How should we talk about climate change?

In recent days there’s been much discussion about the ‘banned’ advert from the 10:10 climate change campaign, which was withdrawn after it had upset a number of people with its cartoon violence images of environmental campaigners blowing up recalcitrant members of the public. Find out more background on the ad and see the video itself here.

I’m not bothered about whether the ad was offensive or not – my problem with it is that it simply wasn’t very good. The aim was to bring the issue of climate change back into the headlines, which it did, but for the wrong reasons as it (again) made environmental campaigners look like clumsy amateurs. It was patronising and one reached the end of the video thinking ‘what was the point of that?’.

It lacked any real sophistication or irony, and as a result may have reinforced many people’s prejudices about environmental campaigners. It also fuels the idea that people in the environmental movement really have no idea on how to communicate with the public on these issues. We are throwing everything – and anything – at them in the hope that it will stick and gain behaviour change. We are failing to gain the change we need (if this were possible in the first place*) and in the meantime are alienating people with calls to action which are either too small and potentially counterproductive, tainted with green consumerism or, like this advert, simply lacking in any motivational power or call to action.

We need to get more sophisticated in the way we approach communications on climate change, and one of the key ingredients in doing this is to really understand the drivers of people’s attitudes and behaviours on this issue. These include our habitual and unconscious behaviours as well as how we respond to wider societal and cultural influences – one example of the latter is the role of advertising in driving people towards materialistic values, which can make us less responsive to calls for pro-environmental or pro-social behaviour. There is hope though – a number of places are doing this research, including the RESOLVE centre at Surrey University, and some forward-thinking NGOs are starting to think about these issues too – for example, check out the new report ‘Common Cause’ by Tom Crompton of WWF.

*Not only do we need to think about how to seek behaviour change - we also need to understand our goals better as a movement and give serious reflection to what we can really hope to achieve on the issue of climate change. But that’s a topic for another blog post...

Is 'doing your bit' enough?

Some time ago I produced a paper for ChangeStar questioning whether the strategy of seeking small changes in behaviour from the public on issues such as climate change was the most effective way for environmental and social justice organisations to achieve their (very urgent) goals. You can read it here.

This article is worth dusting off and putting out again, as our goals as a movement have become ever more urgent and our methods of public engagement are in need of a serious rethink. My thinking in this area shares some similarities with Tom Crompton's work at WWF in his capacity as climate change strategist. Check out his home page and, in particular, his report 'Weathercocks and Signposts'.

A new approach to supporter engagement

Environmental and other charities are not gaining the change in behaviour from the public that they need, and the time has come for a change in our approach to how we communicate with the public.

The ChangeStar article in this link argues that we need to take a ‘whole person’ approach to seeking change and influencing the public on these issues. We need to recognise that caring about the environment is just one aspect of an individual’s worldviews and motivations – both within their ethical values and more broadly within their lives. To motivate people on issues such as climate change and protecting the environment we therefore not only need to tackle these issues themselves, but also offer a vision of a more just and sustainable world generally, including one in which everyone has better lives and greater well-being. We also need to empower people to understand the world better, become more effective at identifying and living their values and enable people to live happier and more self-determined lives.

In summary - we need a radical re-think in our supporter communication strategies to achieve this, and the article provides some initial ideas as to how charities could do this.