09/11/2024
Telling the right story about the climate crisis is difficult to say the least. Everyone has a point of view, and reaching the general public with resonant messaging is not something that can be done by climate scientists, nonprofits and government agencies alone.
I just recently finished Thich Nhat Hahn’s book, The Art of Communicating, and have been ruminating on his very Buddhist (of course!) point of view. He repeatedly reminds us that to really reach people, we must have compassion and realize that all people either have, are, or will at some point, experience suffering.
What does that have to do with climate communications, you may ask?
Realizing this helps us understand that people fear making behavioral changes that may at first appear to require them to give up something. Gloom and doom numbers and statistics create fear (suffering) to the point of paralysis. We can’t wag our fingers and tell people to give up hamburgers and SUV’s, even though that certainly would help.
Those of us advocating for climate change solutions are motivated not only by compassion for our planet, but by our pressing need to survive and thrive, so we have to get this right.
Let’s workshop our messaging as we go along, and before we put something out there, stop, breath and be certain we have an awareness that people are instinctively wary of anything involving change, suffering or loss.
