Communicating Climate Change

Last week I went to a half-day conference, Making Change – taking the initiative on climate
change communications, which was put together by (to quote from the programme) “Alex Hannant from Mandarin Communications in association with Victoria University of Wellington (Institute of Policy Studies and the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences) and the British Council.”
The conference was, again to quote, “for people who are interested in exploring how to engage New Zealanders with climate change more effectively. Representatives from all sectors are welcome and particularly those actively involved in public communications and communications planning with regard to climate change.” Now we have won the climate change debate, this is exactly what is needed – communications professionals building links and trying to find more effective ways of communicating.
Part of the context for the conference comes in a background paper prepared by Hannant:

Daniel Abbasi, former Director at the Yale School of Forestry and Environment Studies, states: “The problem of climate change is almost perfectly designed to test the limits of any modern society’s capacity for response – one might even call it the ‘perfect problem’
for its uniquely daunting confluence of forces.” Within this confluence he cites perceived remoteness in both time and place, the complexity inherent in the subject matter, cultural filters that obscure and politicise the problem, ingrained habits, institutional capacity to deal with the problem, incentive structures and motivational obstacles associated with collective action. Certainly it is safe to say that information about climate change does not necessarily lead to changes in attitude or behaviour. [emphasis added]

I like Abbasi’s description of climate change as “the perfect problem”. The combined hindrances to effective action are daunting. The scale of the problem is more and more troubling the more we engage with it. However, there is plenty of room for hope – I read just yesterday, in the new Listener I think, that it is heartening that “glass half empty environmental scientists are also glass half full people”. It isn’t too late. We, as a society (and I mean a human society, a global transnational community) have the capacity to arrest climate change before it becomes disastrous. And, in fact, we must do exactly this. The only question is whether we leave it too late.
Attendees filled out one of the law school lecture theatres, and it seemed like a diverse bunch, with representation from academia, public policy, media and interest groups.

The conference opened with Nick Jones (of Nick Jones and Associates) and Peter Salmon (of Moxie Design Group). They shared some demographic research, which divided NZ society’s engagement with sustainability issues as follows: 5% trailblazers, 25% actively engaged, 40% passive and 30% need persuasion. That 40% of passive people are the group they focused on and recommended directing communications to. Don’t waste time on the “need persuasion” group – focus on turning passive people into active people. In order to do this, they outlined certain elements of the communications message, principally communicating that there are meaningful actions that can be taken as part of a clear chain of inputs to a desirable future.
Second was a pre-recorded video from UK communications outfit Futerra. Go check out their website, it’s a delight, full of nifty resources and founded on a clear commitment to the environment. Chief among these resources are two absolute gems: Rules of the Game and New Rules: New Game (both are .pdf links). These describe key principles of climate change communication, each neatly summarised, some of them familiar, many of them very new indeed. (For example: 9. Beware the impacts of cognitive dissonance – Confronting someone with the difference between their attitude and their actions on climate change will make them more likely to change their attitude than their actions.) If you have any interest in communicating ideas about climate change, which includes just talking about it to your friends or family, then you owe it to yourself to check these out.
Third on the list was Victoria University of Wellington Psychology Associate Professor John McClure, who spoke about his experience relating to earthquake risk perception and risk management behaviours. (Overseas readers: Wellington sits on a major fault line.) He covered, briefly, how optimism about risk was foolhardy; how optimism about agency was essential to avoid resignation and fatalism; and how people always expect bad things will happen to other people and not to them. In the latter case, one way of countering this bias was to give people examples they could relate to: “Jimmy Jones down the street has taken these steps” works better than “Here’s what you can do to protect yourself”.
Fourth, freelance journo Kim Griggs (website; she writes for, among other venues, the BBC news site) talked about the media perspective and how to do a better job communicating with and through the media. She talked up networking and building relationships with relevant journalists, and recommended that it was important for organisations to support media outlets that cover climate change (for example, by purchasing advertising within them).
Fifth was another video presentation, this time from Dan Abassi, quoted above, a former Yale Professor in Forestry and the Environment. Abassi’s video was quite dry, and coming late in the session his detailed account of the preparation of a seminal U.S. climate change conference left much of the audience, including me, unmoved. His book, Americans and Climate Change, looks to be worth a read however. A google has found this extended summary of its content. Check it out.

Overall, it was a fascinating day. The Futerra stuff alone was a revelation for me; if you do nothing else in response to this post, click on those .pdf links. They are very pink, and each is only a couple of pages. If you’re interested in the general area, check out the other links, or comment/email and I’ll throw some more details your way.