Terra Studio/Week 4

Playground 1

Value-Frame Translator

The same climate fact lands completely differently depending on who hears it and how it's framed. This isn't spin — it's selecting the access point through which a given audience will receive the evidence. A finding about urban heat doesn't start with "climate change" for a city council CFO. It starts with emergency-room costs and infrastructure liability.

Enter any climate data point below and generate four reframes — one for each of the four value profiles identified in the IPCC Handbook: conservation, public health, economic, and security.


The four value frames

Research by Wolsko et al. found that framing climate information through binding moral values nearly eliminated the attitude gap between liberals and conservatives. The same information framed as"saving the planet" triggered identity resistance. Same fact. Different door.

Conservation & Stewardship

Conservative / traditional

Avoiding wastefulness, responsible land management, not squandering what was inherited. Activate principles the audience already holds.

Public Health

Community / health advocates

Clean air, childhood asthma, hospital costs, preventable mortality. Health crosses partisan lines where 'environment' often cannot.

Economic

Business, investors, city CFOs

Cost reduction, market opportunity, infrastructure liability, risk management. The climate science is identical; the conversation is about balance sheets.

National Security

Military planners, policymakers

Energy independence, supply chain resilience, strategic vulnerability reduction. Threat and resilience are the vocabulary — not sustainability.


Translate your finding

Enter a single climate fact or data point — from your own work, from a dataset, or from the course material. Keep it to 1–2 sentences. The more specific the finding, the sharper the four frames will be.

Keep it to 1–2 sentences. The more specific the finding, the sharper the frames.


Take It Further

Two files to keep using value framing outside this playground.

Paste into Claude Project Instructions to turn any Claude conversation into a value-frame translator and audience diagnostic coach.

value-frame-claude-skill.md

The seven pre-flight questions, four distances, and value-frame vocabulary — one reference page for any climate pitch, brief, or email.

audience-diagnostic-checklist.md

Prefer to translate frames with your own Claude or ChatGPT?
Prompt: reframe a climate finding for four value audiences
You are a climate communication strategist.

I have a single climate finding. I need you to reframe it for four different audiences using their own value language — not environmental framing.

Climate finding:
[PASTE YOUR FINDING HERE]

Reframe it for these four audiences. Each version should:
1. Open with a hook that activates the audience's core value (do NOT start with "climate change" or "the environment")
2. Embed the original finding as a consequence or discovery in the frame, not as the headline
3. Be 2–3 sentences — tight and specific
4. Use the vocabulary of that audience's world

The four frames:
- STEWARDSHIP (conservative / traditional values audience): Avoiding wastefulness, good land stewardship, responsibility to future generations
- PUBLIC HEALTH: Clean air, children's health, hospital costs, preventable illness, community resilience
- ECONOMIC (business, investors, city CFOs): Cost reduction, market opportunity, risk management, infrastructure liability
- NATIONAL SECURITY (military planners, policymakers): Energy independence, supply chain resilience, strategic vulnerability

After each frame, add one sentence explaining which IPCC Handbook principle or psychological distance strategy it activates and why.

Worked Example

Once you've translated your own finding, expand this to compare. Notice how each frame opens on the audience's own concern — and introduces the climate finding only once the audience is inside the value world they already inhabit.