Our society is increasingly polarized over climate change. The challenge of communicating on risk, science, and policy in this field has led to a renewed focus on communication by prominent science organizations and research institutions. However, findings in psychology, anthropology, and decision/political science around this issue suggest that simply increasing communications by traditional means will likely fail. Therefore, scientists, policy-makers, humanitarian organizations, and journalists are developing fresh means of communication, linking science experts with fields such as psychology, new media, art, design, political science, and decision science. The twin challenges are to reach new audiences while addressing traditional audiences more effectively. Evidence of the efficacy of techniques using innovative participatory methods to communicate risk is emerging; recent experience spans illiterate or innumerate groups to policy-makers on multiple levels. Experiments in video suggest the potential to reach broad audiences compellingly, while mobile phones and tablet computers also offer unique capabilities for exploring climate impacts. Public art and sound art have been deployed to demonstrate aspects of disaster risk. Simulation scenarios and games offer active learning methods that allow participants to "inhabit" complex systems. The communication challenge is inspiring new partnerships for interdisciplinary collaboration between science, art, and design communities.