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recent days there’s been much discussion about the ‘banned’ advert from the 10:10 climate change campaign, which was withdrawn after it had upset a number of people with its cartoon violence images of environmental campaigners blowing up recalcitrant members of the public.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

Help for smaller charities

Many of the most vibrant and important organisations seeking change operate with very small budgets or staff numbers, and can find it difficult to access the help and support open to larger orgainsations. Also, smaller not-for-profit organisations can face quite specific challenges and issues that larger consultancy organisations do not cater for - such as a lack of people to actually implement the plans or recommendations that a consultancy exercise comes up with.

We're therefore launching a new imprint of ChangeStar - called ChangeStar Jnr - which provides a range of services and support to address the specific challenges and issues that really matter to smaller not-for-profit organisations, and at a price that is realistic for them.

For many smaller organisations, the decision to use this type of service, and even to develop a strategic plan in the first place, can be a difficult one to make. It is easy to find reasons not to do it – for example, the organisation may feel it cannot afford to spend money on planning when it has other priorities. This short outline shows how important good planning is, no matter how small your organisation is. Quite simply, if you don’t plan, you’re very unlikely to achieve your aims.

Clone towns revisited

Recently, the New Economics Foundation (nef) published a follow up to their influential 2005 'Clone Town Britain' report. The updated report has surveyed Britain again and found that 41 per cent of UK towns are clone towns and a further 23 per cent are on the verge of becoming clone towns.

The original report explored how our local towns and commuities had been affected by the growing dominance of major chains on the high street, and this follow-up continues the theme, whilst also exploring how the economic downturn has affected this situation. This is important stuff as it affects the quality of our lives and communities directly. The report provides a few ideas on how we can start to make things better. Also see the 'How to connect' section of the Life Squared resource base for other ideas.

Check out the new report here.

Freedom debunked

'Freedom' is often held up as an unequivocal good in our modern individualistic society, and many people (and politicians) justify their actions or views on the basis of this. The short paper available I wrote for ChangeStar here explores the idea of freedom and our desire for it. It reaches what I hope is a reasonably common sense conclusion:

"Each person’s claim to freedom brings competing claims from others and we should be sure to weigh these up carefully before we jump to defend anyone’s claim for ‘freedom’."

Big Society can’t happen in a Consumer Society

Whatever you may think of the coalition government’s ‘Big Society’ idea (and I have my reservations), it needs a certain type of population to make it happen – one that is politically engaged, community-minded and willing to give up time for the greater good. I hate to say it, but this doesn’t sound like modern society – where isolation, materialism and the pursuit of self interest seem to be greater priorities than compassionate collectivism for many people.

One of the reasons for this excessively self-oriented mindset is our dominant culture of consumerism, which can have a significant influence on us and affect the way we engage with the world around us. For example, studies (such as Greenberg and Brand, 1993; Shrum et al., 2005) show that increased exposure to commercial marketing is associated with increased levels of materialism in people. This can lead people to build their identities around extrinsic values (such as money, fame, and popularity) and stifle their concern for external issues such as poverty, suffering, discrimination and environmental challenges.

So, before we can realistically seek a truly progressive vision of society – whether that is indeed the Big Society or something else entirely – we will need to examine, and address, the social influences that militate against people’s participation, and this includes our culture of consumerism.

For more thoughts on consumerism, download ‘The problem with consumerism’ from Life².

Not the end of consumerism

This article in the Business section of the New York Times is interesting, as it illustrates the difficulty that the mainstream media still have in coming to terms with the idea that living simply and buying less can make one happy.

There are glimmers of clarity in the article - for example, the opening paragraphs discuss a couple's journey of downsizing their income, consumption and debts, in order to get the life and jobs they want. It ends with the wise observation from one partner "I really believe that the acquisition of material goods doesn’t bring about happiness".

This is good stuff. At this point, there is a great opportunity to show how many people are realising that the rat race (including the search for ever greater income), is not for them, and that building a life around your priorities and the things that really matter to us rather than the pursuit of money can bring us greater happiness and fulfilment.

The article doesn't do this however. Far from being a timely challenge to consumerism and the rat race, it jumps from a call to 'buy fewer material goods' to a suggestion to 'buy more services and experiences'. This is not about downsizing at all - it is just shifting your spending.

Perhaps it is asking too much of the business section of a mainstream publication to question the pursuit of wealth and consumption, but it is a shame to see an article start so promisingly and then miss the point so spectacularly. It will also lead many readers to miss the point, at a time when we could all benefit from living off less.

A new focus for education

Geoff Mulgan of The Young Foundation puts it well:

"Over the last two decades a gulf has opened up between what education systems provide and what children need. Education systems rightly provide children with skills in numeracy and literacy and academic qualifications. But the emphasis on a set of core academic skills, and a culture of intensive testing, has too often squeezed out another set of skills – how to think creatively, how to collaborate, how to empathise – at the very time when they are needed more than ever"

The need to educate people - adults and children alike - in various aspects of 'the art of living' is a theme running through much of my work, and this report (called 'Grit: The skills for success and how they are grown') by The Young Foundation explores some of these skills in greater detail and makes a case for why they matter in our lives.

Although it perhaps focuses more on the benefits of these skills in people's careers than in life generally (understandable as it needs to be 'sold' to policy makers), it contains an interesting overview of topics such as the need for people to be taught to be reslient in facing the adversity and challenges of life.