Opinion: Five Shifts for Our Climate Conversations

Love, Justice and Climate Change

In my previous post, I shared six items of good climate news. It’s a remarkable list, and it would be good for us to remember them and to be able to share each of these good news facts. There are good things happening on the climate front all around the world.

At the same time, the world is still moving too slowly to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation. Global warming is still rising. While we have reduced the temperature rise expected in the worst-case scenarios, current projections still point to dramatically worsening climate disaster. In the U.S., the major country with the highest per capita emissions, Trump’s disastrous policies are causing emissions to rise, rather than fall, as well as creating increased harmful health effects.

Even as we bemoan, protest, and resist the rise of authoritarianism and lawlessness in the U.S., it’s important that we keep building a groundswell of support for bolder climate-friendly policies.

Five Simple Shifts in How We Communicate About Climate
I just came across a research-based report recommending five simple shifts in how we communicate about the climate in order to gain a broader audience and have a bigger impact. After a broad international study, involving numerous surveys and focus groups, in collaboration with the Rockefeller Foundation, Potential Energy reports finding that the messaging used by the climate movement is a major obstacle to our success. “The messages used by the climate movement have been narrow, complex, and, increasingly, politically coded. But if you replace these messages with broader, simpler language, then support for solutions leaps by double-digit percentage points.”

#1 From Morality to Materiality
The researchers report that being a movement about moral superiority, or what’s “right” and “wrong”, doesn’t work. The climate movement needs to feel “practical, tangible, and necessary.” “We have to connect climate concerns to what people worry about every day, and connect climate solutions to benefits they can touch and see.” This will broaden the movement beyond those who already care about climate change. (We can win people to renewable energy based on it being cheaper, healthier, and quicker to build than gas and coal plants, without reference to its effects on the climate crisis.)

#2 From Luxury to Affordability
Clean energy is cheaper than fossil fuels. It’s time to celebrate this fact, without any sense of being defensive

#3 From Banning to Building
In every test of messaging, banning or limiting anything (even “natural” gas or coal) rates poorly compared to emphasizing what we are shifting toward (less expensive, healthier, abundant energy). Talk about what we need and can have, not what we need to get rid of.

#4 From Global to National and Local
People want to know about local effects of climate change and solutions close to home. This one is particularly challenging for me because I am so motivated personally by the international injustice effects of climate change. But this isn’t about me, or any of us, expressing our feeling; it’s about choosing a message that’s true and that will motivate a larger portion of the population.

#5 From Massive to Manageable
The researchers found that people already care about the climate crisis, they just aren’t convinced that anything can be done about it. They need to hear about solutions that sound, and are, achievable. “It should feel like evolution, not revolution or transformation.” They need to hear about what is being achieved – again, use the six facts from “Good Climate News to Share.”

Previous research has shown that interpersonal communication is key in “spurring climate awareness and action.” The idea that we could raise support for climate solutions by more than 10% just by shifting our messaging is astounding to me, but I have learned to trust these researchers. Let’s get anything that is politically coded out of how we talk about climate change, and learn to make the five shifts above.

You Matter
I know that for many of you, it doesn’t feel as though how you express things in your conversations with friends and acquaintances makes any significant difference. However, every mass movement is built one conversation at a time. Saying something to a friend in a way that implements the “shifts” above, may lead them to say something to someone else. That someone else may be able to hear it because you incorporated one of the above shifts into your conversation. Over time we can build a shared narrative that attracts a wider audience and has increased impact.

If you want to do something about the climate crisis, first, talk to more people, more often, about climate. You might start by sharing one of the good news items from last week’s post, “Good Climate News to Share.” Secondly, see if you can implement one of the above shifts, in the comments you make to friends and acquaintances about the climate.

Russ Vernon-Jones was principal of Fort River School from 1990 to 2008 and is currently a member of the Steering Committee of Climate Action Now-Western Massachusetts. He blogs regularly on climate justice at www.russvernonjones.org.