In this article we will discuss how to talk to other people with positive attitude about the climate. Climate changes and that’s the fact, we need to learn how to deal with the new realms and sooner or later we would need more people engaged in inventing new technologies, changing the mindset and applying sustainable principles of circular economy. Our goal is to avoid implying guilt, horror and indifference.
For many years media was using shocking news headings to attract people’s attention. News were told as catastrophe, huge expenses, something not clear enough or even call to sacrifice. Abnormal heat, forest fires, floods, species extinction – media was blaming people for these problems for decades warning that government would raise taxes to pay for new laws and technologies and people would need to sacrifice their usual lifestyle, stop buying stuff, stop travelling by air, go vegan and spend a lifetime recycling and sorting waste. People are aware that our planet is suffering from deforestation and melting ice in Antarctica, loss of biological diversity – polar bears and koalas, corals and orchids, animals and plants are on the edge of extension because of people’s not sustainable choices. Such statements are not engaging people, in most cases such unpleasant topics are just avoided and attention is quickly switched to something more enjoyable.
Framing effect is an information absorption distortion, cognitive distortion as it is also called, when our perception is biased by a way, how exactly we get specific information. Framing of catastrophe is included in most of the news and only rare cases focus on positive scenarios, energetic efficiency, using the renewable energy sources and circular economy. Experts in climate psychology consider approaching people about climate change from the opposite angle – talking about risks prevention, health and wellbeing, potential for investments and workplaces, safety and precautions. Let us step back and think about main insurance principles – we do not expect that our car would actually be stolen, or we would get really sick, or our house would got burnt. We buy insurance just to be protected in case if something like that would happen and we continue on living our lives not thinking daily about all those awful things that could happen. This would be the best approach to think about climate change – what kind of insurance we could buy today to be prepared and protected in the future against possible climate catastrophe? And by ‘insurance’ I mean our today actions in favour of making our lives more sustainable, and by ‘prepared and protected’ I mean avoiding catastrophe altogether.
We see too many pictures of destroyed towns because of floods, forest fires, skinny polar bears nowadays along with terms global warming, planet, world economy. These definitions are too distant and general, planet is something enormous, for most people it is too far away and abstract. Most people have seen polar bears only in zoos and their natural areal of inhabitance is too far away and most probably we cannot occasionally run into any of them. Consequently, the first and the most important step towards bringing people’s attention closer to climate change is to shorten that distance and point out that all these changes, challenges and issues are exactly about us, our towns, our families and friends, our own health and wellbeing.
Climate change is impacting our environment wherever we are living. For example, population of mosquitos is constantly increasing and mosquitos transmit fewer. Also, pollen plants are growing in much more areas now. Medical researches are arguing that heart deceases, asthma, respiratory deceases are increasing among the population. Moreover, temperature is rising due to climate change, which results in longer seasons of allergies and decrease in air quality. Pollen plants are blooming longer now, which causes more and more diagnosed asthma and allergies. World Health Organisation declare that worse air quality results in every 1 out of 8 deaths. In accordance with WHO, there are 6 ways of how climate is impacting people’s health:
- Heart deceases,
- Respiratory deceases,
- Infections,
- Deceases transmitted with water,
- Lack of proper food products,
- Psychological deceases.
Consequently, bringing society’s attention to prevention of above mentioned deceases is a great tool how to communicate about climate. Suddenly, riding a bicycle, decreasing consuming of meat and choosing local vegetables and fruits – are not only good for a planet, but to ourselves in the first place.
Scientists are rarely talking general language, clear to public. They use risk modelling, probability theory, experiments with share of errors. Many climate sceptics are using these scientific papers as an argument that there is no proof that climate change was caused by people, so that is why there is nothing people can do and can continue on their daily habits. Turning such conversations into more positive and constructive way, it is good to remember that whenever the weather forecast is about heavy rains in the afternoon, we tend to take an umbrella when leaving a house in the morning. The same is with climate forecasts – how people can get ready for the future changes, how they can feel safe and live prosperously also in the future. Being ready is all about proactivity, instead of trying to adapt to polluted air is not reasonable, more ethically and responsible is to take measures to prevent air pollution. Taking measures to prevent a problem, it becomes more real and understandable for more people.
Another argument of people being sceptical is that giant economies such as China, India or Russia despite being responsible for the huge amount of CO2 emissions are not going to decrease emissions, so all the other countries cannot make a big difference and, consequently, there would be just waste of money and resources to invest in green technologies. However, there is no need to compare ourselves with our neighbours. Climate change is not a global catastrophe, it is the new opportunities, common values of all people in the world, development of technologies, new partnerships and common great future. Being climate optimist ought to be challenging but also it is about making significant changes.
Further reads:
- Various positive climate news from The Daily Climate.
- More reasons to be positive about climate change.
- Five inspiring and positive climate reads.
- Five good-news environmental stories from 2021 by Al Jazeera.