Climate Communications and Human Psychology (Video)

We must acknowledge that facts alone are insufficient to augur widespread climate action. The Trump administration's disdain for facts highlight the importance of a science-based understanding of climate change. However, the Trump administration is not the biggest impediment to climate action. They are merely taking advantage of human psychology.

Narratives bassed exclusively on facts make people feel both afraid and guilty. Rather than motivating us to act fear causes apathy, avoidance and passivity.  We need messaging that is both clear and concise. We also need narratives that reflect the propensities of the human psyche.

Marketing Sustainability and the Science of Storytelling

Marketing sustainability is about telling a good story and creating an emotional experience. While it may seem like an art there is a lot of science behind good storytelling. The advantages good sustainability focused storytelling benefit both the brand and the bottom line. The goal is to invoke drama that incites emotion. Well crafted branding can arouse the kinds of emotions that call for action and encourages customers to make buying decisions. This is what all marketers try to do but it is especially important when it comes to sustainability.  The buy in that is encouraged here goes beyond taking a product to the cash, it even goes beyond the forging of a loyal bond between a product and a consumer. Sustainability focused storytelling pushes us beyond our own experience and gives us potency to act on a global problem.

The Science of Storytelling: Making Facts Matter in a Post-Factual World

A new narrative is needed to counter prevailing ignorance and augur collective behavior change. However, we will never be able to get a handle on climate change, environmental degradation and a host of other problems with facts alone. Now more than ever we need science, but it is up to the storytellers to bring it to life.

As evidenced at the ballot box, Americans and others around the world are woefully misinformed about science. There is an unwarranted deep seated mistrust of scientists. People once revered scientists and politicians once depended on science to make policy decisions. However, those days are receding and we are facing what amounts to the darkest period in modern history.

Event - Let's Talk Climate: Messages to Motivate Americans (Webinar)

This webinar will take place on Friday, November 20th, 2015. It will address research on communicating climate change and a followup discussion. This webinar will review the research findings on the most effective language to use when talking about climate change. It will focus on the messages that most effectively motivate Americans and how these messages can be used for greatest success across a broad diversity of American audiences.

Implications of Pope Francis' Environmental Encyclical and Republican Attacks (Videos)

This first video covers a recent Yale summit which explains why the Pope's environmental encyclical matters and how it may transform the global debate. This video also provides context for the Pope's efforts from the perspectives of a multidisciplinary panel of expert. The video which follows reviews some of the conservative push-back including GOP presidential hopefuls and right wing media pundits. 

Leaked Papal Encyclical Lauds the Climate Movement and Derides Deniers

Here is a leaked preview of Pope Francis' much awaited encyclical which is due to be officially released at noon on Thursday June 18. As expected the Pope has come out as one of the world's foremost environmental leaders. He praises the environmental movement, warns of the need for change and calls out climate deniers. The Pope wades into some of the finer points of the climate discussion even taking a stand on carbon trading.

As reported by The Guardian, the leaked version of the encyclical calls us to avoid "unprecedented destruction of our ecosystem. The 192 page document warns of "grave consequences for all of us," if we fail to make adjustments in the way we live our lives and change the way we consume energy.

The Vatican's Climate Conference Calls for a Moral Awakening that Includes Rejecting Fossil Fuels

On April 28th, the Vatican held a major conference on climate change that called for a moral awakening. The summit addressed the need for urgent action including reductions in our consumption of fossil fuels. The conference was titled, Protect the Earth, Dignify Humanity: The Moral Dimensions of Climate Change and Sustainable Development. It was hosted by the Pontifical Academy of Science and included 60 scientists, religious leaders and diplomats.

Climate Leadership from the Head of the Episcopal Church

Katherine Jefferts Schori is the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, she believes that those who deny the science of climate change are both "blind" and "immoral." Jefferts Schori is not only a religious authority, she also has some serious scientific credentials. She holds a doctorate in oceanography and worked as a marine biologist before becoming a priest.

At a March 24 Episcopal event in Los Angeles called The Climate Change Crisis Forum, Jefferts Schori delivered a speech in which she said, "this planet is overheating, its climate is changing, and the residents are sick, suffering, and dying."

As reported by the Huffington Post, Jefferts Schori said, “We are making war on the integrity of this planet. We were planted in this garden to care for it, literally to have dominion over its creatures. Dominion means caring for our island home.” She went on to say that humanity must make a "life and death" decision and she added that the window of opportunity to do so, "will not last long."

Faith Groups that have Divested from Fossil Fuels

Faith groups are among the 180 institutions that have divested from fossil fuels so far. A total of 50 billion has already been divested from fossil fuels and investors representing assets of $1.2 trillion have made the divestment pledge. In 2014 alone the number of institutions that have divested has more than doubled and the number keeps growing in 2015.

Last September, faith communities were among the 800 fossil fuel divestment commitments referenced by Vice President Al Gore in a speech at the UN Climate Summit in New York. Faith groups are joining the divestment movement alongside universities, local governments, banks, medical groups, and foundations.

Why Faith Communities are Divesting from Fossil Fuels

The fossil fuel divestment movement is growing worldwide and faith communities are leading the charge. Divestment sends an important symbolic message about our commitment to preserving God's creation. Although faith-based activism will not eradicate fossil fuels, it brings moral force to the issue and the kind of leadership that can help to win the hearts and minds of people all around the world.

Faith communities have been singled out to lead the divestment movement. Last May United Nations climate head Christiana Figueres called on religious leaders to take a strong stance on climate change, calling it "one of the great humanitarian issues of our time."

Faith Based Environmental Leadership

Faith based communities are coming together around the shared understanding that protecting our planet is one of the most important issues of our times. In recent years, there has been unprecedented ecological action from a diverse array of faith groups.

This past summer, in an online campaign titled "Our Voices: Bringing faith to the climate," faith groups were urged to join the global conversation on climate change.

This is an invitation to "people of all faiths around the world to raise their voices and add their perspectives in political discussions about climate change,” said the

Sustainability as Both Sexy and Spiritual

There are powerfully compelling elements to sustainability which have been largely ignored. Part of making the transition to a greener way of life involves embedding a more responsible world view into our individual psyches and collective cultures. To get there we need to foster interest in ecology so that it is seen as both desirable and sacred.
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Sustainability needs a new language that is more accessible and more compelling to the average person. Business, government, and other organizations are making strides advancing sustainability but we need wider involvement and faster growth. Although we are seeing increasing levels of environmental activism, we need to expand the message to reach a larger circle of people.

Event - 31st Social Research Conference: Climate Change Demands We Change. Why Aren’t We?

The Conference "Climate Change Demands We Change. Why Aren’t We?" will take place on Friday, April 24 - 25, 2014 at 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at the John L. Tishman Auditorium, University Center (note new address) 63 Fifth Avenue, Room U100, New York, NY. There is no issue more urgent than climate change, yet government, corporations, and the public are reluctant to change. This Center for Public Scholarship conference will examine the psychological factors, money and politics, and infrastructures that impede change as well as the difficult choices that must be made to foster urban resilience in the face of climate change.

Video - How Religion can Energize Ecological Renewal

The key issue preventing us from tackling the environmental problems we face is public inertia not a lack of science or technology. We have invested a great deal of effort into the important work of developing solutions to a wide range of environmental problems, but we have failed to energize people to act. After decades of solid peer reviewed research we must concede that science is incapable of fostering the passion needed for widespread ecological renewal.

The body of scientific evidence is strong and there are a vast number of technological solutions. However, if we are to seriously engage the climate crisis and other environmental issues we must find ways to get people interested and involved.

As explained in this video, Mary Evelyn Tucker, Senior Research Scholar at Yale University, suggests that religion can help us to to generate popular passion for ecology. As she explains the most renewable source of energy is "the dynamizing human energies" that fuel the movement of ecological renewal.

The Ecological Message in the Symbolism of Easter

The egg is a prominent symbol of Easter and a fitting metaphor for the Earth. It contains the promise of new life and at the same it is fragile and can be easily broken. As a festival celebrating the return of spring and as a Christian holiday, Easter calls us to remember the cycles of renewal and the interconnectedness of life and death.

Above all, Easter symbolizes new life, rebirth, and renewal. From an ecological perspective this is precisely what is required as we engage the serious work of being better environmental stewards. A number of symbols have become part of the Easter tradition. Some are directly related to the life of Jesus Christ and some have a pagan background.

For Christians, Easter is a celebration of Christ's resurrection, the ultimate symbol of rebirth. Easter's known pagan roots date back to the 8th century, specifically an Anglo-Saxon fertility goddess known as "Eostre," whose name may be derived from "eastre," meaning spring.

Sustainability Communications Positively Impact Reputation and Performance

Effective communications are of particular importance to companies focused on sustainability. When done right effective sustainability communications are able to engender the perception of sincerity which can positively impact both a company's performance and its reputation.

A 2012 Hill+Knowlton Strategies Survey found that the public's trust in companies was declining as their access to information was increasing. However, more recent research suggests that the declining levels of trust can be addressed through honest communications focused on a company's sustainability efforts.

According to a 2013 online survey by Hill+Knowlton Strategies, Americans are more likely to trust and respect those businesses that effectively communicate their sustainability efforts and projects.

Forging a New Climate Change Narrative: Addressing 5 Psychological Realities

A new narrative that is designed to encourage action to combat climate change must acknowledge the abstract nature of global warming. First and foremost we need to address the fact that people are not rational actors. Perhaps the most cogent approach to managing the Herculean task of communicating with an inherently irrational public is to focus on a narrative that deals with fostering the right mental attitude. A new narrative designed to change peoples’ mindset must deal with the following five psychological realities.

Crafting a new narrative that encourages action on climate change is a moral issue. The central issue concerns finding ways of encouraging people to assume responsibility. We cannot continue to hide under the relativistic argument that causes people to be reluctant to act simply because others may not.  A new narrative must inoculate us against the tendency to defer our responsibility to someone else. To bring about change we need to address peoples’ values and this is premised upon our morals and our values.

Overcoming Obstacles in the Creation of New Climate Narratives

If we can get over some basic hurdles we can move forward with a new climate narrative. There are a number of reasons why our current narratives keep us from acting on climate change, not the least of which is the fact that we spend far too much time debating the veracity of the science rather than tackling important  policy issues. The science is settled, it is time to stop delaying action and move beyond the illegitimate concerns of climate deniers. Another reason we have failed to craft effective narratives is the fact that we fall victim to dichotomous thinking. We must not allow the conversation to devolve into the false choice between economic growth and climate action. We know that the costs will increase the longer we wait and it is an economic certainty that the costs of mitigation are a tiny fraction of the costs of runaway climate change. We must move away from this false polemic as this way of framing the issue is a road to nowhere. A new narrative must address much more than the problems or the material benefits of action. A new narrative must exude warmth and highlight the societal value of social variables.

Why We Need a New Climate Change Narrative

We need new narratives to combat the pervasive popular and political inertia. Our old narratives are not working and may even lead to apathy and indifference. Despite the scientific consensus about anthropogenic climate change we are not moving fast enough to change our perilous course. According to a 2013 Pew survey, only 69 percent of those surveyed accept the view that the earth is warming, and only 1 in 4 Americans see global warming as a major threat. These numbers illustrate that we need to craft a new narrative and do a better job of communicating the urgency of climate change action.

Even the devastating spate of extreme weather events in the last decade has not augured change. We desperately need a stronger and more far-reaching global movement. To do that, we need an inspirational vision that resonates with the vast majority of the general public.

The Power of Story Telling for Sustainable Businesses

We can learn a lot from the marketing strategies employed by successful sustainable businesses. Some of these businesses have demonstrated considerable skill when it comes to communicating sustainability. This is a celebration of early adopters rather than an attempt to cajole the laggards. These narratives are positive rather than a negative as pessimism undermines effective storytelling. The message has to involve people and to do that it must be relevant, attractive and warm.