Talking Climate

Culture   Oct 4, 2017 by Alicia Cappello

I recently had the pleasure to attend an afternoon workshop with George Marshall from Climate Outreach. Climate Outreach is a European organization whose "mission is to ensure climate change and its impacts are understood, accepted and acted upon across the breadth of society, creating a truly sustainable future." George was in Alberta for multiple presentations and workshops with both ENGOs and government. At the workshop I attended, George spoke about his 15 general communication principles for talking to people about climate change. I thought it would be nice to share those principles here, as they might be of use to some of you.

1. Public engagement should start from the 'values up' not the 'numbers down.' In other words, try to stay away from regurgitating statistics and numbers and instead talk to people about how the aspects of climate change may impact their personal or moral values.
2. Learn lessons from previous campaigns of all kinds (including your opponents). On a personal level, learn from your previous conversations and from campaigns you've seen that have worked well. Try to repeat those successful conversations and learn which conversations to avoid.
3. Make climate change 'us, here and now'; not 'them, there and then.' While those of us who are climate activists may want to better understand how climate change is going to impact the next generation, trying to speak to folks about how climate change is going to impact their children or grandchildren may not work. Instead, talk to people about how their immediate lives or livelihoods will be affected.
4. Place negative information in a narrative arc that leads to a positive resolution. While climate change can (and will) lead to many negative things, overloading people with the negatives can cause them to want to stop listening. If you need to talk about the negatives, turn it into a story that has a happy ending.
5. Behaviour is complex -- communications that can change it must understand and reflect that complexity. The purpose of communicating about climate change is to help encourage people to change their behaviour. But changing behaviour isn't simple and easy, and simple communication ploys won't work to change behaviour.
6. Avoid 'green' messaging when speaking to 'non-greens.' When you're talking to your fellow climate activists, go ahead and use all the green jargon you want. But if you're talking to someone who isn't quite on the green bandwagon yet, avoid the green jargon and instead talk to them in their own language.
7. Promote new voices to reach beyond the usual suspects. Don't use the same old people to tell the same old stories. This might be more applicable to an organization than to an individual, but it's important to get new people to spread your message because they'll probably be able to spread that message to a new group of people.
8. Authenticity is critical for building trust: real people, real stories, not PR spin. You know those commercials that have the small print that says something like "these are not real doctors, they're actors"? This principle is along those lines...avoid using 'fake' people and 'fake' stories to sell your message. Use real examples about real people, including yourself.
9. Construct a compelling narrative leading to a positive resolution (the world we want to see). This is very similar to #4. Again, it's important to focus on the positives and not the negatives. It's also important to spread your message using stories that people can relate to.
10. Use the frames that signal group values; don't repeat your opponents' frames. Instead of trying to change someone's beliefs, reinforce the things that are important to them.
11. Name and challenge the silence; focus on starting the conversation; always include climate change. This principle is a VITAL one. Studies have shown that 60% of people have never had a conversation about climate change. We need to start the conversation. And we need to keep that conversation going.
12. Including people with conservative values is essential for effective public engagement. There's a debate regarding how political climate change is. Naomi Klein doesn't believe climate change is impacted by politics, but George Marshall believes climate change is impacted by politics. However, I think Naomi may have written that before Trump was elected as the US president! We've all seen how politically motivated the climate change discussion is in the US now, and it may only get worse. If climate change is impacted by politics, then people of all political beliefs need to be in on the conversation about climate change.
13. Optimal public strategies engage the centre, maintain the base and avoid aggravating the opponents. This is also known as the 'sandwich strategy'! Focus on the groups you think you can change and don't waste your time on the groups you'll never convince.
14. Build narratives around shared identity, including pride in a fossil fuel heritage. Messages that include the concept of fairness work best to convince people to change. Use words like remarkable, reliable, remind, respect, rebuild, resolve, etc., in your message.
15. Always test your messages (with both supporter and opponent audiences). George was very adamant that you always test your messages before you launch them in a campaign. Again, this is probably more for organizations than individuals, but it's an important principle to understand. Just because YOU think a specific message is going to work, doesn't mean it will actually work.

If you're interested in learning more, check out George Marshall's book called "Don't Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change."

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