The evidence for biodiversity loss and climate change is overwhelming. The need to do something is clear. But what is the best way to communicate these issues?
Our governments understand the crisis and they understand the majority of the public want action. In April, Greta was arrested in The Hague. The Hague. Climate protesters get arrested daily and I'm not referring to Stonehenge. Our lawmakers know what to do but they enjoy receiving funding from oil and gas.
Mainstream media has become complacent. I know this to be true. Journalism was my career until a hedge fund bought my paper. Financial institutions own journalism.
Four years ago I shuttered a successful business which relied on clients going into the office and going on vacation. Taking the opportunity to change my life and make a difference. I sold and donated most of my possessions as well as my car. I moved from 3000 sq ft in a sprawling red state to 300 sq ft in a blue city. Living and working in the same neighborhood (15 min city) with every need a short walk, bike ride, bus trip away. Three organic farmers markets, perfect for a vegan. Portable AC used as little as possible.
Not everyone can do this but I've become aquainted with many who have adjusted their lives in similar fashion.
So when I read a study claiming the public may not be making enough noise, I get a little pissed off. My interest in the environment goes back many years before it was fashionable. Recently I observed a city sanitation worker train a new employee. They emptied the park trash can and recycling can into the same truck. Leadership. Government. Hope is what @AlexanderVerbeek gives us or this activist might throw in the towel.
There are members of the public who need to experience a climate event to understand. Getting off the bus in a significant downpour, a group of us ran to shelter in an apartment lobby. The hard rain acted as a power washer on the sidewalk. We were not only soaked but covered in dirt. They were stunned. I said, "climate change" and they looked at me as if I was crazy. But then nodded. I speak to folks regularly about climate and they listen politely then go back to making travel plans for their third trip to Europe this year.
Some people need to be scared to understand the impact. What disturbed me most about this study were the countries marked "no data" as they are most affected by our three trips to Europe.
I look forward to the ideas and potential solutions you discover, Jonathan. Thank you!
Thanks Rena! Love hearing your story! Quite the journey.
Unfortunately it all comes down to $. We're currently stuck in a free market economy, which seems to make it hard to make the change we need happen. However, to your point specifically, I guess the point I was making and that Hannah Ritchie was making is that we tend to think many folks don't care about climate change. We know people in our own circles do, but we think those in different facets of society don't. But they probably do, and just don't know what they can do about it, or just put it in the too hard box. But if everyone knew that everyone cared, perhaps it'd be easier to put pressure on governments etc. to make change.
Thanks for your thoughts, Rena. Always super valuable.
So grateful i stumbled upon a quote of yours today that brought me here. I can’t emphasize enough to you how much of a comfort your voice and feelings are to me. Solidarity. Community. We are not alone. Thank you for your words and caring.
I think people would be more into the idea of coordinated action against climate change if they trusted government to be able to deliver it well. But governments just don't seem to have demonstrated even baseline competence in anything whatsoever for decades. I'm British, but I'm sure other Westerners would report that in their country the infrastructure is crumbling, there aren't enough houses, there is no control of borders, the police don't deter crime, education is failing, and foreign policy is an ignorance-based farce. Even if your friendly neighbourhood moron agreed with you about the need to achieve something, you wouldn't trust them to deliver anything, so why bother?
So perhaps the way to communicate the issues is for every concerned person and organisation to 'show, don't tell'. Demonstrate competence in a positive direction by doing something that works - at whatever spatial, temporal or financial scale that is appropriate for that person or organisation. Not just talking about doing it, not insisting other people do it too, but just doing it. Also we need to remember that just because a good thing is small scale, that doesn't make it not a good thing. So worrying about actions not having a global reach (no one action does) is self-defeating.
Thanks for your comment. I 100% agree that faith in governments must be at an all-time low in much of the world right now. Government action on climate chat has been appalling in most cases. It's frustrating that's for sure! To me, one of the major issues is the short three-year cycles many governments go through, so they're all focused on getting the voters vote and thinking short-term. We need to reframe our thinking to long-term but I struggle to see how that will happen in the current political climate. So yes, it's hard not to get despondent at times! Love the idea of "show don't tell". It's a concept I tell my students and others when writing cover letters etc. i.e. demonstrate what you have done, not what you could do! Show me the evidence! And, yes, I agree, any small thing counts. Something is better than nothing and the time to do it is now, or yesterday. Thanks for your thoughts!
I think sometimes climate change just seems so overwhelming for people so we definitely need to hear the positive science around climate change initiatives. These stories give me hope when I read them. I'd like to see scientists engaging with school kids and inspiring them to be a part of solving some of the big issues while at the same time letting them know that it is the small things each person can do in their daily lives to collectively make a difference.
Yes, a lot of citizen science initiatives do that. We had a great one here in Sussex UK where university biologists worked with local adults and kids in measuring plastic in the harbour - and removing it.
That's great -- love hearing things like that. The challenges for academics is we all have so much on our plate. A citizen science project can be a lot more work than you'd imagine. But very cool when they work.
Thanks Kim. Yes, I think we need to hear that there are ways out of the mess. And yep, I think we need to be putting the right people in front of kids to show them they can make a difference too.
Thank you for your invitation for how to do better. I agree that we need a way out of this mess now. My mini-book, Simply Reversing the Eco-crises, brainstorms and imagines an extremely simple decision-making process -- usable by people everywhere -- for turning things around and reversing the ecological crises (including the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis) as a whole. Invite you to give it a look at https://www.erikkvam.com/simply-reversing-the-eco-crises/
Hi Jonathan - my wheelhouse is all about growing hope (compare optimism) for the future as a way to address eco-anxiety and the feelings of disempowerment (apathy, disengagement) that go along with. Much writing is, as you suggest, academic and inaccessible to many, many people. In my learning I’ve discovered that communicating that people have agency is critical. My writing focuses on communicating sustainability concepts simply and in an empowering way. And yet, I notice that unless my readers are already onboard, my posts are met with crickets. Like you I’m not sure how to reach more people, especially those who “don’t think about it because it’s too scary”.
Hi Vivienne. Thanks for these thoughts. I'm not sure what the answer is to be honest. But I know you just have to keep putting yourself out there and seeing what sticks. That's my current approach. I think it's working. It's never fast enough for my liking but it's reaching new people.
You're entirely right, too little hope and people turn away from the messages, too much positivity and people think that really there's nothing wrong. I think it's vital to share success stories and ideas for how people can make a difference alongside analysis of the real problems we face.
Something that helps keep me energised and hopeful are regular doses of news about little wins, like a recent post I restacked about rewilding in UK - including the reintroduction of bison to Kent and a protected wild area for them to live in. Also, our beautiful kelp project which has - after years in the political and grant-aid wilderness - been given national support and publicity. https://sussexkelp.org.uk/
One thing I'm always looking for is more small, accessible ways to do things that actually mean something. Like I do the recycling while fully aware that most of the 'recycling' doesn't get recycled and that feels infuriating. I carry my reusable bag while seeing that half the produce even in the green markets where I try to shop locally is wrapped in damned foil and placed on styrofoam trays.
Is there small reasonable stuff that we can do that actually means something? I also love seeing the positive stories like the new mushrooms they've found that can revitalize heavily polluted land, new eco-sustainable ways to make 'plastics' from mycelium or bamboo or whatever, clever actions that protect the sea bed (like this epic organization in Italy I think that's dropping massive marble statues onto the sea floor, they're like a divers' gallery and also trawling nets get caught into them and get ripped, hahah, pure bloody genius.
I think it all matters, but I hear you, the recycling thing is so frustrating, so are many others. All the packaging nowadays is ridiculous.
However, I think there are many things we can be doing and they add up. Eat lower on the food chain, take public transport or walk/bike, talk to your friends and family about it, get politically active, choose green energy, consume less, etc. One things for sure, we need collective action, but individual actions scale up. Keep going! :)
I like to focus on success stories. Hope is a verb—we are inspired to act when we see others take action. Pointing out how local actions have global impacts is important because it’s easy to forget. And that we don’t have to wait for big government to do things, we can make change. People need invitations to revolutions—we have to find joy in our work, live the work we’re fighting for, or who will want to join us? Envisioning a better future is the first step to creating it. Remembering that change takes time (but it’s in progress) helps too. I write about all this, often thru the lens of the legal system; the exciting thing about law is that it’s the last thing to change, so when there’s movement it signals a huge societal shift.
This is a great perspective, thanks. I agree with what you say. Waiting for governments to take action will lead to even more waiting. We have to put pressure on them from every angle! Thanks for your thoughts.
Lately, I've been pondering how to pierce the detachment people seem to have, even in the face of calamity after calamity. I think one approach might me to connect the mundane, day-to-day things we do automatically and take for granted to the processes and systems fueling the ongoing crises of biodiversity loss and climate change acceleration. People don't get the message because it isn't personal. I think it's the moment of personal insight, when someone truly *gets* something that inspires people to act and shifts perspectives. How do we explain to people how everything they do is already impacted and how their lives are already changing, and how reactionary attitudes are making it worse? How do we inspire people to become a community when they've never been part of one? How do we explain to people that what they do does it indeed matter, and they can reclaim power though collective action.
But then I get into other questions I don't know how to answer or talk about, like what really is collective action and what does it mean to protest in an age when protest seems to inspire more authoritarian oppression? What is beyond criticism and building something, and what are our alternative ways of living that we need to start creating? Yes, there are experiments, but if I can't point to something people can start doing right away and empower them rather than demoralize, how can I ask them to act?
And so I get myself into a corner of complexity and interconnections that make communication impossible for me, and then I go lie down. I don't know.
Thanks Andreea. All questions I grapple with as you can probably tell from this piece. Thanks for sharing. You're bang on -- it's about meeting people where they are. Finding a connection that makes it real for them. It's hard to see such detachment, isn't it? But there's a way to make it relevant for everyone (well almost everyone), I'm sure. When insurance becomes too expensive is when many will begin to realise the severity of the situation, I think. Thanks for your insights!
I hope they will. My problem is people lose motivation/hope/interest without something actionable. We can get people to understand what's happening, and then what? 'Here's this big complex predicament that threatens all life on earth AND here's what you can do that's actually empowering' is what I think would actually achieve something. The empowering thing doesn't have to be huge. It can be mundane, but it's got to be more than change on a personal level, and it's got to be something people can do, right away, and keep doing so it builds up to more and better things. That's obviously context specific, but it's just telling people to look up what local stakeholders are already doing and join and sent them off to figure it out for themselves isn't good enough. We need networks of networks that collaborate and achieve things. And there are people trying to build those, but it's mostly only people who dedicate their entire lives to this, which is great. But there's got to be a place for people to become involved without changing their entire life overnight, because that won't happen until life has already changed and everyone struggles to somehow survive.
I hear you! I think the most powerful thing people can do is to get active: vote sensibly, pressure your local politician, councillor etc., protest. Small, personal choices are fantastic, but I think the fastest way to change is to put pressure on those in power. They need to be held accountable.
Our governments understand the crisis and they understand the majority of the public want action. In April, Greta was arrested in The Hague. The Hague. Climate protesters get arrested daily and I'm not referring to Stonehenge. Our lawmakers know what to do but they enjoy receiving funding from oil and gas.
Mainstream media has become complacent. I know this to be true. Journalism was my career until a hedge fund bought my paper. Financial institutions own journalism.
Four years ago I shuttered a successful business which relied on clients going into the office and going on vacation. Taking the opportunity to change my life and make a difference. I sold and donated most of my possessions as well as my car. I moved from 3000 sq ft in a sprawling red state to 300 sq ft in a blue city. Living and working in the same neighborhood (15 min city) with every need a short walk, bike ride, bus trip away. Three organic farmers markets, perfect for a vegan. Portable AC used as little as possible.
Not everyone can do this but I've become aquainted with many who have adjusted their lives in similar fashion.
So when I read a study claiming the public may not be making enough noise, I get a little pissed off. My interest in the environment goes back many years before it was fashionable. Recently I observed a city sanitation worker train a new employee. They emptied the park trash can and recycling can into the same truck. Leadership. Government. Hope is what @AlexanderVerbeek gives us or this activist might throw in the towel.
There are members of the public who need to experience a climate event to understand. Getting off the bus in a significant downpour, a group of us ran to shelter in an apartment lobby. The hard rain acted as a power washer on the sidewalk. We were not only soaked but covered in dirt. They were stunned. I said, "climate change" and they looked at me as if I was crazy. But then nodded. I speak to folks regularly about climate and they listen politely then go back to making travel plans for their third trip to Europe this year.
Some people need to be scared to understand the impact. What disturbed me most about this study were the countries marked "no data" as they are most affected by our three trips to Europe.
I look forward to the ideas and potential solutions you discover, Jonathan. Thank you!
Thanks Rena! Love hearing your story! Quite the journey.
Unfortunately it all comes down to $. We're currently stuck in a free market economy, which seems to make it hard to make the change we need happen. However, to your point specifically, I guess the point I was making and that Hannah Ritchie was making is that we tend to think many folks don't care about climate change. We know people in our own circles do, but we think those in different facets of society don't. But they probably do, and just don't know what they can do about it, or just put it in the too hard box. But if everyone knew that everyone cared, perhaps it'd be easier to put pressure on governments etc. to make change.
Thanks for your thoughts, Rena. Always super valuable.
So grateful i stumbled upon a quote of yours today that brought me here. I can’t emphasize enough to you how much of a comfort your voice and feelings are to me. Solidarity. Community. We are not alone. Thank you for your words and caring.
So lovely to hear that! I'm glad you found your way here and grateful to have you. Thanks!
I think people would be more into the idea of coordinated action against climate change if they trusted government to be able to deliver it well. But governments just don't seem to have demonstrated even baseline competence in anything whatsoever for decades. I'm British, but I'm sure other Westerners would report that in their country the infrastructure is crumbling, there aren't enough houses, there is no control of borders, the police don't deter crime, education is failing, and foreign policy is an ignorance-based farce. Even if your friendly neighbourhood moron agreed with you about the need to achieve something, you wouldn't trust them to deliver anything, so why bother?
So perhaps the way to communicate the issues is for every concerned person and organisation to 'show, don't tell'. Demonstrate competence in a positive direction by doing something that works - at whatever spatial, temporal or financial scale that is appropriate for that person or organisation. Not just talking about doing it, not insisting other people do it too, but just doing it. Also we need to remember that just because a good thing is small scale, that doesn't make it not a good thing. So worrying about actions not having a global reach (no one action does) is self-defeating.
Thanks for your comment. I 100% agree that faith in governments must be at an all-time low in much of the world right now. Government action on climate chat has been appalling in most cases. It's frustrating that's for sure! To me, one of the major issues is the short three-year cycles many governments go through, so they're all focused on getting the voters vote and thinking short-term. We need to reframe our thinking to long-term but I struggle to see how that will happen in the current political climate. So yes, it's hard not to get despondent at times! Love the idea of "show don't tell". It's a concept I tell my students and others when writing cover letters etc. i.e. demonstrate what you have done, not what you could do! Show me the evidence! And, yes, I agree, any small thing counts. Something is better than nothing and the time to do it is now, or yesterday. Thanks for your thoughts!
I think sometimes climate change just seems so overwhelming for people so we definitely need to hear the positive science around climate change initiatives. These stories give me hope when I read them. I'd like to see scientists engaging with school kids and inspiring them to be a part of solving some of the big issues while at the same time letting them know that it is the small things each person can do in their daily lives to collectively make a difference.
Yes, a lot of citizen science initiatives do that. We had a great one here in Sussex UK where university biologists worked with local adults and kids in measuring plastic in the harbour - and removing it.
That's great -- love hearing things like that. The challenges for academics is we all have so much on our plate. A citizen science project can be a lot more work than you'd imagine. But very cool when they work.
Thanks Kim. Yes, I think we need to hear that there are ways out of the mess. And yep, I think we need to be putting the right people in front of kids to show them they can make a difference too.
Thank you for your invitation for how to do better. I agree that we need a way out of this mess now. My mini-book, Simply Reversing the Eco-crises, brainstorms and imagines an extremely simple decision-making process -- usable by people everywhere -- for turning things around and reversing the ecological crises (including the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis) as a whole. Invite you to give it a look at https://www.erikkvam.com/simply-reversing-the-eco-crises/
Thanks Erik. Will do my best.
Hi Jonathan - my wheelhouse is all about growing hope (compare optimism) for the future as a way to address eco-anxiety and the feelings of disempowerment (apathy, disengagement) that go along with. Much writing is, as you suggest, academic and inaccessible to many, many people. In my learning I’ve discovered that communicating that people have agency is critical. My writing focuses on communicating sustainability concepts simply and in an empowering way. And yet, I notice that unless my readers are already onboard, my posts are met with crickets. Like you I’m not sure how to reach more people, especially those who “don’t think about it because it’s too scary”.
Hi Vivienne. Thanks for these thoughts. I'm not sure what the answer is to be honest. But I know you just have to keep putting yourself out there and seeing what sticks. That's my current approach. I think it's working. It's never fast enough for my liking but it's reaching new people.
Yes, just have to keep chugging away.
You're entirely right, too little hope and people turn away from the messages, too much positivity and people think that really there's nothing wrong. I think it's vital to share success stories and ideas for how people can make a difference alongside analysis of the real problems we face.
Thanks Juliet. It’s a balancing act isn’t it.
Something that helps keep me energised and hopeful are regular doses of news about little wins, like a recent post I restacked about rewilding in UK - including the reintroduction of bison to Kent and a protected wild area for them to live in. Also, our beautiful kelp project which has - after years in the political and grant-aid wilderness - been given national support and publicity. https://sussexkelp.org.uk/
Thanks. Indeed! That's super cool -- thanks for sharing. I feel like I saw an article in the Guardian or something recently about that initiative...
One thing I'm always looking for is more small, accessible ways to do things that actually mean something. Like I do the recycling while fully aware that most of the 'recycling' doesn't get recycled and that feels infuriating. I carry my reusable bag while seeing that half the produce even in the green markets where I try to shop locally is wrapped in damned foil and placed on styrofoam trays.
Is there small reasonable stuff that we can do that actually means something? I also love seeing the positive stories like the new mushrooms they've found that can revitalize heavily polluted land, new eco-sustainable ways to make 'plastics' from mycelium or bamboo or whatever, clever actions that protect the sea bed (like this epic organization in Italy I think that's dropping massive marble statues onto the sea floor, they're like a divers' gallery and also trawling nets get caught into them and get ripped, hahah, pure bloody genius.
Thanks Lidija! That last one is super funny.
I think it all matters, but I hear you, the recycling thing is so frustrating, so are many others. All the packaging nowadays is ridiculous.
However, I think there are many things we can be doing and they add up. Eat lower on the food chain, take public transport or walk/bike, talk to your friends and family about it, get politically active, choose green energy, consume less, etc. One things for sure, we need collective action, but individual actions scale up. Keep going! :)
I absolutely want to hear more about all that stuff 💚
Will see what I can do :)
I like to focus on success stories. Hope is a verb—we are inspired to act when we see others take action. Pointing out how local actions have global impacts is important because it’s easy to forget. And that we don’t have to wait for big government to do things, we can make change. People need invitations to revolutions—we have to find joy in our work, live the work we’re fighting for, or who will want to join us? Envisioning a better future is the first step to creating it. Remembering that change takes time (but it’s in progress) helps too. I write about all this, often thru the lens of the legal system; the exciting thing about law is that it’s the last thing to change, so when there’s movement it signals a huge societal shift.
This is a great perspective, thanks. I agree with what you say. Waiting for governments to take action will lead to even more waiting. We have to put pressure on them from every angle! Thanks for your thoughts.
Lately, I've been pondering how to pierce the detachment people seem to have, even in the face of calamity after calamity. I think one approach might me to connect the mundane, day-to-day things we do automatically and take for granted to the processes and systems fueling the ongoing crises of biodiversity loss and climate change acceleration. People don't get the message because it isn't personal. I think it's the moment of personal insight, when someone truly *gets* something that inspires people to act and shifts perspectives. How do we explain to people how everything they do is already impacted and how their lives are already changing, and how reactionary attitudes are making it worse? How do we inspire people to become a community when they've never been part of one? How do we explain to people that what they do does it indeed matter, and they can reclaim power though collective action.
But then I get into other questions I don't know how to answer or talk about, like what really is collective action and what does it mean to protest in an age when protest seems to inspire more authoritarian oppression? What is beyond criticism and building something, and what are our alternative ways of living that we need to start creating? Yes, there are experiments, but if I can't point to something people can start doing right away and empower them rather than demoralize, how can I ask them to act?
And so I get myself into a corner of complexity and interconnections that make communication impossible for me, and then I go lie down. I don't know.
Thanks Andreea. All questions I grapple with as you can probably tell from this piece. Thanks for sharing. You're bang on -- it's about meeting people where they are. Finding a connection that makes it real for them. It's hard to see such detachment, isn't it? But there's a way to make it relevant for everyone (well almost everyone), I'm sure. When insurance becomes too expensive is when many will begin to realise the severity of the situation, I think. Thanks for your insights!
I hope they will. My problem is people lose motivation/hope/interest without something actionable. We can get people to understand what's happening, and then what? 'Here's this big complex predicament that threatens all life on earth AND here's what you can do that's actually empowering' is what I think would actually achieve something. The empowering thing doesn't have to be huge. It can be mundane, but it's got to be more than change on a personal level, and it's got to be something people can do, right away, and keep doing so it builds up to more and better things. That's obviously context specific, but it's just telling people to look up what local stakeholders are already doing and join and sent them off to figure it out for themselves isn't good enough. We need networks of networks that collaborate and achieve things. And there are people trying to build those, but it's mostly only people who dedicate their entire lives to this, which is great. But there's got to be a place for people to become involved without changing their entire life overnight, because that won't happen until life has already changed and everyone struggles to somehow survive.
I hear you! I think the most powerful thing people can do is to get active: vote sensibly, pressure your local politician, councillor etc., protest. Small, personal choices are fantastic, but I think the fastest way to change is to put pressure on those in power. They need to be held accountable.
There is only one clear answer staring us in the face. The answer lies in behavioral psycjology.
We are NOT wired to solve or even respond to this problem. As we can see! Darwiniam evolution did not equip us for this.
Our slew of cognitive biases and irrationalities are screwing us over.
The only answer that WORKS is to use every trick in the book to get people to act. One has to hack people’s minds.
I agree that we need to throw everything we can at this problem! And yes, we haven't evolved to solve problems on a global scale. But we must!