Climate Change is a challenge to all humanity. That means it is a problem in which all of us need to get involved. All of us means individuals, communities, civil society, businesses and politicians. Individuals can and must play an important role in convincing these other organisations to act. We have more power than we believe. But right now not enough of us are making a contribution to that challenge.
Climate Outreach is a British organisation committed to understanding how people think and feel about Climate Change. At the same time it enables them to tell better climate stories.
They have said that “having conversations about Climate Change in our daily lives plays a huge role in creating social change. We take our cues about what’s important from what we hear our family, friends, colleagues and neighbours talking about.”
Does anybody else agree with them?
“One of the most important actions people can take to address global warming is to talk about it”, says Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, climate scientist and Chief Scientist at The Nature Conservancy. According to Dr. Hayhoe, “positive conversations about the climate can help people connect over shared values including family, community, health, and religion. In turn, this can help people think more deeply about how a changing climate affects who and what they care about, and support changes in beliefs and attitudes about global warming.”
How will talking about it help?
The People’s Climate Vote 2024 is the largest standalone public opinion survey on Climate Change.
The survey examined how people are experiencing the impacts of Climate Change and how they want world leaders to respond. The survey results show high levels of support for a range of climate actions. This includes nature restoration, rapid transition from fossil fuels and climate education in schools.
“It shows a clear expectation that governments need to lead and strengthen their commitments to address Climate Change. A resounding 89 percent of people wanted to see more climate action from their governments.”
However the journal, Nature, shows that in spite of the fact that Climate Change needs global co-operation, most people have no idea that others are similarly caring about the effects of Climate Change. It says, “these systematic perception gaps can form an obstacle to climate action.” In other words if we don’t know that large numbers of other people care about it then we are probably going to do nothing to help.
Encouraging people to take part in the fight against Climate Change
It Needs Us All
What should we talk about?
Anthropocene Magazine asks “many people believe Climate Change is happening, but most don’t act. Why?” This is perhaps one of the biggest puzzles facing us. The global population is looking at an existential threat and many people do nothing. Why indeed!
The magazine asked people to discuss various climate interventions and tested which one’s were most effective. They found that guiding people to imagine the future of Climate Change and its effect on oneself or close others was the most effective way to promote action. In particular, writing a letter to a child in their future about one’s efforts to combat Climate Change was also effective.
If you are looking for different ways to communicate about Climate Change, please have a look at one of my previous blogs called The Power of our Words.
We know that a very high level of the global population wants better climate action from their governments. But we also know that the younger generations are those who will suffer most.
Talking to Young People
It is logical that young people should be more anxious than the rest of us about the future. The British Council has done a great deal of research around the world on what young people think and feel about the challenges we face.
These are some of their main findings:
- Since 2016, Climate Change has emerged as one of the top three areas of concern. The others are poverty and unemployment, for young people across the G20.
- Climate Change/the environment is the most important issue on the minds of over 19,000 young people who were surveyed.
- Sustainability is routinely cited as one of the most critical values that countries should support and encourage.
- We know that young people from diverse and otherwise markedly different countries – from Poland to Pakistan – share a common concern about Climate Change and a common demand to be more effectively involved in climate action programmes and policy dialogues.
If one researches how young people are actually feeling about the situation, things look much bleaker. Certainly I see that when speaking to my grandchildren about their future. Many young people feel deeply worried, afraid, sad, and anxious about Climate Change; it affects their daily lives, makes the future seem frightening, and leads some to believe humanity is doomed.
An organisation that was recently set up in the UK called the Climate Majority Project is based on a simple premise: most people feel alone and powerless with their concern about Climate Change. “This will change when the climate majority sees itself as a movement large enough to make a difference.” They have a section as part of what they do, called the Climate Courage Campaign which focuses on young people’s education and wellbeing.
They have a resource library for use in schools which you may find useful.
I love the way they describe how they will talk to the children. “We prioritise resources that take a systemic view, and align with our campaign strategy to support education for a better world. Schools can make a major difference to how children metabolise climate and global realities. A preventative, whole-school approach would most impactfully make this a reality. It is our wish to promote real, climate-relevant responses that can help students to embrace feelings and channel their energy into climate-positive action.”
Talking to “All of Us”
It Needs Us All to be Involved
If People Don’t Understand the Severity of the Problem They Won’t Act
An organisation called CIWEM – Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management says “UK climate-advisory body the Climate Change Committee estimates that around two-thirds of the emissions reductions we need to reach net zero involve the public, through either behavioural or societal changes. So how experts talk to the public about Climate Change really does matter: we collectively have a massive part to play.”
How We Use Words Counts
That means the public needs to understand what the climate scientists are saying to them!
It is hard for climate scientists and also for people like me, educators if you will, to remember to use language that other people will understand. For example the report says, “It’s especially challenging when we can’t point to a physical object to calibrate a mutual understanding. What will +2° of global warming look and feel like? Will an English summer feel like Barcelona in April?”
It also says that we think in two different ways. Intuitive Thinking and Deliberative Thinking. It questions “How does this insight help climate scientists to talk to the public? It tells us that to persuade people to act on Climate Change we must help them to get it, intuitively. In other words “That means relating climate risks to things people already care about. That can be the rising cost of home insurance as flood risks increase, or more expensive grocery bills as more extreme weather impacts agriculture.”
Perhaps this is a useful suggestion for most of us when we are speaking to our friends and neighbours.
What can you do to help get other people to act?
- Talk to them
- This is hard so find a way to make it less painful! Have a coffee morning to discuss a subject that might interest all of you
- Set up a community group to deal with a problem, such as local flooding. Or perhaps, how to get your local Council to stop using bee-killing pesticides
- Set up a group of young people to talk about how they feel about Nature and what they can do to help
- Get the neighbours together to write letters about what will be important in the future. You can then discuss them.
Remember to start small if you are doing it on your own. It is tough doing it in the beginning. Doing it in your community is much nicer normally. The vital thing is to start talking about the challenges and how we can deal with them.
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Photos by Vitaly Gariev, Birmingham Museums Trust and Owen Cannon on Unsplash