8 ways to communicate effectively about climate change
December 23rd, 2007 by jane
Despite having given talks to hundreds of students on global warming, I struggle to have conversations about this urgent issue with some of my closest friends and family.
Earlier this year at Easter lunch, I got into a heated argument on climate change with my cousin’s partner. I expected him to be concerned about climate change because he had two baby girls. He wasn’t. I tried mentioning the amount of money he could save by trading in his big SUV for a prius. He didn’t care about saving money. I talked above sea levels rising, resulting in millions of environmental refugees. Bad move. The more desperate I became, the more he switched off to what I was saying. I ended up walking away from our conversation feeling helpless and angry.
Since then there have been many occasions where I have sold out and not mentioned climate change, out of fear of being judged as an extremist or as coming across as a wet blanket. I lost my voice on this issue with the most important people in my life.
Fortunately, I’ve got my voice back and it’s stronger than ever before. Over the past two weeks I have been immersed in social science research on what appears to work and doesn’t work when talking to people about climate change.
With Christmas lunch on Tuesday, I will come face to face with my cousin’s partner again. I feel confident about having another conversation with him about climate change and what he can do to be part of the solution.
These are some of the things all of us climate advocates should attempt to apply when talking to people about climate change.
1. Keep it personal
If my cousin’s partner is living it up on the coast in Western Australia, why should he really be concerned about sea levels rising in Bangladesh? He wants to know how climate change relates to him. If possible we must show people how this issue will affect them, their children, their house, their pocket, their leisure activities, their street, their region, their country, etc.
2. Telling people what to do
Think of a time someone told you what to do. How did you react? You probably didn’t like it much. For this reason I must avoid telling my cousin’s partner what to do at all costs. It is far more effective to have people voluntarily change their behaviour.
3. Overcome their mental barriers
“If everyone knows about it, surely someone will do something about it?” and “I won’t do anything until others start taking action” are examples of mental barriers that stop people personally acting to address climate change. Barriers such as these should be acknowledged and addressed to help people move forward.
4. Balance the problems and solutions
When you look at the language used to describe the challenge of climate change it is often described as enormous and apocalyptic. The solutions however are often presented as small, cheap and easy (e.g. change a light bulb). When you consider the scale of the problem, one cannot help but think ‘Will changing a light bulb really be enough?’ To avoid letting my cousin’s partner fall into this mindset, I must make the size of the solution be as big as the size of the challenge.
5. Watch your language
If the person you are talking to is unaware of climate change, then using terms such as ‘carbon neutral’ or ‘carbon negative’ (that require a more in-depth knowledge), are likely to confuse them and put them off. It is important to speak the person’s language. As a general rule of thumb, use plain English.
6. Monetary rewards
There is a belief that you can change behaviours by showing people how their actions can save or earn them money. Research suggests that this idea is overrated and on its own may not lead to behaviour change.
7. The message: Focus on the losses
A decision must be made on whether to focus on the benefits of engaging in a particular sustainable behaviour or the losses people are suffering as a result of their current unsustainable behaviour. Research suggests that messages which emphasise the losses are consistently more persuasive than messages which emphasise savings as a result of taking action.
8. The message: Threatening
Threatening smoking advertisements can teach us a lot about effective climate change communication. A study exposing smokers to advertisements with the basic message of ‘Smoking can kill you’ found the advertisements did not motivate smokers to quit smoking. Many smokers became defensive, rejected the message, referred to articles that suggested smoking doesn’t kill you and some became so stressed they needed to have a cigarette during the advertisement.
By using threatening messages to communicate about climate change you run the risk of having people switch off and avoid thinking about it altogether. Threatening messages work best when combined with messages that empower the person to take action against the threat.
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December 28th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
Excellent post, very useful advice. I find the people most difficult to talk to can be those who do a little bit for the environment (eg they recycle) but are set against any other change because well they recycle don’t they?
January 8th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
I agree… great post. I had a similar experience over the Christmas holidays, chatting with a non-believer. It was a wake up call for me - I thought everyone was on board with climate change being an immediate threat. I am surrounded by people who have a similar mindset to me so when I encountered this guy (a friend of a friend) I became very emotional in my attempt to lay out the facts about climate change.
This guy had recently seen “The Great Global Warming Swindle” (a movie that was recently aired on TV but can be found on you tube) and while he agreed that we are doing terrible things to the planet (i.e. clearing forests) he one, doesn’t believe that global warming is happening in the first place and two, doesn’t think that it is a man-made problem.
It was infuriating for me. My partner and I were talking about it after and decided that we needed to do some homework to be able to squash the ‘facts’ that have come out of that movie. Now I can also apply some of the tactics you have mentioned above.
Thanks for that.
January 15th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Interesting thoughts… I too have been trying out various approaches for communicating the Climate Change problem.
I often run into a wall when I ask people to make BIG changes. They are ok with changing lightbulbs, turning off taps and all that. But when you ask them to change lifestyle or relook at the way they are shopping, carrying out their own business etc.. WHAM! They slam shut.
January 15th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
I’m adding your website to my list of faves on both my blogsites.
Kudos to you on your thought-processes, Jane! Hope to exchange thoughts with you, and hopefully collaborate to initiate action in the near future.
The near future… that’s all we have, realistically.
:0)
Warmly,
Krish
http://friendlyghost.rediffiland.com
http://globalwarming.rediffiland.com
January 17th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Very intersting post. even i try to talk about this to my relatives and friends, they all looking at me like, i am some kind of mad woman, anyway, your points are good.
anway, i am going to talk about this
someday they will come to know the real sitution.
warm regards,
Meena.
January 31st, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Ecellent post,keep it up.Could u give me some more ways of convincing the people?I have tried everything but without any result.I’ll keep on trying,bye!
March 16th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
My thoughts… really this could have gone as a response to any one of your last several posts, but here it is.
It’s a difficult issue to get people to respond to, because the consequences are relatively distant, and “what should I do?” is often not answered.
We already know from people gambling excessively, smoking cigarettes, drinking too much alcohol, taking strong drugs and so on that people are prone to see just the short term. “It might kill me in twenty years” doesn’t seem terribly impressive, and “it’ll raise the world’s temperature by a degree or two” less impressive still.
As for “what to do?” the truth is that individual actions can be quite effective if taken by many; but they must start with one. We need only consider things like the action of Danes preventing the Holocaust in their country - they simply refused to go along with it. Individual people just did what they felt was right, and it spread. But at some early point there were a few people saying “no” who wondered if they might be the only ones. Obviously those causing climate change don’t have that kind of malice in their actions, and unlike the Danes greenish types don’t risk being murdered, but the two events are comparable in their scale and the likely suffering. And individuals stopped it, in one country at least.
Or we can consider individuals as being inspirational, like Gandhi and his walk to make salt. Such a simple thing made a very great impression, and contributed strongly to the erosion of British rule. On a less grand scale, each of us will have in our lives some person who inspired and changed us.
So I think that’s a good way to approach things, for each individual to do as they think right. Perhaps my personal actions will not change the world. But when I am faithful to my woman, refrain from stealing from or abusing people, it’s not because I think it will bring fidelity to the world, or make the world honest and kind; I do it because it’s the right thing to do.
Personal example is also a compelling argument. Here in Australia people tend to say, “but to be low carbon we’d have to live in a cave” or “it’d cost too much to change.” Since I’m aiming at a one tonne CO2 lifestyle, and am a fair part of the way there, I can say, “Well, no actually, it’s not bad at all, and has saved me money.”