Canada)

• Social science and ethnography, including experimental, survey, and in-depth interviews and narrative workshops (focus groups)
• Eye-witness reporting with a camera
• Documentary assignments
• Field expeditions to local and global locales, often remote, for wildlife mark-recapture studies

While progress has been made in climate action over the past decade, a significant gap remains between current policies — often limited to half-measures — and the comprehensive global movement necessary to address the crisis effectively. A key reason for this gap is our ability to translate scientific understanding into meaningful action is fundamentally failing.

A complex interplay of factors drives this communication breakdown. The crisis often feels abstract and intangible due to its representation in the media. Economic systems prioritize short-term gains, and climate messaging too frequently fails to challenge that framing. And political agendas shift too rapidly for consistent narratives or long-term climate storytelling to gain traction. 
 
Meanwhile, overwhelmed citizens are presented with fragmented, unclear, or contradictory messaging, hindering their agency and ability to act. Ultimately, then, the climate crisis is a communication crisis rooted in how we narrate, frame, and mobilize knowledge about our precarious future in a warming world. 


Osborne’s research program addresses this communication crisis head on and operates at the critical intersection of theory and practice, aiming to bridge the gap between knowledge and action through evidence-based communication strategies and tactics.

This program is organized into three interconnected focus areas:

(A) Re-imagining Climate Communication Strategy;
(B) The Human Dimensions of a Warming World; and
(C) Half-Earth – Protecting Natural Systems.

A common focus on the power of narrative unites these areas. Research on Re-imagining Climate Communication Strategy examines the theoretical foundations of effective climate communication, including developing and testing innovative frameworks such as the Transmedia Emotional Engagement Storytelling (TREES) Model. This theoretical research directly informs practical approaches, exploring how transmedia storytelling can engage diverse audiences and invite meaningful action.

In Osborne’s research on The Human Dimensions of a Warming World, he focuses on the lived experiences of those impacted by climate disasters, amplifying marginalized voices and grounding the work in the realities of climate change.

Finally, Osborne’s focus on Half-Earth – Protecting Natural Systems addresses the communication challenges in conservation efforts, highlighting the need to effectively convey scientific findings while advocating for the protection of vulnerable ecosystems and species.