1 From “atmosfear” to climate action Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz 1,2 , Piotr Matczak 3 , Ilona M. Otto 2 , Philipp E. Otto 4 1 Institute for Agricultural and Forest Environment, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznań, Poland 2 Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research Member of the Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Germany 3 Institute of Sociology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland 4 European University Viadrina, Economics Department, Frankfurt Oder, Germany Corresponding author: Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz Contact: Email: kundzewicz@yahoo.com Postal address: Institute for Agricultural and Forest Environment, Polish Academy of Sciences, Bukowska 19, 60-809 Poznań, Poland Please cite as: Kundzwicz, Z.W., Matczak, P., Otto, I.M., Otto, P.E. (2020) From "atmosfear" to climate action. Environmental Science and Policy, 105: 75-83 Abstract Recent studies argue that the scientific communication of climate change overly emphasizes climate extremes. This, in turn, leads to a universal “atmosfear” as an association of anthropogenic climate change with frightening future scenarios. We analyze the factors driving such kinds of atmosfear, concerning the particular cases of hot extremes (heatwaves) and wet extremes (floods). Can uncertainty or fear motivate resilience or even initiate action to cope with potential future challenges? A transition is needed in the current public discourse on climate change: from atmosfear to orchestrated global climate action to rapidly induce the social and behavioral changes that are fundamental to meet climate policy objectives. The current climate change debate is largely framed in terms of risks and damages. However, we argue that positive messages could serve climate action better. We list several positive examples resulting from action against climate change: co-benefits, win-win or multiple-win opportunities, that climate action might entail. Key words: climate extremes; future scenarios; policy implementation; risk communication 1. Introduction Having noted that the statement “anthropogenic climate change will produce more extreme weather” is frequently used in order to foster the implementation of climate change mitigation policy, Janković and Schultz (2017) proposed to term this phenomenon “atmosfear”, which they defined as a “discursive practice used to accelerate the implementation of greenhouse mitigation policies”. People can be scared into taking climate-change mitigation action (e.g. reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions) because of the threat of dreadful potential outcomes, particularly with regard to the frequency and severity of some (but not all) categories of extreme weather events. Fear of such a development can indeed influence decision makers and the broader public, making